Los Estudios Biográficos en las Ciencias Sociales del Chile reciente: Hacia la consolidación del enfoque

Abstract

The biographical approach emerged during a decade between the ‘20s and ‘30s in the school of Chicago as a way to introduce complexity in the studies about monopolized subjectivities, which up to then had been conducted using quantitative studies derived from the natural sciences. In Chile, during the eighties, this perspective grew rapidly in order to “lend voice to those without voice”: women, peasants and workers, among others. The article reviews the use of this approach in Chile, from a different social and political context, to contribute to the discussion of its pertinence and limitations for the emerging Social Sciences. The first part reviews the concepts, the schools of thought and the dimensions (ethical, ontological, epistemological and methodological); the second part examines what is being studied and how, and the treatment of the dimensions of time and change used in these studies. Finally, we contribute with an analysis of its limitations and benefits, in order to enhance and strengthen an approach that purports to include complexity in studies about subjectivity in Chile.