The turn to biographical methods in social science is invigorating the relationship between policy and practice. This book shows how biographical methods can improve theoretical understanding of professional practice, as well as enrich the development of professionals, and promote more meaningful practitioner - service user relationships.

Introduction Ursula Apitzsch, Joanna Bornat and Prue Chamberlayne; Part One: Putting the subject into policy and practice: Biographical methods and social policy in European perspective Prue Chamberlayne; Balancing precarious work, entrepreneurship and a new gendered professionalism in migrant self-employment Ursula Apitzsch; Considerations on the biographical embeddedness of ethnic entrepreneurs Maria Kontos; Ethnic entrepreneurship as innovation: Feiwel Kupferberg; Part Two: Subjectivity in context: The social subject in biographical-interpretive method: emotional, mute, creative, divided Andrew Cooper; A socially and historically contextualised psychoanalytic perspective: Holocaust survival and suffering Daniel Bar-On; Professional choices between 'private' and 'state' in Russia's transformation Victoria Semenova; Maintaining a sense of individual autonomy under conditions of constraint: a study of East German managers Ulrike Nagel; Part Three: Self-awareness in research and practice: Biographical reflections on the problem of changing violent men David Gadd; The biographical turn in health studies Wendy Rickard; Ethical aspects of biographical interviewing and analysis Kaja Kazmierska; Ghost writers: using biographical methods across languages Bogusia Temple; Part Four: Recognising trajectories of disempowerment: 'Bucking and kicking': 'race', gender and embodied resistance in healthcare Yasmin Gunaratnam; Biography as empowering practice: lessons from research Joanna Bornat and Jan Walmsley; 'It's the way you use it': biographies as a tool in professional social work Riitta Kyllonen; Intepreting the needs of homeless men: interviewing in context Karin Schlucker; Part Five: Biographical resources in education and training: In quest of teachers' professional identity: the life story as a methodological tool Marie-Francoise Chanfrault-Duchet; Narratives, community organisations and pedagogy Rosemary Du Plessis, Jane Higgins and Belinda Mortlock; Doctors on the edge: a cultural psychology of learning and health Linden West; Intercultural perspectives and professional practice in the university: what's new in Germany Lena Inowlocki, Maria Teresa Herrera Vivar and Felicia Herrschaft.