The article introduces the possibilities of using the biographical method for researching the processes of migration on the basis of analysing the materials of the research project Maja ('Home/House'). Migration, the movement of people from one location to another, farther or nearer, brings along the change of home. While one's home is the symbol of stability, migration can be described as being the opposite of stability. Oral history researchers from the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the University of Latvia have continuously worked on the Maja project since its launch in 1995. They have repeatedly interviewed the residents of an apartment house in Riga and consulted their personal documents. The information collected in the course of the study deals with the period from the year 1936 (when the house was built) to the present day. The study approaches the life stories of the inhabitants as subjective social reconstructions of the past, which are interpreted in the context of the observed residential house and recent history of Latvia. The dynamics of historical conflicts and social processes that took place in the society can be traced in the history of the house. Upon the analogy of this house, migration processes can be identified and viewed in close-up. On the one hand, the house is characterised in this study as an actual property, material value and financial resource, and an important factor for securing material well-being. On the other hand, however, the regaining of and return to the house is seen as something that binds together the disrupted pieces of life and reemerges as the symbol of safety, stability, and the continuity of generations. The house is a spiritual value, an epitome of the past happiness, close people, and memories.
The article provides an overview of the collaboration of oral history researchers and life history researchers in Estonia with researchers from Latvia, Lithuania and Finland. This is an interdisciplinary collaboration, which has formed over the past 12 years and unites folklorists from Finland, sociologists from Latvia and Lithuania, and researchers of different disciplines from Estonia. The Estonian term 'pärimuslik ajalugu' (oral history) is dealt with in the context of the related concepts of 'oral history' and 'life history research' ('biographical method'). The article focuses on the points of convergence and differences in methods, terminology, and research problems, which have revealed in the course of the collaboration. It is shown how the research (from terminology to research problems) is connected with the historical dimension of the development of research on the one hand, and with the dialogue in a common space of thought, on the other hand. The article observes in more detail the confluence of ideas in the dialogue of the mentioned collaboration space; these are grouped into the categories 'oral', 'written', and 'event', and represent a combination of experience, reality, and expression.
Oral history traditionally involves the research of oral interviews. The article raises the question of how the starting points of research change when memories are not told in an oral interview but are presented in written form. Finnish oral history research tradition involves collecting material by means of open competitions, in the course of which voluntary contributors send their written memories to the archive. Relying on experience derived from the study of written texts, the author first analyses how both the 'situation of remembering' and the 'instrument' for recording memories affect the process of remembering. The article introduces two methods that permit the systematisation of heterogeneous text material obtained as a result of memoir writing competitions. Extended genre analysis gives the researcher an opportunity to describe literary features that are characteristic of the texts. The form that the writer has selected also provides clues about how to interpret the content and information about the writer's attitude towards his or her task. The article observes the multiple themes in the text by employing narrative analysis. Writing competitions are usually targeted at the general public. Contributions sent to the competition can be associated with different communities. Therefore the collected material can be quite sporadic, which is not characteristic of oral interview texts recorded in a community of researcher's choice. The texts of writing competitions enable researchers to determine the range of approaches and points of view rather than to study the beliefs of a specific community.
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