Qualitative life course methodologies: critical reflections from development studies.
Qualitative life course methodologies: critical reflections from development studies.
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定性生命历程方法：发展研究的批判性反思。
作者：
C. Locke;P. Lloyd
本文反思了定性生命历程研究在发展研究中应用的两次经验。第一种方法以布宜诺斯艾利斯老年人的叙述为中心，探讨他们与子女的一生关系以及他们目前的福祉。第二项研究对赞比亚的年轻人进行了半结构化访谈，以调查他们走向经济赋权的轨迹。在这两种方法中，相互联系的生活和更广泛的社会、经济和政治变化的作用都是中心。这篇文章对方法选择和权衡的批判性反思做出了贡献，它聚焦于解决政策制定者和更多以数量为导向的研究人员的愿望所产生的困境。它探讨了三个主题：理解相互关联的生活的不同叙述所面临的挑战；与个体主体性接触的可能性；以及在动态的社会、经济和政治背景下定位个人经历的不同策略。
This article reflects on two experiences of applying qualitative life course research in development studies. The first methodology centred on the elicited narratives of older people in Buenos Aires exploring their lifetime relations with their children and their current well-being. The second employed semi-structured interviews with young adults in Zambia to investigate their trajectories towards economic empowerment. In both methodologies, the roles of linked lives and of wider social, economic and political changes were central. The article contributes to critical reflection on methodological choices and trade-offs, by focusing on dilemmas that arise from a desire to address policy makers and more quantitatively-orientated researchers. It explores three themes: the challenges of making sense of disparate narratives of linked lives; the possibilities for engaging with individual subjectivities; and different strategies for situating individual experiences in dynamic social, economic and political contexts.