All researchers, including those who research the life course, work in theoretical practices whose concerns are different from the practical concerns of people as participants in the research. The social relations of research production bring researchers' theoretical preoccupations – and categories – to bear on the process and outcome of the research, sometimes to the point of producing or re-producing particular subjectivities (Corker 1999a, b). For example, Mike Oliver suggests that in his research with Jane Campbell on the ‘disability movement’ (Campbell and Oliver 1996) ‘we were producing ourselves collectively as a coherent, strong and articulate political movement, and individually as proud and committed political actors’ (Oliver 1999: 188). By extension, the researcher is increasingly acknowledged as an active participant in rather than as an objective observer of the research process.