Abstract
In autobiographical sociology a sociologist probes one or more past personal experiences as a way of identifying and analyzing something sociologically relevant. The general nature and importance of autobiographical sociology, as well as illustrations of and guidelines for it, are explored.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Alder, Patricia A. and Peter Adler. 1987.Membership Roles in Field Research. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Becker, Howard S. 1951. “The Professional Dance Musician and His Audience.”American Journal of Sociology 57: 136–44.
_____. 1953. “Some Contingencies of the Professional Dance Musician’s Career.”Human Organization 2:22–26.
Dertaux, Daniel, ed. 1981.Biography and Society: The Life History Approach in the Social Sciences. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
Bulmer, Martin. 1982. “The Merits and Demerits of Covert Participant Observation.” Pp. 217–51 inSocial Research Ethics: An Examination of the Merits of Covert Participant Observation, edited by Martin Bulmer. New York: Holmes and Meier.
Burgess, Robert G., ed. 1990.Studies in Qualitative Methodology, Volume 2 (“Reflections on Field Experience”). Greenwich, CT: JAI.
Clifford, James and George E. Marcus, eds. 1986.Writing Culture: The Poetics and Politics of Ethnography. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Denzin, Norman. 1989a. “Review Symposium on Field Methods.”Journal of Contemporary Ethnography 18:89–109.
_____. 1989b.Interpretive Biography. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Doherty, Thomas P. 1981. “American Autobiography and Ideology.” Pp. 95–108 inThe American Autobiography: A Collection of Critical Essays, edited by Albert E. Stone. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prenctice-Hall.
Duff, Robert W. and Lawrence K. Hong. 1988. “Management of Deviant Identity among Competitive Women Bodybuilders.” Pp. 517–530 inDeviant Behavior, 3d. ed. edited by Delos H. Kelly. New York: St. Martin’s
Eakin, John Paul. 1985.Fictions in Autobiography: Studies in the Art of Self-Invention. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Friedman, Norman L. 1974. “Cookies and Contests: Notes on Ordinary Occupational Deviance and its Neutralization.”Sociological Symposium 11:1–9.
_____. 1975. “Jewish Popular Culture in Contemporary American.”Judaism 24:263–277.
_____. 1989. “Books by Hollywood Stars: The Multiple Uses of Published Autobiogrpahies.”Journal of Popular Film and Television 17: 113–22.
_____. 1990. “Conventional Covert Ethnographic Research by a Worker: Considerations from Studies Conducted as a Substitute Teacher, Hollywood Actor, and Religious School Supervisor.” Forthcoming inStudies in Qualitative Methodology, Volume 2 (“Reflections on Field Experience”), edited by Robert G. Burgess. Greenwich, CT: JAI.
Glaser, Barney and Anselm Strauss. 1967.The Discovery of Grounded Theory: Strategies for Qualitative Research. Chicago: Aldine.
Habenstein, Robert W., ed. 1970.Pathways to Data. Chicago: Aldine.
Hammond, Phillip E., ed. 1964.Sociologists at Work: Essays on the Craft of Social Research. New York: Basic Books.
Hayano, David M. 1979. “Auto-Ethnography: Paradigms, Problems, and Prospects.”Human Organization 38:99–104.
Higgins, Paul C. and John M. Johnson, eds. 1988.Personal Sociology. New York: Praeger.
Horowitz, Irving Louis, ed. 1969.Sociological Self-Images: A Collective Portrait. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
Kluckhohn, Clyde and Henry A. Murray. 1948. “Personality Formation: The Determinants.” Pp. 35–48 inPersonality in Nature, Society, and Culture, edited by Clyde Kluckhohn and Henry A. Murray. New York: Knopf.
Leibowitz, Herbert. 1989.Fabricating Lives: Explorations in American Autobiography. New York: Knopf.
Merton, Robert K. 1988. “Some Thoughts on the Concept of Sociological Autobiography.” Pp. 17–21 inSociological Lives: Social Change and the Life Course, Volume 2, edited by Matilda White Riley. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Miller, Delbert C., 1965. “The Impact of Organization and Research Structures on Researcher Behavior.” Pp. 39–52 inApplied Sociology: Opportunities and Problems, edited by Alvin W. Gouldner and S.M. Miller. New York: Free Press.
Page, Charles H. 1959. “Sociology as a Teaching Enterprise.” Pp. 579–99 inSociology Today: Problems and Prospects, edited by Robert K. Merton, Leonard Broom, and Leonard S. Cottrell, Jr. New York: Basic Books.
Polsky, Ned. 1967.Hustlers, Beats and Others. Chicago: Aldine.
Reinharz, Shulamit. 1979.On Becoming a Social Scientist. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Riemer, Jeffrey W. 1977. “Varieties of Opportunistic Research.”Urban Life 5:467–77.
Riley, Matilda White, ed. 1988.Sociological Lives: Social Change and the Life Course, Volume 2. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Roth, Philip. 1988.The Facts: A Novelist’s Autobiography. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Shaffir, William, Robert A. Stebbins, and Allen Turowitz, eds. 1980.Fieldwork Experiences: Qualitative Approaches to Social Research. New York: St. Martin’s.
Stone, Albert E. 1982.Autobiographical Occasions and Original Acts. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Tormé, Mel. 1988.It Wasn’t AllVelvet: An Autobiography. New York: Viking.
Turner, Victor W. and Edward M. Bruner, eds. 1986.The Anthropology of Experience. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press.
Vidich, Arthur, Joseph Bensman, and Maurice Stein, eds. 1964.Reflections on Community Studies. New York: Wiley.
Zola, Irving K. 1982.Missing Pieces: A Chronicle of Living with a Disability. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Friedman, N.L. Autobiographical sociology. Am Soc 21, 60–66 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02691782
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02691782