Knowing Justice in the Anthropocene. Using Life Story Narratives in Socio-Legal Research

The focus of my poster is the use of biographical methods and narratives in socio-legal research, but the broader question I want to arise with my contribution is the need of enhancing methodological consciousness in socio-legal research in general. In the context of Anthropocene societies and legal systems face specific challenges regarding justice. Socio-legal scholarship need to be inventive, open and reflexive when it comes to methodological choices in order to find answers or, even more importantly, ask the right questions about the relationship between law and society, especially subordinated groups in this historical context.

In my poster I would like to introduce the use of narrative life story interviews in socio-legal research from this perspective. Since 2013, I have participated in three studies that examined questions related to legal consciousness and the relationship to law using the method of narrative life-history interviews. The latter two of these studies addressed the issue of social change. In my poster, I will present our interviewing experiences and address questions that arose during the analysis.

All three studies encountered challenges and provided insights into approaching interviewee recruitment and conducting interviews. Regarding analysis, issues arose in the first study, suggesting that we should not exclusively approach the resulting empirical material using the hermeneutic case reconstruction method. In my poster, I will outline the concept of horizontal analysis we have developed, its possible methodological foundations, and the challenges it presents.

I would like to present a paper, and I would be glad to participate in a panel about methodological issues in socio-legal research if it is possible to organize one around this focus.