Jämför metoder

	Biografisk forskning – Livshistoria och biografisk metod	Discourse Analysis
Ämnesområde	Kvalitativa metoder	Kvalitativ forskning
Familj	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline
Ursprungsår	Late 19th–early 20th century (Dilthey ~1883; Thomas & Znaniecki 1918–1920)	1989 (Fairclough); 1987 (Potter & Wetherell)
Upphovsperson	Wilhelm Dilthey (hermeneutic foundations); Thomas & Znaniecki (sociological application); Norman Denzin (interpretive biography)	Norman Fairclough; Jonathan Potter and Margaret Wetherell
Typ	Qualitative research method	Method
Ursprungskälla	Denzin, N. K. (1989). Interpretive Biography. Sage Publications.	Fairclough, N. (1989). Language and power. Longman.
Alias	life history research, biographical method, life story research, biographical narrative inquiry	DA, Critical Discourse Analysis, Discursive Analysis
Närliggande	6	2
Sammanfattning	Biographical research is a qualitative method that examines individual lives in depth — through life-history interviews, personal documents, letters, and autobiographical narratives — to understand how personal experience intersects with social, historical, and cultural forces. Rooted in Wilhelm Dilthey's hermeneutics and made prominent in sociology by Thomas and Znaniecki's study of Polish immigrants, it treats the individual life story as a window onto broader social structures and processes. It belongs to the narrative inquiry subfamily alongside oral history and life-story research.	Discourse analysis is a qualitative research methodology that examines how language, communication, and power shape meaning, identity, and social reality. Developed across linguistics, sociology, and psychology (particularly by Norman Fairclough and Jonathan Potter), discourse analysis goes beyond content to analyze language use as a social practice that constitutes and reflects power relations, ideologies, and social structures.