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Social Research Methodology Centre City University 3rd November 2004 5.30 pm Convocation Suite, Centenary Building City University (corner of St John Street and Spencer Street) A presentation by Dr Robert Miller School of Sociology & Social Policy Queen's University Belfast 'What Can Life Course Research Tell "the Biographical Turn"?' The term 'biographical turn' has been applied to a collection of parallel developments in the social sciences which share a recognition that identity - both personal and (arguably) collective - is a process of ongoing construction and maintenance anchored both in the recollection of past experience and an anticipation of the future. Adopting a biographical perspective strengthens the researcher's capacity to work with time-related issues such as dealing with intergenerational change, incorporating a historical context and, methodologically, problems of selective or warped memory. Given the biographical turn's time-centred view of the present through lenses of the past and future, however, it is paradoxical that the perspective can be seen as remarkably under-theorized with respect to issues of time -- especially blind to those concerning intragenerational change. This gap can be partially filled by taking account of conceptualization developments in life course studies such as the ideas of progression or trajectory, the cohort generation, aging and period effects. The presentation will consider the possibilities for strengthening the biographical perspective by a recognition of the significance of developmental issues across the life span. Wine and cheese served after the talk City University's Social Research Methodology Centre (www.city.ac.uk/sociology/srmc) provides a forum for research training and methodological research. Our aim is to foreground methodology in the context of substantive research. Please let Sophie Barwick (Administrator) know if you are planning to attend (email [log in to unmask] or telephone 020 7477 8491). Please join us Dick Wiggins Director