Rethinking Life Stories in the Context of Civic Engagement: The Life Diagram and Its Potential for Ageing and Childhood Research

This chapter explores the application of the life diagram, a visual tool for eliciting insights and reflections on the life course, within the context of research on civic engagement of older persons. Employing the life diagram in studies related to ageing and childhood is subjected to critical examination. This analysis is underpinned by a dataset comprising 96 semi-structured interviews conducted with older persons in Spain and Belgium in 2022 and 2023, where life diagrams served as a supporting methodological tool. Three central arguments are advanced: (1) life diagrams emphasize the life course as a subjective process that is recreated through storytelling, (2) life diagrams enable us to rethink the past, by exploring childhood, (young) adulthood and future through reflective exercises and (3) life diagrams facilitate the exploration of life trajectories as socially, culturally and historically contingent. Drawing from both ageing and childhood research, the potential applications of life diagrams as a methodological tool for stimulating reflective thinking and giving space to narrativity, as well as the implications for life course research, will be delineated.