Working with different temporalities: archived life history interviews and diaries

Abstract

This paper explores the contrasts and complementarities of two different sets of archived data, life history interviews and diaries. Both are well-tried methods of data collection in the social sciences, but little attention has been given to ways of using them in combination. We begin with an outline of how we went about collecting data for archiving: recruiting 12 families, interviewing people aged 75 and over, and collecting diaries from other family members. We go onto present examples of the data from one particular family. We then compare what the interviews and diaries, analysed in combination, contributed to our understanding of time, concluding with comments on the relevance of different temporalities to current debates on family and intergenerational relationships. The archived data offer researchers interested in qualitative longitudinal investigations a complex and many-faceted understanding of temporality.

Keywords:

• life histories
• diaries
• time
• archived data
• intergenerational
• qualitative longitudinal
• case study