Biographien – Diskurse – Figurationen

Social-constructivist and figurational biographical research

“…This means deliberately seeking the voices of outsiders, and including their perspectives and their comparatively low power chances in the analysis. In this way, we, as sociologists, can avoid falling into the trap of adopting dominant public discourses uncritically, or reproducing them practically unchanged (see Bahl, 2017; Becker, 2017; Bogner and Rosenthal, 2014, 2017a; Hinrichsen, 2017; Rosenthal, 2016; Worm and Hinrichsen, 2016).…”

“…In both traditions, societies and organizations cannot be conceived without individuals; both are based on a conception of ‘society’, or, more exactly, of societies, as a reality that is constantly or repeatedly produced by the interplay of individuals, and thus with a processual (and strictly relational) understanding of the form of existence of this ‘object’. We believe that linking biographical research concentrated on individual biographies and family histories with figurational sociology, which is more strongly focused on collective and long-term transformation processes, can make it easier to overcome the problematic separation of micro, meso, and macro perspectives which dominates social science discourses (see Bogner and Rosenthal, 2017a). Moreover, a sociology-of-knowledge approach to discourse analysis can help biographical research in its efforts to observe the relative effect, or relative lack of effect, of hegemonic discourses on biographical self- and we-presentations, and to study the way they interact with the power inequalities within social groupings and figurations of social groupings – especially figurations of established and outsiders.…”

“…In recent years, working together with Artur Bogner, she has increasingly applied notions from Elias’s figurational sociology. This has involved certain methodological modifications, such as combining various data collection methods, and paying more attention to social figurations and historical, or long-term, processes when developing the sample, with a microanalysis of power inequalities and changing power balances between different groupings, including all kinds of we-groups (see Bogner and Rosenthal, 2014, 2017a, 2020; Rosenthal, 2012, 2016; Rosenthal et. al., 2011).…”

Rebels in Northern Uganda after their return to civilian life: between a strong we-image and experiences of isolation and discrimination

“…Moreover, the rebel veterans benefit from many long-standing personal connections in the government, local administrations and army. A closer look at the figuration between ex-rebels and civilians shows that, especially the people who were robbed, abducted, raped or mutilated by them have frequently become outsiders in this region Rosenthal 2012, 2014;Peters 2008). In a group interview with victims of collective violence, one participant said that fear of the ex-rebels and their influence on the government and in the administration of the province was what prevented the victims of collective violence from talking openly, in local public spaces, about their problems.…”

Making sense of ‘Ireland’, sport and identity: the craft of doing sociology

“…Those within the figurational tradition, including Dunning himself, had and have since discussed 'method' and 'methodology' and taken these in various directions (e.g. Maguire, 1988Maguire, , 2013Dunning, 1999;Bloyce, 2004;Kilminster, 2004;King, 2006;Mansfield, 2007;Liston, 2007;Baur and Ernst, 2011;Hughes, 2013;Smith and Waddington, 2014;Dolan and Connolly, 2015;Sinclar, 2016;Bogner and Rosenthal, 2017;Evans et al, 2018;Cock, 2019). This paper draws together several strands of this work into a general discussion of sociological craft, illustrated through our ongoing research on 'Ireland', sport and identity.…”