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Book
ReviewAnimating
Relationships Between Research, Policy and PracticeBiographical methods and professional
practice: an international perspective. Prue Chamberlayne, Joanna Bornat
and Ursula Apitzsch editors. 2004. Bristol: Policy Press; ISBN 1861344929
pbk, 352 pp., £24.99
SAGE Publications, Inc.2005DOI: 10.1177/09675507050130010506
Jane Mason
Bridgebuilders Training
This
book is a collection of 21 essays comparing the biographical work of a wide
variety of social researchers in Germany, Britain, France, Israel, New Zealand,
Poland, Denmark, Finland and Russia. Their intention is to `demonstrate how
comparative work can generate new understandings of welfare contexts and welfare
processes, social relations and resources, and processes of social change',
and that, given the right conditions, biogra- phical methods can `animate
relationships between research, policy and practice' (Chamberlayne, p. 21).
These papers highlight the capacity of biographical methods to illuminate
discrepancies between the realities of lived experience, the related but often
disconnected social policies, and pertinent current research. It is encouraging
that, as Chamberlayne notes, this potential is recognized and valued by agencies
in all seven countries
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involved
in the studies, leading to proposals for further collaboration in biographical
research. The book is organized in five parts. The essays in Part One concern
`Putting the subject in policy and practice', and are grouped around the theme
of `ethnic entrepreneurship' in migrant communities. Apitzsch demonstrates
the use of biographical methods to subvert `the possibility of scientific
work either reproducing or even producing ethnic categories' which might serve
to confirm erroneous assumptions underpinning many EC welfare policies. Kontos
shows how this works in Germany, where state policies assume that educational
capital is a prerequisite for entrepre- neurial success, and therefore deny
support to those lacking this resource. Kupferberg demonstrates the way in
which biographical study can subvert such normative assumptions, showing how
two immigrant workers' self- concepts of their own entrepreneurship redefine
accepted notions of `inno- vation'. Together, these studies have profound
implications for welfare policies, suggesting that more regard should be taken
of `the different motivational capital' migrant workers bring with them (Kupferberg,
p. 87). Part Two considers the contextuality of the subject. Cooper introduces
the topic of `emotionality', arguing that traditional hermeneutics can present
an `over-rationalistic view of human nature' (Cooper, p. 98) in biographical
studies. Bar-On counters this argument by suggesting that psychoanalytic approaches
are equally limited if they fail to be `histori- cally and socially contextualised'
(Bar-On, p. 102). Using a broader hermeneutic conception, he demonstrates
the complex and extensive rami- fications of human experience through his
on-going studies of holocaust survival and suffering. Semenova provides an
example of the use of single case biographical study to illuminate the wider
society, in this case, pro- fessional workers' attitudes to the emergent private
employment sector in Russia. The business management motif is continued by
Nagel in a study of East German managers. The study highlights the potential
of biograph- ical research to elucidate the dynamics operating at the interface
between social policy, practice and the individuals concerned, and to provide
useful heuristic tools for the practitioner. David Gadd opens Part Three with
a reflection on interpretive issues in relation to theoretical and practitioner
perspectives on domestic violence. Rickard presents a critical overview of
current and potential uses of biog- raphy in health studies, and Kazmierska
discusses the ethical ramifica- tions of biographical narrative analysis.
Temple addresses ethical issues in cross-cultural interviewing and translation
of transcripts. Collectively, these critical reflections on the limitations
and potential difficulties of biographical research supply a necessary counterpoint
to what could other- wise appear overly optimistic claims for this research
method in some other parts of the book.
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The theme
of Part Four is `disempowerment', and opens with Gunaratnam's case study examining
racialized and gendered attitudes in palliative care. She argues that findings
from biographical study have the power to undermine disempowering social stereoptypes.
The following essay, by Bornat and Walmsley, questions `some of the claims
for empow- erment through biographical research' (p. 222), and presents a
matrix for use as a self-evaluative tool. Used to assess one of their own
studies, the matrix demonstrates the fluid nature of power relations in qualitative
research. Through a study of Venetian welfare services, Kyllönen demon- strates
how the current trend for incorporating biographical considerations into all
aspects of professional care – with the aim of `individualizing' that
care – can inadvertently `normalize' recipients' biographies by interpret-
ing their needs in terms of available (therapeutic style) interventions. All
the studies in this section, including the last (Schluker's reflections on
a student study of homeless men), show the diverse and ingenious ways in which
individuals who feel disempowered resist depersonalization by authorities,
and reframe their experiences, in narration, to demonstrate their perceived
power over others (real or fantasy). Part Five examines the different uses
of and approaches to biographi- cal study in learning environments. Chanfrault-Duchet
reflects on the collection of career-orientated life stories, within an ethnographic
frame- work, in teacher training, and Du Plessis et al. discuss training sociology
students in the skills of collecting life stories. West brings out the essential
reciprocity of auto/biographical research, between researcher and par- ticipant,
in his study of the relationships between learning, identity and emotions
for inner city GPs. Inowlocki et al. close the book with a discus- sion of
their biographical work amongst `foreign' university students in Germany,
concluding that `educational processes are connected with biographical knowledge'
(p. 326), and that sharing biographies can break down cultural barriers and
enhance learning for all concerned. The range of essays clearly shows the
rich diversity of academic disci- plines which can legitimately and fruitfully
be brought to bear on the study of human experience, and, overall, the editors
have succeeded in their aim of demonstrating the value of biography in social
research. Any criticisms of this book are relatively minor. As always with
short pieces summarizing large studies, some of the conclusions drawn seem
tenuous, but the reader must assume that the fuller work justifies the interpreta-
tions. The literary style of some of the essays makes difficult reading at
times, with rather convoluted language, and over-long sentences which take
several readings to apprehend. This may result from translation issues, which
the editors note as having been problematic. In places this is exacerbated
by discipline-specific terminology which may mystify readers from different
academic spheres to the writer, a matter worth
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considering
in the multidisciplinary environment of biographical studies. The book undoubtedly
repays effort however, and as the publishers assert, it `provides a valuable
comparative perspective' which is `a stimulating read'.