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Biography and autobiography have been used in numerous ways to represent people with learning difficulties. In this paper we review a variety of approaches to biography and autobiography with people with learning difficulties, and discuss the roles researchers play. The paper ends with a discussion of the potential of autobiography as a means to change the power relationships in disability research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In this paper we consider the potential of autobiographical narratives for accessing ‘storied knowledge’ in research around geographies of health voluntarism. We firstly consider what is meant by elicited autobiography and how the narrative approach has been used in research more broadly. Drawing on fieldwork undertaken in Manchester, UK and Auckland, New Zealand we then demonstrate how this approach has helped us to map out and unpack the career journeys of mental health activists working within and across the voluntary and statutory sectors. Through our autobiographical narratives we illustrate how this approach has enabled us to elicit important insights into the triggers and trajectories underpinning mental health activism and how events and moments in time have provided critical junctures in these trajectories. We consider places as sites of significance in activist career paths; and as central to the researcher-participant gestalt within which the autobiography is elicited and recounted. The autobiographical process, we suggest, offers reflective insights into mental health activism that might not otherwise be gained using more conventional methodologies. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In this paper we consider the potential of autobiographical narratives for accessing ‘storied knowledge’ in research around geographies of health voluntarism. We firstly consider what is meant by elicited autobiography and how the narrative approach has been used in research more broadly. Drawing on fieldwork undertaken in Manchester, UK and Auckland, New Zealand we then demonstrate how this approach has helped us to map out and unpack the career journeys of mental health activists working within and across the voluntary and statutory sectors. Through our autobiographical narratives we illustrate how this approach has enabled us to elicit important insights into the triggers and trajectories underpinning mental health activism and how events and moments in time have provided critical junctures in these trajectories. We consider places as sites of significance in activist career paths; and as central to the researcher-participant gestalt within which the autobiography is elicited and recounted. The autobiographical process, we suggest, offers reflective insights into mental health activism that might not otherwise be gained using more conventional methodologies. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Information about several papers discussed at the conference "Life Writing in Europe" by the International Auto/Biography Association (IABA) Europe, held at Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam, the Netherlands on October 29-31, 2009 is presented. Topics include gender politics in biographies, language and national identity, and a comparison of the academic study of biographical writings from the U.S. and Canada with those from Europe. The symposium featured several scholars including Georg Misch, Philippe Lejeune, and Mineke Bosch.

Drawing on two documentary films by Isaac Julien, Looking for Langston (1988) and Frantz Fanon: Black Skin, White Mask (1996), this paper advances a reformulation of the problematic of the biographical. I follow Derrida in interrogating standard notions of an exemplary historical agent's name and legacy, and claim that the biography already incorporates an autobiographical impulse. This tendency is evident in Julien's films, as he reads his protagonists' lives and works against the grain, and deploys biographical material to uncover - even invent - a black gay identity. Through his film-making practice, Julien articulates a voice for himself and his kind: this intersubjectivity mirrors his understanding of a great person's legacy as inherently a social phenomenon, open to future elaboration and recuperation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article I present a case study of the relationship between interviewer and narrator to explore the process of collaboration in the production of an auto/biography. This article outlines how the project originated and how it developed over the past six years. After introducing the narrator, Arthur Thickett—soldier, communist, pacifist, and writer—I explore our collaboration and identify those facets of the relationship that have been the most influential in shaping the interview. Michael Frisch's principle of "shared authority" influenced the working process, and collaboration was an important element of the work. This paper discusses the effect that attempting to share authority had on the project, and examines the issues raised by the collaborative process, such as who owns the material produced, who decides what material is made public, and how these decisions affect the history told. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that the self is best understood as a narrative in progress, rather than a collection of roles or the outcome of a competent performance. Self-narratives draw integrity from institutions, without which they would be groundless, inconsistent, or fanciful. Institutions make self-stories convincing—for tellers and others—by providing formulas, supporting characters, and “autobiographical occasions” that trigger the telling. Relationships are especially significant institutional anchors for selfhood. The loss of that anchor through breaking up, or “uncoupling,” requires a particular kind of story that accounts for the loss and minimizes the stigma of failure. A ready-made formula for such stories is offered by the self-help group Codependents Anonymous. Those attracted to the discourse of codependency gain a formula and occasion for generating revised self-stories. Consequently, the group becomes a new institutional anchor for the self that replaces the one lost during uncoupling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The life-history method of qualitative research is an alternative to empirical methods for identifying and documenting health patterns of individuals and groups. It allows the nurse researcher to explore a person's microhistorical (individual) experiences within a macrohistorical (history of the time) framework. Life-history information challenges the nurse to understand an individual's current attitudes and behaviours and how they may have been influenced by initial decisions made at another time and in another place. This paper describes a new direction in nursing research and identifies specific steps for using the life-history approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]