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In contrast to experiments, biographical research belongs purely to the social sciences and has no place in the natural sciences. Biographical research has become increasingly popular in sociology over recent decades and includes oral histories, narratives, autobiographies, biographies and life histories (Bryman 2015). These methods are used to explore how individuals experience social life and periods of social change and how they interpret their relationships with others in the context of a changing world. In this way, biographical methods allow new voices to enter sociological research, and life histories are a good example.

Life histories consist of biographical material assembled about particular individuals, usually as recalled by the individuals themselves. Life histories have been successfully employed in sociological studies of major importance. One celebrated early study was The Polish Peasant in Europe and America, by W. I. Thomas and Florian Znaniecki, the five volumes of which were published between 1918 and 1920 (Thomas and Znaniecki 1966). Thomas and Znaniecki were able to provide a more sensitive and subtle account of the experience of migration than would have been possible without the interviews, letters and newspaper articles they collected. Biographical research aims to give us a feel for how life is experienced, something that can never be achieved by large-scale surveys and statistical testing. Other methods do not usually yield as much information about the development of beliefs and attitudes over time. Life-history studies rarely rely wholly on people’s memories. Normally, other sources such as letters, contemporary reports and newspaper descriptions are used to expand on and check the validity of the information that individuals provide.

Sociologists’ views differ on the value of biographical methods. Some feel they are too unreliable and subjective to provide useful information, but others see that they offer sources of insight that few other research methods can match. Indeed, some sociologists have begun to offer reflections on their own lives within their research studies as a way of offering insights into the origins and development of their own theoretical assumptions (see, for example, Mouzelis 1995).