Biographic Narrative Interpretive Method
Lead Innovators: Dr Kip Jones
Dr. Kip Jones, is a published expert in the Biographic Narrative Interpretive Method. He has studied with Chamberlayne and Wengraf, originators of the Method in the UK, and published both on the Method itself and findings from his studies using it. The Method uses an interview technique in the form of a single, initial narrative-inducing question (minimalist-passive), for example, ‘Tell me the story of your life,’ to illicit an extensive, uninterrupted narration. This shift encompasses willingness on the part of the researcher to cede 'control' of the interview scene to the interviewee and assume the posture of active listener/audience participant. A follow-up sub-session can then be used to ask additional questions, but based only on what the interviewee has said in the first interview and using her/his words and phrases in the same order, thus maintaining the narrator’s gestalt.
In typical usage of the method, microanalysis of the narrative of the reconstructed life follows the interview stage, using a reflective team approach to the data, facilitating the introduction of multiple voices, unsettling and creating a mix of meaning and encouraging communication and collective means of deliberation. In brief, The ‘Lived Life’, or chronological chain of events as narrated, is constructed then analysed sequentially and separately. The ‘Told Story’, or thematic ordering of the narration, is then analysed using thematic field analysis, involving reconstructing the participants’ system of knowledge, their interpretations of their lives and their classification of experiences into thematic fields. Rosenthal defines the thematic field as: ‘the sum of events or situations presented in connection with the themes that form the background or horizon against which the theme stands out as the central focus’.
Further Reading:
Jones, K. (2006) "Informal Care as Relationship: the Case of the Magnificent Seven" Journal of Psychiatric & Mental Health Nursing, 13: 214-220.
Jones, K. (2004) “Thoroughly Post-Modern Mary" [A Biographic Narrative Interview with Mary Gergen]. Forum: Qualitative Social Research 5(3) Sept 2004. http://www.qualitative-research.net/fqs-texte/a5b6c7/04-3-18-e.htm 
Jones, K. (2004) “Minimalist Passive Interviewing Technique and Team Analysis of Narrative Qualitative Data", Ch. in New Qualitative Methodologies in Health and Social Care, F. Rapport, (Ed). London: Routledge.
