Life story survey 

HDV

The life story survey deals with the construction of identities, and the aim is to describe, prioritise, and analyse the different types of social links that enable individuals to integrate into French society at the beginning of the 21st century.

In the life story survey, identity is the way in which each individual constructs a place for himself in society, enabling him both to integrate socially and to affirm his own individuality.

The survey gives the opportunity to look at different aspects of people's social life (work, place of residence, leisure activities) and the social links that they have established throughout their lives.

It starts from the premise that in order to understand how an individual integrates into society, it is not only necessary to have available objective information (professional situation, family situation, state of health, centres of interest, etc.), but also to take into account more subjective elements (how people feel about painful experiences, such as isolation, discrimination, etc.).

The life story survey follows on from the Geographic mobility and social integration (MGIS) survey of 1992 by INSEE and Ined.

The MGIS showed that it was indeed possible to look at the question of social integration using the statistical survey method.

In 2000, a prototype questionnaire was drawn up for the life story survey in consultation with researchers from the various disciplines.

Three series of tests were carried out. In particular, there was a pilot survey in 2002 of 800 people. This was a pre-test, i.e. a reduced model of the future survey to see whether the survey was acceptable both to the investigators and those being investigated.

The results of this experiment were positive. Improvements were made to the survey tools and the Life story survey was carried out in 2003.

Geographical mobility and social inclusion

Survey

Punctual or aperiodic