El método biográfico en sociología

Resumen

This article is concerned with the use in social science research of life histories and other types of personal document which give a first hand account of social experience from the participants point of view. Such materials are invaluable in providing evidence about the subjective point of view of the social actor, and are congruent with a theoretical approach in terms of action theory or an action frame of reference. This type of material was extensively used in many of the monographs of the "Chicago School" in the 1920s and 1930s. Thereafter, for various reasons discussed here, the method fell in general disuse. The use of personal documents has, however, in recent years enjoyed a modest revival. We also exposed some of the reasons of this new interest.