484
The Individual and the City – Urban Life (stories) a Neglected Area of Biographical Research
Abstract Submissions Closed
RC38 Biography and Society (host committee)
Language: English
Session Type: Oral
The mutual constitution of individuals and city, city life, and city society, is an obvious topic for biographical research, but a topic that has received comparatively little attention. And in times in which cities continue to grow – out of need on the one hand, and as a lifestyle desire on the other – they constitute an important social unit for discussing relations between the individual and the social.
Pressing current issues which are directly connected to the life courses and biographical constructions of city dwellers include urban growth and processes such as segregation, gentrification and precarization. But there are also other interesting issues such as processes of individual or collective action in the city which can be labelled as protests or activism.
Keeping in mind the advantage of a diachronic and socio-historical approach to biographical research, we would like to discuss the relations between biography and city and connected theoretical challenges and practical aspects. Besides the questions how urban contexts influence life histories and life stories and how cities have been formed and changed in the past and the present by interactions between their inhabitants, we welcome contributions which are based on empirical research dealing with questions such as the following:
* How can we explore a city’s history by employing biographical research?
* Which (combinations of) methods are suitable for research on biographies and cities?
* What role is played in biographies by ‘urban materialities’ and geographical features?