Sociological biographical research in the interpretive tradition

This chapter provides a general survey of biographical research as a sociological field that is firmly rooted in the interpretive tradition and strongly represented in German-speaking countries. We begin by giving a short overview of the history of biographical research and by introducing its underlying theoretical frameworks. The central part of our chapter offers a discussion of various methods utilized in biographical research for data collection (e.g. narrative interviews) and data analysis (e.g. biographical case reconstructions). Lastly, we discuss important issues and topics that sociological biographical research has tackled so far and reflect on its current and future challenges as an interpretive method and topic of study.