1. No category

Digital Story telling KIT
(DSK)
MyStory guide on
How to collect lifestories
www.mystories.eu
This project has been funded with support from the European
Commission.This publication [communication] reflects the views
only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held
responsible for any use which may be made of the information
contained therein.
History through life stories
History is larger than history books. History is life in its
complexity: people, actions, feelings, dreams, opinions
and interpretations, experience - all of them put together
to engage the receiver (be it reader or listener) in a
dynamic relation with a past which can only be accessed
through the stories of those who have lived it.
This is how MyStory team looks at history – a
continuous, active relation between past, what once
happened, and present – the young generation in search
of an identity of their own.
Unless you know your roots there is little hope that
you can build yourself a relevant future.
Discover the past of the people around you and learn
more than just historical events. Listen to their stories,
look into their life experience and your own life might all
of a sudden take another turn, get a completely new
meaning.
The MyStory project relates to history from two major
perspectives:
The story teller – MyStory story tellers are people
interested in sharing their stories with the world in order
2
to illustrate historical events or personal perspectives
with their own life experience. Such people may feel
marginalized and their life no longer counts or is relevant
to younger generations. It is within their stories that we
can all find more learning and answers than in any book.
Direct and personal experience, memories and feelings
turn their stories into valuable resources we can use not
only for our formal study of history but also for our own
personal development.
The story collector – MyStory story collectors are
young people, well skilled in using computers and the
Internet. These days Young People use IT in their daily
lives to such an extent, that not only is it second nature,
but on occasion it allows them to create a false ‘bubble’
within which they live, with the negative consequences
of disconnection from social life and therefore an
inability to develop essential communicative skills and
social relations, especially with generations other than
their own. In their case relating to stories from the past
and meeting people who are willing to share their stories
can help bridge the generational divide, and more than
that – it gives the young generation the opportunity of
putting their IT skills and knowledge to good practice,
training the representatives of the older generation in
basic
computer
skills
and
Internet
use.
3
I. Introduction
Life stories have only recently been acknowledged as
“documents” within the field of Socio-Human sciences.
Although they have long been part of community
practices with the purpose of recording personal stories
and/ or other significant events of community/ family
members, life stories were recognized as official
documentation after a certain delay, at the beginning of
the 20th century. Researchers realized that biographical
data, collected from personal documents (letters, diaries,
memoirs, (auto) biographies, or simple aural stories about
the people’s past) are an incredible source of valid data
on both the inner life of the storytellers and the
surrounding society. Researchers value both the
information illustrating the disposition of the storyteller
and the historical events in which the storyteller was
directly involved, but also data which is more difficult to
interpret such as the order of the events, the context in
which the story was shared, its purpose, its audience and
many others. Besides their audience, psychologists
noticed that storytelling also affects storytellers
themselves. Moreover, educators emphasized the
formative value of such materials. Therefore what may at
a first glance seem to be an ordinary life story can turn
out to be a much more meaningful and important material
for a wide range of categories of beneficiary. Written
personal documents may not always be easy to find,
4
especially if researchers work with an illiterate
population or with people who are not familiar with
writing. Because of this, researchers now more than ever
before accept the challenge of collating such documents,
saving many categories of people from social invisibility
and historical anonymity.
Life stories - focused on one event, on a life segment or
underlining the entire trajectory of individuals – are not
used only in a heuristic manner within humanities
research. There are also many other social practices
which involve sharing complete life stories or fragments
of them.
Life stories are used for therapeutic or educational
purposes (similar to the approach of the Chicago School)
in adult education and also in (auto) formation. This
method is being implemented in the French speaking
world and to a greater extent in the German speaking
one.
Researchers often refer to the appeal of life stories to
journalists, which is considered to be more specific to
Americans, or the practice of the publishers to publish
the life stories of unknown people, who through their
simplicity and obscurity became exotic. Presently this is
a significant phenomenon in France which began at the
same time as the rebirth of the qualitative methods within
5
the area of humanities. Literature is often closely related
to sociology and even the methods sociology involves: a
naturalist like Zola, who describes the social media
through field research, was strongly recommended by
Park to Chicago students at the beginning of the last
century. American realist writers at the end of the 20th
century recreated the social fresco. They successfully
used systematic observation of their chosen media. The
manner in which they present this reality, describing
entire lives, sometimes even generations, can be easily
traced to life stories. As for the new American realism,
for which Truman Copote’s novel, “Cold Blooded” is
emblematic, guides us towards an inner understanding of
lives and even towards the career concept in the sense of
symbolic interactionism. Even the generation of the
beatnik in the 60’s, rebellious and in search for
“authenticity”, descending from the ivory tower into the
streets, are fans of everyday literature, with a strong
autobiographical character.
Religion is another non-scientific domain frequently
referring to life stories. Stories presenting personal
destinies (during a life segment or even throughout life)
often appear as parables in the Old Testament (just as in
the Koran). In addition to this are the gospels in the New
Testament, which can be regarded as overlapping stories
of the life of Jesus. There are also stories used as
examples in religious education as forms of aural
6
autobiography focused on various topics, in more or less
formal contexts. Christine Delory-Momberger connects
the use of life stories in Chicago Schools’ research with
the strong influence of Protestantism which may lead to
the conclusion that research has been highly influenced
by religion.
Therefore the scientific logic does not hold a monopoly
over the collection and use of life stories. They do not
serve science alone with the purpose of scientific
knowledge; there is varied range of other developmental
directions life stories can be used in: literary, aesthetic,
political, comprehensive, formative, ideological and
symbolic. Oscar Lewis’ “The children of Sanchez”
published in New York in 1961 is a revolutionary book
in the field of ethnology. However the book has both a
literary and militant purpose. The book has since been
considered a classic in anthropology being translated into
several foreign languages and receiving a prestigious
literary award in the Paris Book Salon.
From an “anthropologic and generic” point of view,
Gaston Pineau and Jean-Louis le Grand [2002] define life
history as being "the research and construction of sense
based on personal temporal facts” and through this
perspective (which opens an unlimited field of practices
with uncertain boundaries and structures) they try to set a
7
relative order in the multi-format practices of life stories.
They identified five functioning regimes:
The 0 degree of life history corresponds to a life without
memory and with a personal expression which does not
exceed the immediate timeframe. This is the pathological
case of amnesiacs, or of any other trial of
depersonalisation which tries to eliminate the
construction of personal temporality. Another form of
this degree is the word which gains a place in history but
which is not directly connected to facts personally
experienced. This can be translated into the “great field
of history” fading away the appearance of “small
individual histories”. In order to exit such a situation a
crisis is needed. This is the only way to initiate first
person discourse and also to reflect, to select and analyse
words and memories.
1.
The first level refers to the everyday stories, i.e.
current practices. This level is explored very little.
Within it we can find different forms. The first such form
is intergenerational practices, strongly connected to
family memory. Verbal communication between parents
and children, but especially that between grandparents
and grandchildren, which often relate to family origin,
family connections and past family life. Children’s
curiosity and seniors’ willingness to share their stories
represents a very good opportunity to rewind past events;
8
in other words, life stories. Beyond the emotional charge
of such moments, we have to identify the moment of
intergenerational communication, especially in its
genealogical component. The second form refers to
intragenerational discussions among individuals of the
same age group. Most often, among friends who have not
met for a long period of time, at the moment of the
meeting there is a biographical moment when each of
them updates their discussion partner on their latest
activities. In adolescence the discussions with
(auto)biographical character are even more common as
they represent a good opportunity to talk about their lives
outside the family. Friends and lovers often confess or
comment on the other’s lives and keep themselves
updated with biographical evolutions of common friends.
The third form is represented by anniversary moments;
these are always a good occasion carry discussions on
life up until the moment of the gathering. Collecting
“material marks” of life is the fourth form. These can be
represented by documents (diplomas, certificates etc),
objects (gifts, medals etc), photographs, videos etc.
Finally, the fifth form of this level refers to transition
practices and developing CVs. There are numerous
opportunities in life when one has to make a summary of
their activities up until that moment and perhaps also
include competency levels, especially when it comes to
school and professional orientation. Quite often we are
9
asked to “attach a CV and a letter of intent” for our
professional activities. Developing a CV is therefore a
remembering of the past by identifying its elements in
written form with the purpose of having them read by the
target reader.
2.
The second level is entitled the level of “cultural
life practices”. We step out of the frame of family and
friends and we look toward the community. Those parts
which were primarily aural and informal tend to become
written and are eventually turned into a filmed form. This
level also includes various other forms of manifestation.
Commemoration and speech are at the boundaries of
daily life and cultural life (we identify the same
ambiguity in the fact that they can be both oral and
written) and they represent intermediary rituals which
refer to a person whose life is strongly connected to that
of community. Collective life histories can be developed
by an individual as a privileged witness of a social group
or by members of a community of associations who aim
to rebuild the collective memory of a region or a group
by approaching the past and giving it a written form, and
through this social visibility. Sometimes gaining life
history is considered both as cultural production and as a
traditional method of education. It is considered a
privileged form of cultural democracy: it provides
opportunities of expression to social participants who
have only expressed themselves with the help of theories
10
and what they tell is a form of culture. Personal literature,
such as that of Gaston Pineau and Jean-Louis le Grand, is
placed somewhere between the widespread practice of
journal writing (over three million French people
practiced this in 1992) and autobiographies and
biographies published by big publishing houses,
sometimes in very large quantities. They are sometimes
published in small runs, often by means of crafts and the
expense of the author, it concerns the life of a community
in time or it is a piece of evidence for an important part
of the life of the author (war, imprisonment etc.) and it is
aimed at a limited number of readers (community
residents, the descendants of the family, friends,
acquaintances). It should not be judged by its artistic
qualities but rather as a production of a cultural era, of a
situation. (Auto)biographies of celebrities or politicians,
famous biographies of public people from the past,
(auto)biographical evidence of “simple” people (children,
housewives, workers, peasants etc) are often written by
somebody else on the basis of material collected through
multiple interviews and are published at prestigious
publishing houses. These are another form of cultural life
practice. We need to underline the tendency to
democratize the genre. Not only do we deal with
important characters and crucial, historical events but we
also deal with common people talking about everyday
moments
in
their
lives.
Sometimes
these
11
(auto)biographies offer freedom of expression to people
without a high formal education. Interviews on the radio
together with documentaries often present life stories
from an educational point of view or even for
entertainment, whilst offering an aesthetic dimension.
3.
The third level uses life stories in specific
professional practices, which according to the authors
mentioned above, has lately become more and more
frequent. Within this context, if we take a step back from
using life stories strictly for their methodological
purpose, we find that life stories are and have always
been an instrument of power and of social manipulation,
which may result in a critical look upon practices and
institutions. A great number of professions directly
employ in their activity various forms of life stories,
especially those which deal with educational and
professional orientation or with training, social assistance
and human resources. Developing a CV or a portfolio of
competences when looking for employment or financing
represent a direct link with personal life history. Certain
situations build up to a large file, as it is in the case of
social, medical or juridical assistance. Police have a
monitoring sheet or record. Often, these documents are
administered by the institution producing them and
represent a form of power. We must also mention
different types of “files” developed during oppressive
political systems which were more than civic monitoring
12
of the population; they also has political connotations, as
disciplinary and control instruments.
4.
The fourth level relates to research practices
within Socio-Anthropological sciences. This level is
presently the main level in the context of life history; in
the last twenty years, all sciences, anthropology,
ethnology, sociology, social psychology and history have
used them within their domains.
The '80s boasted an unprecedented boom in trends, but,
paradoxically, beyond the often marginal differences
which divided qualitative research practices, they were
united by their increasingly frequent use in a great
number of modern situations. More and more frequently,
links between research and practice and disciplines are
recognized and implemented. The first category includes
new concepts and methods, such as research-action,
research- training, research-action-training, researchcreation, etc.
The classification of five levels of social use for the life
stories clearly illustrates that their use within the
scientific domain is only one of many possibilities to
maximize their potential. More than that, within their
scientific usage we can identify a tendency to connect
them to action, (auto)-training, therapy, creation and so
on. However, it is still difficult to say whether, under the
13
influence of postmodernism, a close relationship between
science and modern values can be maintained or if we are
simply faced with a new crisis: the devaluation of
science.
Generally we deal with life stories every time “a subject
tells another person, researcher or not, any episode of
his/her life” [Bertaux, 1997:32]. Practically we make no
distinction between the social use of life stories and their
scientific use. The verb „to tell” for example, is
extremely important as „highlights the fact that the
explanations of the subject are given in the form of
1
narration” [Bertaux, 1997:32]. Bertaux goes on to
explain that in the field of social sciences, life stories
1
By narration the author refers to an account of a diachronic series of
linked events. That does not mean that narration cannot include other
forms, which are not narrative, such as description, explanation or
evaluation - the latter does not work independently from the other, but
it aids the construction of the story, contributing to the construction of
meaning. To tell a story (or series of stories) you need descriptions of
characters and the relationships between them, to explain the
reasons for their actions, to describe the contexts of the events and to
evaluate the characters themselves. A speech is not narrative when it
is exclusively descriptive or when it refers to events chronologically,
without going into further detail and establishing significant links
between them. s
14
result from a specific narrative form of interview, in
which the researcher asks a subject to tell their entire
living experience or perhaps only a part of it. We are thus
presented with two forms of life story: an integral one
and a partial but perhaps more focused one. We can also
talk of two concepts: „maximalist” and „minimalist”,
Betaux being the follower of the latter. The maximalist
conception, using the model of autobiography, views
lifestories as being complete, covering the entire history
of the subject’s life, from birth till the time of the
narration, starting with the description of their emotional
life up to significant events, and interpersonal
relationships. Endeavoring to gather information on the
entire life of an individual may seem to suggest an
enormous amount of work focused on one person only;
however, the author emphasises that sociology is a
science of collective phenomena, so a collective
approach to life story research would be inoperant and
impractical. The minimalist conception is therefore
preferable.
From the minimalist perspective, every time we have “an
interview in the narrative form, the subject expresses an
intimate part of their entire life” [Bertaux, 1997:32] We
therefore deal with a life story.
Of course a life history is not by any means an objective
representation of the past. It is an interactive construction
15
of the past and is influenced by various emotional
episodes and life stages:
a.
A view from the present upon the past and a
memory which produces meaning;
b.
Making this memory the subject of a discussion
between the narrator and the interlocutor; the entire
action develops, ideally under a strict rule of
confidence;
c.
Adapting, processing aural production to written
or video production;
This multifaceted definition of life history has the
advantage of filtering misrepresentative constructions of
the past, giving us a clearer view of the subject’s history
and restoring the social significance of life stories far
beyond their scientific significance.
As for the “MyStory” project, we are going to use life
stories including those from the sociological perspective
but specifically for the function of intergenerational
communication. We are trying to identify the effect
narration has upon the subject and also upon the
interlocutor, especially when there is a significant age
difference between the two of them. We are also looking
at the potential of these stories to recreate socio-historical
contexts, important events, mentalities, life styles etc.
16
To balance the educational function of the stories with
the social- anthropological function we will divide the
life story in two parts, preferably corresponding to two
different meetings of the interviewer with the
interviewee. In the first meeting, the subject is invited to
talk in the standard form with an instruction to tell their
life story with assurances that they may talk freely
without being asked supplementary questions. In the
second meeting, the interviewer uses a list of questions,
the interview guide, consisting of general topics of
interest compiled by researchers. The first part allows the
subjects to fully express themselves, and in the second
part the subject is given the opportunity to describe the
world in which they live, the events they have
participated in etc. From both a subjective and more
generalized perspective, one can easily convey
information, attitudes, values which for a young
interviewer has a deeply formative, educational function.
17
II.
The therapeutic module
The MyStory project engages participants with a special
communicative situation focused on sharing life
experience between groups of seniors and adolescents.
The activities in the project are set around the educational
and therapeutic effects of repeated meetings between the
two groups of beneficiaries. “Old age” and
“Adolescence” are two complex life stages with an
extremely important psycho-social dimension and a
series of dysfunctions which can be improved through
communication. Before we go through the therapeutic
and educational effects we are going to briefly describe
the two life stages mentioned above.
Aging involves multiple changes of which the most
important are biological, psychological, cultural and
social changes. The biological changes associated with
aging include physical changes (becoming stooped, going
gray, etc.) or body degradation as a result of diseases
specific for this age group such as Alzheimer’s or heart
attacks. Psychological changes most often include
progressive mental and intellectual deterioration
associated with precarious health conditions. As for
social and cultural changes, we will explore these further
from the perspective of social gerontology, because this
is the main focus of our project. Simultaneously with the
aging process there may be many changes related to work
18
and retirement, limited economical resources, social
isolation, cases of mistreatment, deterioration of the
social status and self-esteem of individuals.
For many of the seniors, retirement is viewed as an
exclusion from professional activity with dramatic effects
on their social life. For some of them it is very difficult to
manage another life structure, diminishing their social
status especially for those who held top professional
positions. For others the challenges are represented by a
significant reduction in income which requires a new
lifestyle, which may be considered to be inferior. Often,
aging is considered to lead to an exclusion from the
essential active social positions, abandoning professional
life and accepting new passive roles, eventually with a
lower social value. A drop in income as a result of
retirement is often accompanied with an increase of
expenses for health care which sometimes leads to
poverty underlining the dependence on the other
members of the family. Although many seniors try to live
an active social life, inevitably groups of friends become
smaller and smaller with the death of old friends or
elderly members of the family. The death of a partner is
one of the most difficult moments in life. Social isolation
of seniors can be accompanied by depression. Even for
seniors still living with their family brings along such
challenges. Lately, the ill-treatment of seniors has
increased significantly. It can take the form of verbal or
19
physical violence, financial exploitation or systematic
neglect. Ill-treatment is more common in families where
the elderly person has health problems.
If we move from the individual to the collective level,
research shows there is an unequal treatment of various
age groups, known as third age discrimination. As for
sexism and racism, this form of discrimination is rooted
in physical characteristics. In fact, the devaluation of
older people is based on stereotypes, in that the term ‘old
people’ is used to describe a category of people rather
than individuals. Basically, there is no difference
between healthy people and those with physical and
mental afflictions; they are all included within the same
stereotype. Then, health and physical differences are
associated with other features, "old people" becoming the
generally selfish, outdated mentality and resistant to
change, a burden to society, etc.. The error is that while
some elderly people fit those characteristics, others are
just the opposite. Therefore, such an unfair generalization
underlies discriminatory conduct.
The other participants in the interactive situation are the
high-school students, who transcend a special period in
their life, adolescence. From a psychological point of
view they are characterized by intellectual development,
hypersensitivity, motivational and affective conflicts
which occur as the teenagers’ endeavour to build their
20
own personality. From a socio-cultural point of view,
they belong to groups with common concerns and tastes,
developing their own subculture in conflict with the
subculture of grown-ups’. These groups not only play a
very important socializing role in a teenager’s life, but
are also very likely to become a source for juvenile
delinquency.
However, the selection of the high-school students
included in our project was not based on them belonging
to the afore-mentioned groups or having conflictual
relationships with their families or with authority in
general. The main criterion for selection was represented
by the risk of isolation through computer/internet
overuse. This is one of the challenges facing
contemporary society which has been frequently
exploredof late, and has led to the development of the
concept of virtual socializing.
The internet is causing a revolution in social
relationships, as it gives birth to a new, very powerful
type of socialization, that we can call the virtual group of
peers/equals. If, up until now, the group of peers (friends
and colleagues) had been based on direct interaction, we
can observe that the virtual environment now allows
them to interact and get organized online. Those
communities, based on common tastes and interests, who
shared a subculture of the youth and teenagers and who
21
acted as audiences, can now be united into virtual
groups, which do not imply physical proximity, but
which might have an impact as powerful as that of a
common peer group. Moreover, the possibility of being
controlled by adults is considerably diminished. The
danger of following inappropriate role-models and
increasing violence among young people does not
disappear. Additionally, the social networks, using online
platforms such as Hi5, Facebook or Twitter, are
developing explosively.
These virtual social networks make us reconsider the
issue of social isolation, a phenomenon which was
amplified by the advent of television. Thus, being
captivated by TV, people had fewer friends and
communicated less with others, preferring to spend their
time in front of the screen. As far as the internet is
concerned, the internet absorbs people and takes them
away from the proximate social network, but it also gets
them into another social network, this time a virtual one,
where they can still communicate. The act of socialising
through direct interaction is doubled by digital
socializing in a virtual group of peers. This is not
possible in the case of television, as it involves no
interaction. What is interesting is that this virtual world
has a social side too, with its own values and rules, and
where traditional socialising acquires a supplementary
dimension, which has not been known before. The name
22
of virtual group or virtual world does not have to
misguide us as its consequences are real, both on people
and on daily reality. Thus, we cannot affirm that the
internet hinders communication between people, it only
changes the nature and structure of their social networks.
For the generation who witnessed the development of the
internet, the explosive use of it corresponds to a real
change in socialisation. But not even in this case did we
experience an intensification of social isolation or a lack
of socialisation between young people.
A study conducted in 2009 by Keith Hampton, Lauren
Sessions, EunJa Her and Lee Rainie on “Social isolation
and the new technologies”2 in SUA concluded that the
Internet and the mobile phone do not destroy social
relationships and that the degree of social isolation had
not shown any changes from 1985 up to 2009. The shift
that occurred was towards the tendency to communicate
with people living in other regions, but with whom they
share common interests and tastes, while their neighbours
become strangers to them.
One can say that in complex societies, those which are
fragmented, plural and communication-dominated,
socialising takes place in a natural way in very
2
http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2009/18--SocialIsolation-and-New-Technology.aspx
23
heterogeneous contexts. Being exposed to different
models, people are forced to always make choices, at the
same time enjoying a higher degree of freedom. In these
circumstances, socialising no longer aims at conveying
values and rules, but at contributing to building an
identity.
Thus, our project will use interactive situations
focused on the life stories of elderly, retired people and
of high-school students. The former experience a certain
social isolation and the latter are rather absorbed by
virtual social networking. Through this interaction, our
primary goal is to obtain a higher degree of social
integration of the two categories of subjects, a transfer of
technical knowledge from the teenagers to the elderly,
and a transfer of life experience from the elderly to the
teenagers.
By approaching the issue from a therapeutic point of
view, we create favourable contexts for a socio-therapy
for social reintegration.
Through this project, we do not intend to make use of
psychotherapy, because psychotherapy techniques have
to be applied carefully by a specialist, such a
psychologist, doctor, psychiatrist, social worker or
counsellor. We only seek to create a situation allowing
communication and interaction, developed for
24
psychological, and more precisely socio-therapeutic,
purposes. In other words, we artificially alter the social
environment in order to obtain, among other things, a
greater level of social integration for the social subjects.
Obviously, by both reducing social isolation and
increasing self-esteem, this eventually leads to the
improvement of people’s psychological balance.
The story of one’s life as the main topic discussion is
close to narrative therapy, but it is not the same. In the
case of narrative therapy, the therapist starts the client’s
story and focuses on restructuring the narrative identity
in order to improve the client’s psychological problems.
As a consequence of the repeated interactions between
the elderly subjects and the teenagers in the context of
collecting, transcribing, processing and publishing the
stories of their lives on the platform, we expect a series
of socio-therapeutic effects to be produced upon the
parties involved as follows:
Upon the elderly/seniors:
- Reducing the feeling of social isolation by the simple
presence of the teenagers and their repeated interaction,
and through the opportunities provided by the use of
computers and surfing the internet.
- At the same time, the social networks will be
extended, especially if the seniors who participate in the
25
project are offered the chance to meet one another at
several common activities and if the platform offers the
opportunity to be given feedback and to socialise in the
virtual environment.
- Increasing self-esteem. Self-esteem can be increased
by the belief that your past has stirred the young people’s
curiosity, that your life contains an experience which is
worth being shared, and that it can become sociably
visible through publishing.
- Decreasing dependency. Sometimes dependency is
related to the access of information. Learning how to use
a computer and to navigate around the internet partly
solves this problem.
Upon the youth:
- Reducing social isolation in the real world, taking into
account the fact that the selected tend to prefer socialise
via virtual platforms.
- Removing the stereotypes about the elderly by directly
interacting with elderly people who are in good health,
who are open to communication, and who are able to
learn new things.
- Increasing self-esteem as they are able to teach an
adult.
- Increasing their ability to become empathetic and to
understand the importance and relevance of values, by
26
listening to stories from the past which demonstrate other
values,
preferences,
conditions
etc.
27
III. Technical aspects
In the following paragraphs we will try to make a short
presentation of the collection process, up to the
processing and publishing of the stories.
1. The first step is to identify the subjects. The target
groups are senior citizens and high-school students. They
have to meet our project’s criteria. For seniors, it is
adviseable that they live in different regions, different
environments (urban/rural), and have had different jobs
and education backgrounds. Generally, the elderly are
eager to communicate and share their own experience,
though the same cannot be said of teenagers. For them,
contact with adults and with the elderly is more
complicated, though they can be motivated by the
interesting stories and insights into the past that the older
generation can offer, as well as by approaching the entire
project as a game or by offering compensations to
contributing students.
2. The second step is facilitating contact among the
selected subjects. We either bring a teenager and a senior
who do not know each other into contact, or we start by
choosing an adolescent and then try to find a retired
acquaintance or a relative to have their interview with.
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However, when using two participants meeting for the
first time. we have to evaluate the degree of compatibility
between them; such as the language used, and their
cultural attitudes. in order to avoid potential conflict.The
first meeting is often crucial, that is why it has to be
carefully planned in order tocreate a good relationship
between the two people. A lack of confidence can be a
problem for people new to the project, and as a result
obtained stories can be short, hasty, cold, and
irrelevant,but regular meetings make the experience
easier over time.If they already know each other the
problem of confidence is normally less of an issue.
Nevertheless, there will be topics which elderly people
will try to avoid, especialy those related to common
relatives or difficult experiences in their life.
3. The first meeting should be preceded by a phone
call in the presence of a common acquaintance, who
helped with the selection of the subject. In this context,
the other participant is told about the goal of the project,
thatthey will be recorded and that the findings will be
published, but not without their consent. Moreover, the
subjects are informed of the possibility of keeping their
name unknown and using a pen name instead
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4. The fourth step is getting on with the biographical
interview. This can be done from the very first meeting if
the relationship is considered comfortable enough or can
be postoponed for a later meeting if need be. The subjects
should therfore be consulted on the conditions and
environment, so that they feel at ease. As we mentioned
before, in order to facilitate the therapeutic and socioanthropological effects of the life stories they must be
broken down in two parts, which preferably correspond
to two different sessions. In the first part, the subject is
introducedto the standard formula called “instruction”and
is encouraged to narrate his/her life, and to speak freely,
without interruption whilst in the second part, the
interviewer uses a list of questions (“interview guide”)
structured in interest topics for the researcher. In our case
the “instruction” is: “We kindly ask you to give us a
thorough accout of your life from your first memories up
to the present”. In the first part of the interview, the
elderly person may talk about their life as they consider
appropriate, they shouldn’t be interrupted with incidental
questions (we can take notes in order to use them in the
future) and should not under any circumstances be
contradicted.) The narrator is considerd the best specialist
as far as their own life is concerned and we need only
listen to their account. Intervention is justifiable only in
caseswhere the other participant has difficulty speaking
or if the narration is interrupted for any reason. In which
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case we have to make use of what what we have already
to relaunch the discussion. Subjects are then reminded
where they stopped or are given a topic which has
already been approached but has not been developed
enough. However, it is unadvisablefor the interviewer to
introduce an entirely new topic. For the same reason its
important not toseem anxious or to look at the clock. The
subject has to feel confortable and to think that they can
take as much time as they like.
The more detailed the story is, the more valuable it is for
us. If it is necessary, this first informal part of the story
can be extended throughout more sessions.
After that, we have go to the second part of the interview,
the semi-structured part. At the end of the first meeting it
is recommended that the subject signs the contract, by
which they specify the conditionsof the agreement and
authorise us to make the recording known to the public.
5. The fifth step consists of realising the biographical
interview, the second part. It should take place during
another meeting, in order to have enough time to listen to
the recording and write down any possible
inconsistencies, chronological gaps or interesting topics
left insufficiently discussed. For the second part of the
interview we can use the standard interview guide, to
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which we can add our own questions, raised by the
interaction with a particular subject. Generally, from one
interview to the next the guides have to be become more
complex whilst still preserving the directions established
initially. We will use the following thematic guide
(provisory):
a. Primary socialising, family education, childhood,
games and toys used in different periods of time,
relationships with parents/brothers/neighbours.
b. Relationships with the opposite genders. Partner
choice. Marriage.
c. Building a professional career. Professional/ school
guidance, the first job, promotion, job change,
relationships with colleagues, chiefs and/or subordinates.
Tasks or political functions.
d. Domestic life. The house – acquisition, furnishing,
space organization. Sharing the household tasks.
e. Eating habits and clothes during the communist
period.
f. Cultural preferences (literature, film, TV, music,
theatre etc.) and cultural practices. Literary circles, Clubs
(ro. “Casa pionerului”), “Flacara” Literary Circle, the
cultural magazine “Cantarea Romaniei” etc.
g. Ways of spending the free time. Weekends, holidays,
days-off, camps. The first journey aboard. Parties,
religious or secular holidays, hobbies, sports.
h. Military service.
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i. Politeness. The good manners code for different socioprofessional categories, in rural and urban environments.
j. The role of women in the communist regime.
k. (Social) construction of femininity. Fashion. Body
care, make up, etc.
l. Children’s first name choice. Who, why, in what
context ?
m. Perception of the Other. The first meeting with a
foreigner.
Ethnical,
religious,
sexualminorities.
Disabledpersons.
Of course, the topics which have been explored in
previous meetings will not be brought into discussion,
only if things were left unclear and unfinished. The order
in which the topics are approached is not necessarily that
which is presented in the guide, but we take advantage of
the course’s structured approach in order to make the
transition from one topic to another more natural.
6. The sixth step is the complete transcription of the
interview and the completion of the subject’s biography
along with other types of personal information, such as
family photographs, correspondence, diaries, memories
etc. These will photocopied, and the originals will be
returned.
The transcription of the biographical interviews will be
made without any omissions, not even the speaker’s
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mistakes. Additionally, the speakers meaningful gestures
will be recorded between parentheses. For this reason, in
case the interview was not video recorded, the
transcription should be best made by the same person
who recorded it and in a short while after the interview,
so that he/she can remember all the significant details of
the meeting.
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© This material was developed by the MyStory
International partnership with the help and support
of Mr. Dan Lungu, subcontractated expert in the
project.
This project has been funded with support from the
European
Commission.This
publication
[communication] reflects the views only of the
author, and the Commission cannot be held
responsible for any use which may be made of the
information contained therein.
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