This book extends debates in the field of biographical research, arguing that causal explanations are not at odds with biographical research and that biographical research is in fact a valuable tool for explaining why things in social and personal lives are one way and not another. Bringing reconstructive biographical research into dialogue with critical realism, it explains how and why relational social ontology can become a unique theoretical ground for tapping emergent mechanisms and latent meaning structures. Through an account of the reasons for which reductionist epistemologies, rational action models and covering law explanations are not appropriate for biographical research, the authors develop the philosophical idea of singular causation as a means by which biographical researchers are able to forge causal hypotheses for the occurrence of events and offer guidance on the application of this methodological principle to concrete, empirical examples. As such, this volume will appeal to scholars across the social sciences with interests in biographical research and social research methods.

This book extends debates in the field of biographical research, arguing that causal explanations are not at odds with biographical research and that biographical research is in fact a valuable tool for explaining why things in social and personal lives are one way and not another. Bringing reconstructive biographical research into dialogue with critical realism, it explains how and why relational social ontology can become a unique theoretical ground for tapping emergent mechanisms and latent meaning structures. Through an account of the reasons for which reductionist epistemologies, rational action models and covering law explanations are not appropriate for biographical research, the authors develop the philosophical idea of singular causation as a means by which biographical researchers are able to forge causal hypotheses for the occurrence of events and offer guidance on the application of this methodological principle to concrete, empirical examples. As such, this volume will appeal to scholars across the social sciences with interests in biographical research and social research methods.

In what ways do working-class middle-aged people who have learned to lead their lives through the lens of a traditional institutionalized life course deal with unexpected job loss? What are the differences between shipbuilding workers and supermarket employees regarding their working-class identities? Is there a quantitative way of tapping class stratification among second generation emigrants? How do respectable working-class people experience their transition to homelessness? Finally, in what ways do working-class adolescents deal with their transition to adulthood? These are some of the questions this volume tries to answer by examining how working-class identities are constructed within various temporal and spatial contexts. The research material has been collected by means of both quantitative and qualitative research designs implemented in various locations of Greek society in the last 10 years. Given that Greece is the par excellence country of which the inhabitants went through the hardships of 2010 financial crisis, the authors of the volume are trying to explore the impact this crisis has upon the life-chances of working-class people. In particular, through various methodological approaches (ethnographic interviews, life stories, surveys, biographical interviews, participant observation), authors provide provocative insights on the narrative, emotional and temporal determinants of working-class identity formation in the age of capitalist crises. In addition, this research aims to go beyond the theoretical state of the art in exploring class identities, class action and class formation (Bourdieu, Beck, Giddens, Foucault, E. P. Thomson, S. Hall) by adopting fresh and challenging theorizations that built upon the concept of time and emotions. Thus, the conceptual elaboration of the data rests upon up-to-date approaches on social time and on emotions that underline that fact that emotions are embedded in social relations which have temporal nature. One of the main working hypotheses of the book is that one can identify the generative mechanisms of working-class identities within the multitude of the emotions that are triggered as a consequence of "felt injustice". Furthermore, one can understand the tendencies of the society to remain stable or to be transformed during uncertainty periods by examining the temporal peculiarities of specific emotions (resentment, anger, resignation, bereavement, hope).