Life Story Method of Writing - Essay Example

Garden Story: Case Analysis Name Course unit Course Code Instructor Date Introduction Life story/history research approach is a methodological and theoretical research framework or a pedagogical approach designed to draw qualitative data from an individual’s life (Harrison 2008). In social science research, life writing is considered as a traditional research framework for analysis of people to establish what they are or are not. This facilitates an understanding of individuals based on their narratives to which a research is privy. According to Wicks and Whiteford (2006), in a particular scenario where life history research method is used, a researcher collects life histories of individuals by going beyond what they do. An investigator listens, reads, or seeks interpretations of social phenomenon beyond their speech or actions. This paper examines how life writing is used in a form of single garden story to review how gardening is a significant theme in gendered leisure. An underlying argument is that in Bhatti's (2014) analysis of Joy's garden story, the life story method is an appropriate and effective social research methodology as it helps collects rich qualitative data through the research participant’s personal interpretations of their life events, as well as the social circumstances surrounding their basis of their life events. Life story provides a useful methodology that sociologists can use to construct social reality rather than discover social reality. One reason for this is because a research investigator and participant are not easily separable, as the process of constructing sociological knowledge tends to be situational, contextual, and specific, as well as depends on social locations (Bhatti 2014). For instance, in Joy's story, the location is gendered, as the society expects women to say at home. Here, life story has been used to show how a home garden is a significant component of women's gendered leisure and everyday life. Therefore, life writing is used to show how leisure activities at home are a source of constructing identity for women. Life writing also reveals the nature of leisure at homes in addition to the emotions and meanings that women attach to it from their own perspective. For instance, while Joy's story on gardening may not necessarily be representative of the social relations at a broad structure level within the positivistic sense, it provides a deeper insight into the gender identity attached to leisure activities at home. Life stories assist sociologists in gaining a deeper insight into the day to day practices of life of certain segments of the population. Life writing provides a means for narrating the life stories of ordinary people. It also provides a means for narrating the day to day activities and routines of people's everyday lives (Dhunpath & Samuel 2009). Life story methodology has helped research into Joy’s personal experiences. As Bhatti (2014) illustrates, Joy wrote about the events of her life, her inspiration into gardening, how she challenged her husband to allow her to engage in gardening and the amount if work she encountered while gardening. The role and significance of life story was earlier discussed by Harrison (2008). He argued that it helps explore into people’s personal experiences as the participants in the study have to narrate their own experiences, or events of their lives. Sozulki et al. (2010) also explain that by enabling people to understand themselves through the narrative, such an understanding makes it possible to sieve out the truth regarding certain social phenomenon, including the gendered perspectives on gardening. Life story method also assists the sociologists to make sense of theories, such as how leisure can be empowering or construct social identities. This made it easy for Bhatti (2014) to rewrite Joy's story within the context of academic discourse by exploring the themes that are of interest to sociologists. For instance, Joy's story could be interpreted in academic sense as it is designed to show her changing identity. It shows how she remade herself from having a negative attitude towards gardening to actually practising gardening. In away, life story is, therefore, a means to constructing meanings and social identities. In particular, Joy narrates the story of life to show how gardening provides an opportunity to empower women in a world where leisure has proved to be a problem for women, as they find it difficult to spare some tome from their domestic duties and obligations in engage in leisure. Hence, Joy’s garden story is in away intrinsically linked to her identity, as it provides a symbol of her life story as well as demonstrates how the garden is entrenched in the life of her family (Bhatti 2014). The life story approach also provides a framework for exploring into sensitive research questions with issues affecting seemingly gendered populations, including the life experiences of women (Dhunpath & Samuel 2009). The experiences of gardening are unique in many women’s life events. Exploring the experiences from their own points of view becomes easier through life story method, as it captures certain elements that is unique, as well as varies and which cannot be captured through interviews because of their sensitive nature (Gubrium & Hosltein 2002). However, the life history method provides a flexible method for examining women’s participation in gardening as a flexible concept that can be effectively understood as situated within the context of the broader life experiences of women. Life histories also permit a range of life events to come out, whether positive or negative, within the context of the participants’ life that can be used to inform social research. Sozulki et al. (2010) explains that the results may not be merely simply expressive successes of stories of participants that provide inspirational stories of how to overcome adversities in the society. Rather, they comprise a complex set of stories that come out to change the nature of the research by transforming gaps and misunderstandings found in the mainstream research that has been done without involving the personal viewpoints of the marginalised people, including women who decide to undertake gardening in a field seemingly dominated by men. By providing a means to examine the significant life events over an individual’s lifespan assist in uncovering resiliency at varied developmental stages in human life, such as macro-history like societal-level events like life changes and attitudinal change after traumas society, and micro-history levels, such as an individual’s personal development (Hagemaster 1992). The basis of this argument is derived from the idea that Joy had negative attitude towards gardening after she stuck a fork in her toe during childhood, yet later changed her attitude after considering the leisurely benefits of gardening. According to Sozulki et al. (2010), the lived experiences of the research participants, particularly after a tragedy, based on their narratives take a centre stage in social research where strategies for recovery need to be applied in future. Such an assumption is consistent with Sozulki’s et al (2010) view of recovery process as means that enables one to be within or a part of a world that can only be understood subjectively. Simply put, recoveries are existential phenomena in social research. Life experiences help in the understanding of people’s diverse social experiences, which could be derived to inform future research. Gaining an understanding of people’s diverse experiences in a group may assist in preventing overgeneralizations regarding people’s diverse needs. Sozulki et al. (2010) assert that at this stage, the main cultural, individual, and structural elements may be taken into account based on the life history research frame, as it allows the reclamation and ownership of personal and group experiences. For instance, a developed awareness of the effect of certain societal issues on the lives of women who undertake gardening can promote culture-oriented services to address the needs of a given population that may be disadvantaged due to stigmatisation of their occupations (Bhatti 2014). On the other hand, the life story also has a limitation. One of this is that the respondent is fully in control of the direction of the research. Indeed, compared to interview, Joy is said to have written about the events of her life, her inspiration into gardening, how she challenged her husband to allow her to engage in gardening and the amount if work she encountered while gardening. However, the research investigator cannot ask her anything that happened a t the time or change the direction of the research (Bhatti 2014). Conclusion Life story method presents an opportunity for collection of rich data through the research participant’s personal interpretations of their life events as well as the social circumstances surrounding their basis of their life events. Base on the analysis of Joy’s garden story, it is firmly established that the life story approach provides a useful methodology that sociologists can use to construct social reality rather than discover social reality. It also assists sociologists to gain a deeper insight into the day to day practices of life of certain segments of the population. Life story method also assists the sociologists to make sense of theories, such as how leisure can be empowering or construct social identities. The life story approach makes social imagination feasible. Additionally, it provides a framework for exploring into sensitive research questions with issues affecting seemingly gendered populations, including the life experiences of women. Reference List Bhatti, M 2014, "Garden stories: Auto/biography, gender and gardening. 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