Biography and Society

Abstract

History and ethnography have no problem with ‘biography’: to take interest in lives of particular persons does not run against the grain of these disciplines. Why is it not so with sociology? The article reviews the drastic changes of the status of ‘biography’ and life history in the short history of empirical sociology. It mentions some new trends that are presently emerging in European research. It concludes in arguing that because life stories constitute a constant reminder of the existence and relevance for social life of the singularity of persons, of their historicity, of their acts and what they mean to them, they are disturbing for sociology's project to eventually become a natural science.