Historias de vida y Ciencias Sociales. Entrevista a Franco Ferrarotti.

Abstract

The autonomy of the biographical method, the interactive praxis of life stories, the participative character of the research based on oral sources, the proposal of reading a society through biographies, are all epistemological principles which theoretical foundations are in debt with the contributions of Italian sociologist Franco Ferrarotti. Chair of the Università di Roma “La Sapienza”, the author belongs to the rich tradition of Italian school of oral history, that from Gramsci, De Martino and Bosio has used the autobiographies as a privileged acces to the subaltern classes. His books Storia e storie di vita (1981) and La storia e il quotidiano (1985) are basic works for researchers using oral sources. The present interview gathers the author’s ideas about the relationship between life stories and social sciences.