1-Day 'Taster' course in
the Biographic-Narrative-Interpretive Method (BNIM)
‘Life-histories, Lived situations
University of Wrocław, Institute of Sociology Monday, October 18th 2009
Presented by: Tom Wengraf
(Birkbeck Institute for Social Research, London
Narrative interviewing for life-stories, lived situations and personal experiencing
There is a developing interest in open-narrative interviewing and insightful interpretation of materials generated, but a lot of people feel as if they rather have to re-invent the wheel for themselves and would welcome an account of principles and procedures that have been shown to generate high-quality work on situated subjectivities.
Biographic-narrative interpretive method (BNIM). This interview methodology for exploring lived situations and lived-experiences has been -- and increasingly is being used -- over the past fifteen or more years in the UK
(i) collective research projects, either more or less directly (e.g. Rosenthal 1998, Chamberlayne et al 2002, Froggett et al 2005) or in a modified version and
(ii) individual PhDs in over thirty universities in many countries.
Training and introductory taster courses under the aegis of individual departments, research centres and the ESRC’s National Centre for Research Methods have been run across the British Isles, North America, Africa , Australia & New Zealand.
A textbook is available (Tom Wengraf. 2001. Qualitative Research Interviewing: Biographic-narrative and semi-structured method. Sage Publications), complemented by a regularly updated free electronic Short Guide to BNIM with a full bibliography of books and articles.
Assuming that “narrative expression” is expressive both of conscious concerns and also of unconscious cultural, societal and individual presuppositions and processes, BNIM supports research into the lived experience of individuals and collectives. It facilitates understanding both the ‘inner’ and the ‘outer’ worlds of ‘historically-evolving persons-in-historically-evolving situations’, and particularly the interactivity of such inner and outer world dynamics. As such, BNIM lends itself particularly to both psycho-dynamic and socio-dynamic approaches, serving specialists of both the ‘psycho’ and the ‘societal’, and the ‘historical’, without requiring any particular allegiance to any particular theoretical approach.
However, it particularly serves those researchers wanting tools that support a fully psycho-societal understanding in which neither sociological nor psychological dynamics and structures are neglected or privileged, and in which both are understood not statically but as situated historically. This can provide a firm basis for better practice (individual and team) and better policy.
WROCŁAW ‘TASTER DAY’ Monday 18th October 2010
If you would like to have some sense of how BNIM principles work in practice, the ARK Project has arranged a popular whole-day ‘taster’ course. After a brief account of BNIM principles and procedures, in the morning you will engage in sample BNIM interviews, and, in the afternoon, you will be part of a BNIM systematic interpretation panel. Backed up by as much reading of the Short Guide to BNIM as you wish to do, this ‘learning by doing’ should give you a clear sense of how this particular school of biographic-narrative interviewing and interpretation actually works. We also discuss how it might be helpful for your own work.
To get an idea of BNIM, the free electronic Short Guide to BNIM is available from tom@tomwengraf.com. It includes support for self-training in the method, and a Detailed Manual.
If you are interested in the one-day ‘taster course’ on October 18th 2010, and would like to see the day schedule, please contact Barbara Popławska, Institute of Sociology, University of Wrocław; Students’ Scientific Circle for Social Initiatives, e-mail: bpoplawskamish@gmail.com
The ‘taster course’ is organised as an accompanying event to the conference “Social Agency: theoretical and methodological challenges for the 21st century humanist sociology” (held on 20-22 October 2010 in Wrocław, see: https://sites.google.com/site/socialagency2010 )
If you would like to apply now for a place, please fill in the short form below and send it to Barbara Popławska.
Name: ____________________________________
Academic status:
Research staff / Academic staff / Postgraduate student / Other _________________
Department: ___________________________________________
e-mail: __________________________
Telephone: _________________________
Short motivation to attend the course (max. 200 words)
This course is charged 35 pln for students and 50 pln for PhD students and academic stuff, to cover the costs of workshop organization. The number attending must be limited, so apply early to ensure your place.
