The article reflects on the issue of multiplication, de-actualization, and attempts at the neutralization of concepts in academic discourse. Two theses guide the discussion: (1) the thesis of changing conceptual frameworks and their (a)historicity, to which we as researchers yield to varying degrees; and (2) the thesis that biographical research offers an opportunity to transcend terminological and discursive limitations. The opening section of the paper, taking research on poverty and social exclusion as an example, briefly discusses the transformation of terms fundamental to this issue and their connotations, with particular refer
ence to the notion of the underclass. The author also indicates the importance of language as a basis for researchers’ self-identification and categorization and for their relationship with research participants. She draws attention to the context-creating, and sometimes content-creating, process of language “infiltrating” institutions and organizations and the impact of academic discourse on the reality of social actors. The second section of the paper addresses the extent to which biographical research, due to its specificity—including the special kind of relationship with narrators, offers opportunities to avoid linguistic entanglement.
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