Life history methodology has undergone a major revival in the last two decades but its impact on economic theory has been minimal. The dominance of quantitative methodologies within economics has precluded the contribution which qualitative approaches, such as life history method, can make to questions of human agency and individual decision making. Three case studies of working-class women in a local labour market are used to explore these themes, and to argue for the importance of incorporating social and historical contexts into our analysis of economic processes.
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