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Abstract
The issue of stability of the narrative self, meaning to what extent an individual's story about a certain stretch of life stays the same over time, was examined by comparing working life stories concerning the same period but narrated 10 years apart. Twenty middle-aged individuals were interviewed in 1999 and in 2009. The analysis of the interview data was based on the parallel use of narrative analysis and the analysis of cultural distinctions. The results indicate that the core of the work-related narrative identities that were expressed in the first interviews also emerged in the second interviews. In our view, this lends support to the idea that people have a stable way of making sense of their past—that is, a continuous “inner narrative.”
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Funding for Pirkko Järvenpää's PhD project has been provided by the Finnish Doctoral Program of Social Sciences, the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, and the Finnish Work Environment Fund (Grant no. 111353). Vilma Hänninen has received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors for this study.