Regional Identity from the Perspective of Oral History

The publication is devoted to the study of the regional identity by a method of oral history, a biographical study. The said method is acquiring an ever greater importance in the modern social research. Regional peculiarities are manifested as social standards and models of social relations in individual life stories. The study was carried out on the basis of the analysis of collections of oral history stored at the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Latvian University. The oral history collection has more than 2 000 individual stories, life stories, which were tape recorded in different regions of Latvia. Pursuant to the Juergen Habermas' thesis about the synthesis of the individual experience and the social context, specific manifestations of individual character that are of social importance have been investigated, such as: Local vocabulary, Dialects of speech, Topics of life stories, Real history. The reality - experience - story (Edward M. Bruner) give an opportunity to understand, through individual stories, the experience and reality not only in the life of an individual, but also in the life of the local society. The research and documents of stories and testimonies provided by the residents of the localities where the traditional life of permanent residence was discontinued are of a particular importance.