Post on 14-Dec-2015
30th June-3rd July 2008 3rd ESRC Research Methods Festival, St. Catherines College, Oxford
Life Narratives as CasesLinking Qualitative and Quantitative Longitudinal Data in a Study of Social Change in 20th Century Ireland
Jane Gray and Aileen O’Carroll
Department of Sociology and NIRSA
National University of Ireland, Maynooth
Presentation topics
Overview of ‘Life Histories and Social Change Project’
Changing life courses in late modernity? Lives as cases Examples from the LHSC project Insights, problems, future agendas
The Life Histories and Social Change Project Objectives Develop a substantial database of qualitative life
history interviews incorporating some systematically collected data
Respondents selected from ‘Living in Ireland’ survey carried out as part of the European Community Household Panel (1994-2001)
Focus on three key cohorts of people born during the twentieth century
Co-directed with Professor Sean O’Riain Funded by Irish Research Council for Humanities
and Social Sciences
Changing life courses in late modernity Hypothesis of growing ‘de-standardization’ following
extended period of standardization Changing relationship between state and individual Mixed evidence from quantitative research
Continuing salience of class across the life course (Whelan and Layte 2002)
Significance of transition from childhood to adulthood (Whelan)
More de-standardization in family lives than in work lives (Bruckner and Mayer 2005)
Social change in 20th century Ireland and the LHSC Project cohorts Oldest cohort (born before 1935)
Economic hardship Rural economy with high levels of emigration Minimal state support
Middle cohort (born1945-1954) Born into rural economy Expanding state economic and social intervention Recession during respondents middle years (1980s)
Youngest cohort (born 1965-1974) Many reached adulthood during incipient years of ‘Celtic
Tiger’ Period of state deregulation and neo-liberal social policies
Lives as cases
Reconstruction of life narratives incorporating multiple longitudinal data sources Individual survey
responses Calendar sequences Network schedules Life story interviews
Benefits Validity and reliability Facilitate systematic
comparison Lives as wholes Location of lives in
historical times References
Laub and Sampson (1993)
Singer et al. (1998) Elliott (2005)
Case selection strategies
Iterative selection of cases Initial consultation and
examination of cases from Living in Ireland Survey How easy to make ends
meet? Selection of cases for
reconstruction Two sample cases from
middle cohort Disappointed entrepreneur A Constrained Life Path
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
Percent
Difficult to Difficult Difficult to Easy Easy to Difficult Easy to Easy
Perception of Household Ability to Make Ends Meet in Childhood and Present Day
Living in Ireland Sample Life Histories and Social Change Sample
The shape of lives
How much do you think you’ve been able to shape your own life? I suppose if you look at it and think
about you’d say very much so but after what life threw you just changed direction and shaped it that way
I don’t regret anything I’ve done, because I’ve done it for the right reasons but if my circumstances had been different, if my Daddy had lived to be 60, 70 and he had been there when Mammy was alive, I think that I would have loved, loved to be a midwife I would. There are two things that I would have loved to do with my life, I would like to be either a midwife or a long distance lorry-driver.