Biografía y relato en el análisis sociológico. La aportación de la escuela BNIM (Biographic Narrative Interpretive Method).

This paper outlines the epistemological and methodological specificities of the Biographic-Narrative Interpretive Method, developed in Britain (under the name 'BNIM') and Germany (where it is known as 'Interpretative Biografieforschung'). Based on phenomenology and hermeneutics, this method seeks to express subjects' past and present frames of meaning through the use of a non-directive interview. This interview is analysed by a reconstructive process that differentiates between the 'lived life' and the 'told story', and subsequently connects both dimensions. The main steps for the application of the method are explained through the case study of Adriana, taken from a R&D&i research project on immigration and the labour market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]