This 17-minute film captures a conversation between the users of two social science research methods, biographical interviews and imagined futures essay writing. Molly Andrews and Graham Crow describe their respective approaches, after which various points of connection and contrast are explored. Although one method works with people to look back while the other looks forward, the two turn out to have much in common, including the use of imagination and the need to make sense of people’s lives in broader social and historical context. They are different but compatible.

Academics in conversation: Professor Molly Andrews, University of East London (webpage: https://www.uel.ac.uk/Staff/a/molly-andrews) and Professor Graham Crow, University of Edinburgh (webpage: http://www.sociology.ed.ac.uk/people/staff/graham_crow).