Andreas Witzel Author

Dr. Andreas Witzel is a senior researcher in social sciences and lecturer for interpretative methodology since 1976 at the University of Bremen, now retired. His major research interests include qualitative methodology and methods, occupational socialization, biography and the life course. In his position as director of the Bremen Archive for Life Course Research, he pioneered the institutionalization of a central data archive for digital transcripts of qualitative interviews in Germany and the development of approaches to secondary analysis of qualitative data. He did extensive research on occupational status passages of young people and published widely on related issues. His methodological and methodical publications focus on qualitative interviews, methods of analysis, qualitative longitudinal research, and the combination of quantitative and qualitative data. Herwig Reiter, PhD, is a senior researcher in the Department of Social Monitoring and Methodology of the German Youth Institute in Munich. Before, he was a lecturer in sociology and qualitative methods at the University of Bremen and at the Bremen Graduate School of Social Sciences (BIGSSS). He studied sociology in Vienna and holds a PhD in Political and Social Sciences from the European University Institute. His main areas of research include qualitative methods and methodology as well as youth and life course sociology. He is an editorial board member of the International Journal of Social Research Methodology. His articles appeared in journals like the Journal of International Relations and Development, the Journal of Baltic Studies, Forum: Qualitative Social Research, Zeitschrift für Soziologie, Journal of Adolescence, Journal of Youth Studies, and Educational Research.