1 LIFE HISTORIES, EDUCATIONAL AUTOBIOGRAPHIES AND EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING. DR JOSÉ GONZÁLEZ MONTEAGUDO. UNIVERSITY OF SEVILLE (SPAIN) <monteagu@hotmail.com> (Journal article, published in English in: Educational Reflective Practices, 2012, year 2, nº 1, 99‐117, Franco Angeli Edizioni, Arezzo, Italy. ISSN: 2240‐7758). 1. INTRODUCTION. In the last three decades we have been living decisive transformations that are radically altering different sectors of human life. In economy there are new forms of production, distribution and consumption, characterized by globalization on a worldwide scale. The new forms of organization of all the economic cycle, based on information technologies and ruthless and aggressive management, have revolutionized the traditional concepts with regards to labor relationships. Unemployment, precarious employment, labor insecurity, low salaries and the delocalization of companies with profits have spread everywhere 1 . In the political sphere, in the last 20 years, we have witnessed important events: the downfall of the Soviet Union and the communist bloc countries, the loss of legitimacy in representative democracies, the crisis of the nation-state, the emergence of new focuses of conflict and violence, the development of the so-called preventative wars and the fundamentalist policy of War on terror, the reconfiguration of supranational political and military blocks, the increase of poverty and the growing political and military recovery of Islam from an extremist and violent point of view. Another important phenomenon, at the same time with economical, political and cultural dimensions, is the increase of migrations, favored by poverty in the countries of origin and by the economic and cultural globalization. The recent ascertainment of global warming is creating an even more acute awareness of the difficulties of our historical moment (Castells, 1997 & 2003; Beck, 1998). Advances in information and communication technologies, the transport revolution, and the irrepressible progress of biotechnological and biomedical research are placing us in a society that is different with respect to that of half a century ago. Cultural and ideological globalization produces a homogenization of awareness. Identity and cultural and leisure consumption are mediated by powerful and influential economical and media- based structures. The industry of awareness nowadays operates in a refined, subtle and covert manner. As a consequence of all this, socialization, learning, interpersonal relationships and identity suffer a process of strong reconfiguration in an environment characterized by reflexivity, uncertainty and relativism. In this changing socio-cultural framework, people are called upon to develop an intense work of biographization to give a meaning to their lives and courses. In the new setting of late and liquid modernity, people have to construct their courses with a greater degree of autonomy, and in a less traditional environment (Alheit & Dausien, 2007; Delory-Momberger, 2003; Gergen, 1991; West, Alheit, Andersen & Merrill, 2007). 2. ORIGIN, DEVELOPMENT AND CURRENT DEBATES OF LIFEHISTORY APPROACHES. Life histories, when conceived from a broad and holistic perspective – that is, the narratives of human beings around lived–out experience, with its various forms, procedures, aims and contexts - are consubstantial to human beings. They thus make up a universal anthropological fact that is present in all the cultures and stages of life in historical evolution (Vansina, 1967). As Pineau and Le Grand indicate (1996, 5-13), life stories are part of the daily experience of intergenerational and intragenerational transmission and of cultural life experiences 1 In recent years and in spite of having overcome the cold war period, there is growing uncertainty, lack of trust, pessimism and worldwide tension. The Twin Towers attack (11 of September 2001), and those of Madrid and London, the latest war in Iraq, the increase in the price of oil, the growing awareness of the threat of an ecological disaster if measures are not taken against global warming, the social and ethical implications of techno-scientific advances (particularly in biogenetics), the incapacity of countries and international organisms to solve the major conflicts, the increase in immigration within states ( especially the moving of millions of people from rural areas to the cities of the large emerging countries, such as China and India) and between states (in the case of Spain, some 5 million immigrants in the last 12 years), are all elements that are clear signs of the uncertainty that surrounds us. The economic, financial and real estate crisis of recent years has had, and is going to continue having, a huge impact. In the case of my country, Spain, the unemployment rate was in 2011 about 21% of the active population.