Biographical Analysis in Historical-Sociological Research. Summing up 20 Years of Experience. Interview prepared by Kozlova, L.A.

Abstract

Doctorov gives an interview where issues are touched upon related to the development and achievements of a project on the history of Soviet/Russian sociology, a project which he has been curating for almost 20 years, as well as to a biographical study in the field of American sociology and the study of public opinion. Doctorov’s project deals with solving the theoretical, methodological and empirical issues of applying the biographical method in historical-sociological research. The author’s main methodological developments include the concept of Russian sociology’s rebirth, substantiation for generational-functional analysis, and the notion of a biographical quality to creative work in sociology, which includes the recently launched development of non-linear biographical analysis. The article discusses the author’s empirical research related to determining the generational structure of Russia’s sociological community, as well as the possibility of its study by means of in-depth interview via e-mail. It also examines the content and relevance of a collection of interviews with Russian sociologists (titled “Big portrait”), as well as an online-book titled “Biographical interviews with social scientist colleagues” (this one is interactive) and the nine-volume “Modern Russian sociology: historical-biographical pursuits”, all of which mention the main findings of B. Doctorov’s project.