• Lynch, H. (2008). Lifelong learning, policy and desire. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 29(6), 677-689. doi:10.1080/01425690802423353

 According to Boltanski and Thevenot, individuals align with the areas outlined in different situations to make decisions – and beyond this to develop a general code of conduct that enables them to act upon the conflicting interests present in the course of everyday life. This conceptual framework was developed in order to understand conflict resolution. The stories from Learning Lives contributors are not the result of conflict, but the process of reflection results in a similar process of justification. The method of life history mobilises a ‘critical moment’ where there is ‘distance from the present and (a) turn backwards towards the past’ (Boltanski and Thevenot 1999, 360). Within the act of telling there is ‘an imperative of justification’ (Boltanski and Thevenot 1999, 360), where individuals are compelled to make sense of the life story they narrate. Boltanski and Thevenot’s framework places the individual and their story at the centre (Wagner 1999), moving away from:

… the perennial problem of sociology of being torn between a psychologism of action on one hand, and a grand historicism on the other. (Wagner 1999, 346)

When accounts of decision‐making across the life course are mapped onto Boltanski and Thevenot’s framework, some clear patterns emerge that illuminate the passions of individuals and the significant objects, relationships and events that affect these.