Event Interviews: A Visual Tool to Study Shocks, Change and Adaptation

This article introduces a methodological tool for the study of change and adaptation: event interviews. Individual and family lives marked by constant change at both macro and micro levels, recession and growth, marriage and divorce trigger the need for adaptation. Understanding how these events shape individual experiences and trajectories requires methods that account for both time and context. Developed in the context of the project Child poverty and neighbourhood opportunity structures : managing on low-income in Barcelona , as a tool to study responses to financial shocks, event interviews combine timeline methods with resource identification to capture family strategies in response to key events. The tool assists researchers in exploring the interplay between agency and constraint, personal experience, and institutional contexts, providing rich data into adaptation processes. By structuring data collection around participant-identified events, the method facilitates a detailed analysis of resource mobilization strategies over time. Additionally, the visual timeline encourages participants to articulate emotions and recognize patterns, bridging emic (participant-centred) and etic (researcher-centred) perspectives. The article discusses the development and application of event interviews, illustrates their potential through cases from the project, and reflects on their methodological advantages and limitations. It concludes with recommendations for researchers interested in employing this approach to explore the dynamic interactions between individuals, families, and changing circumstances.