Continuities and Discontinuities. A Methodological Reflection on Sociological Analyses of Time in Multigenerational Family Interviews

Authors

  • Nicole Burzan Technische Universität Dortmund

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17169/fqs-21.2.3427

Keywords:

time, time construction, biographical research, family interviews, status reproduction

Abstract

Based on sociological analyses of "time" using biographical approaches in family interviews with three generations, I primarily investigate two questions using a case study from the own research in this article. First, I show how information about central aspects of the research issue—namely the reproduction of status in families—can be provided by the heuristic consideration of temporal dimensions. Second, it is traced how familial references to time are negotiated and in the first place established by the participants in the interview. Finally, I discuss the specific opportunities and limits of sociological analysis of time, using family interviews, compared with other kinds of data collection (qualitative verbal and non-verbal data), especially but not exclusively in a biographical research context.

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Author Biography

Nicole Burzan, Technische Universität Dortmund

Nicole BURZAN is professor of sociology at the Technical University Dortmund. Her main areas of work are social inequality, including from a perspective of the sociology of culture (e.g. aspects of inequality in museums, status reproduction in the middle class), multi- and mixed-methods research (see also her monograph 2016 at Beltz Juventa) and sociology of time. From 2017 to 2019 she was president of the German Sociological Association.

Published

2020-05-26

How to Cite

Burzan, N. (2020). Continuities and Discontinuities. A Methodological Reflection on Sociological Analyses of Time in Multigenerational Family Interviews. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 21(2). https://doi.org/10.17169/fqs-21.2.3427

Issue

Section

Challenging Times—Qualitative Methods and Methodological Approaches