Narratives and reflexivity: biographical effects of the biographical method

Abstract

In this article, we reflect about the potentialities and biographical effects of the biographical method and, in particular, life stories technique. For that purpose, we analyze expressions of young people from vulnerabilized neighbourhoods of the Metropolitan Area of Buenos Aires that took part –as interviewees and co-authors of their life stories- in a collective research experience financed by the University of Buenos Aires. Specifically, we present expressions that refer to the way they conceive (and experience) the interviews and the biographical effects related to the construction and appropriation of their life stories. The analysis of the corpus (interviews and life stories) allowed us to identify three effects in the interviewees ´ life that emerged as a consequence of participating in a research experience that employed the interpretative biographical method: the reflexive effect, the identity effect and the relations effect.