The sociological imagination and feminist auto/biographical approaches

Abstract

The development of my own 'sociological imagination' began when I signed on to study A Level sociology at my local FE college. The class was on a Monday and there were two TV programmes on later in the evening; one following a couple through their first year of marriage and another focusing on individuals who had survived in difficult circumstances. I'd rush home to catch them, watching them with new, enlightened eyes. In this first year of sociological study, I also became much more interested in the experience and consequences of personal politics and my exploration of and relationship to feminism also began at this time. Throughout my career I have engaged with sociological auto/biography in my research on reproductive and non/parental identities, working and learning in higher education; travel and transport mobilities and bereavement and loss. Additionally, feminist concerns have always influenced my methodological choices and my research and writing. In my teaching - which is always informed by my research endeavours - I have attempted to engage students in the exciting, messy world of research through a consideration of the feminist auto/biographical contention that feminist social research is in fact feminist theory in action. Thus, my argument is that research, and the teaching related to this, like life, is itself political and that it is important to reflect on this significance of this in all the work that we do.