The research literature on narrative has grown exponentially over the last 20 years. No longer the province only of literary study, the "narrative turn" has penetrated almost every human science: anthropology, sociology, psychology, history, and others. However, although insights about individual lives may be compelling, it does not mean that the "story" can "speak for itself" and still be a useful procedure. Is there a way that researchers can explain their analytic procedures or representational choices when they present a narrative study? Narrative Methods for the Human Sciences attempts to provide guidance on this situation. Aimed at providing the rigor needed to advance applied narrative analysis, Catherine Riessman provides an explanation and guideline to readers on: * Presentation of and reliance on detailed transcripts of interview excerpts * Methods for analyzing the structural features of discourse * Analysis of the co-production of narratives through the dialogic exchange between interviewer and participant. After completing this book, readers will be able to perform a narrative study that can be defended as a systematic form of inquiry and provide a criteria for validation of their narrative study.
"Cathy Riessman is the leading figure in narrative research and her new book is a delight. Covering basic issues of transcription and research credibility as well as visual data and engagingly written, it is a goldmine for students and researchers alike. If we want to make narrative research serious and revealing, it is to this book that we should turn." --David Silverman, Professor Emeritus, Goldsmiths' College, University of London "Narrative Methods for the Human Sciences provides an accessible framework for researchers -- to analyse narrative texts with confidence, empathy, and humility. --NARRATIVE INQUIRY "This is a terrific book. Cathy Riessman has an encyclopedic knowledge of this field and of the participants in it. This breadth and depth of knowledge is abundantly clear throughout the book." --Susan Bell, Bowdoin College "This book has been a great source of inspiration to me and my students, not only for its methodological clarity, but also for the spirit of social activism it engenders." --Ian Baptiste, The Pennsylvania State University "Narrative Methods for the Human Sciences is an essential starting point for both students and experienced researchers interested in using narrative analysis in applied or other contexts. Written with admirable clarity, an engaging style, and supported by detailed examples of analysis, the book outlines the main methodological issues and approaches within the exciting and fast-developing field of narrative research. Even researchers already familiar with narrative methods should find the presentation of thematic, structural, dialogic/performance, and visual forms of analysis a fruitful stimulus to new research endeavours." --Brian Roberts, University of Central Lancashire, U.K. "I just had to thank you for paving the path for us new and 'hopeful' narrative researchers. I have been a student of both your books on narrative analysis, and want to thank you for your guidance from your work, and also your latest book Narrative Methods for the Human Sciences. This work and the references you have chosen for us have helped me immensely during this time in my doctoral program, especially as I enter into the analysis phase." --Maria T. Yelle, nursing doctoral candidate, University of Wisconsin-Madison Narrative Methods for the Human Sciences provides a lively overview of research based on constructing and interpreting narrative. Designed to improve research practice, it gives a detailed discussion of four analytic methods that students can adapt. Author Catherine Kohler Riessman explains how to conduct the four kinds of narrative analysis using model studies from sociology, anthropology, psychology, education and nursing. Throughout the book, she compares different approaches including thematic analysis, structural analysis, dialogic/performance analysis, and visual narrative analysis. The book helps students confront specific issues in their research practice, including how to construct a transcript in an interview study; complexities of working with materials translated from another language; defining narrative segments; relating text and context; locating oneself as the researcher in a responsible way in an inquiry; and arguing for the credibility of the case-based approach. Broad in scope, Narrative Methods for the Human Sciences also offers concrete guidance in individual chapters for students and established scholars wanting to join the "narrative turn" in social research. Key Features Focuses on four particular methods of narrative analysis: This text provides specific diverse exemplars of good narrative research, as practiced in several social science and human service
"Cathy Riessman is the leading figure in narrative research and her new book is a delight. Covering basic issues of transcription and research credibility as well as visual data and engagingly written, it is a goldmine for students and researchers alike. If we want to make narrative research serious and revealing, it is to this book that we should turn." —David Silverman, Professor Emeritus, Goldsmiths′ College, University of London "Narrative Methods for the Human Sciences provides an accessible framework for researchers — to analyse narrative texts with confidence, empathy, and humility. —NARRATIVE INQUIRY "This is a terrific book. Cathy Riessman has an encyclopedic knowledge of this field and of the participants in it. This breadth and depth of knowledge is abundantly clear throughout the book." —Susan Bell, Bowdoin College "This book has been a great source of inspiration to me and my students, not only for its methodological clarity, but also for the spirit of social activism it engenders." —Ian Baptiste, The Pennsylvania State University "Narrative Methods for the Human Sciences is an essential starting point for both students and experienced researchers interested in using narrative analysis in applied or other contexts. Written with admirable clarity, an engaging style, and supported by detailed examples of analysis, the book outlines the main methodological issues and approaches within the exciting and fast-developing field of narrative research. Even researchers already familiar with narrative methods should find the presentation of thematic, structural, dialogic/performance, and visual forms of analysis a fruitful stimulus to new research endeavours." —Brian Roberts, University of Central Lancashire, U.K. "I just had to thank you for paving the path for us new and ′hopeful′ narrative researchers. I have been a student of both your books on narrative analysis, and want to thank you for your guidance from your work, and also your latest book Narrative Methods for the Human Sciences. This work and the references you have chosen for us have helped me immensely during this time in my doctoral program, especially as I enter into the analysis phase." —Maria T. Yelle, nursing doctoral candidate, University of Wisconsin-Madison Narrative Methods for the Human Sciences provides a lively overview of research based on constructing and interpreting narrative. Designed to improve research practice, it gives a detailed discussion of four analytic methods that students can adapt. Author Catherine Kohler Riessman explains how to conduct the four kinds of narrative analysis using model studies from sociology, anthropology, psychology, education and nursing. Throughout the book, she compares different approaches including thematic analysis, structural analysis, dialogic/performance analysis, and visual narrative analysis. The book helps students confront specific issues in their research practice, including how to construct a transcript in an interview study; complexities of working with materials translated from another language; defining narrative segments; relating text and context; locating oneself as the researcher in a responsible way in an inquiry; and arguing for the credibility of the case-based approach. Broad in scope, Narrative Methods for the Human Sciences also offers concrete guidance in individual chapters for students and established scholars wanting to join the "narrative turn" in social research. Key Features Focuses on four particular methods of narrative analysis: This text provides specific diverse exemplars of good narrative research, as practiced in several social science and human service disciplines. Offers guidance for narrative interviewing: The author discusses the complexities between spoken language and any written transcript. In the process, she encourages students to be mindful of the texts they construct from dialogues among speakers. Presents arguments about validation in case-based research: Riessman presents several ways to think about credibility in narrative studies, contextualizing validity in relation to epistemology and theoretical orientation of a study. Explores the differences between grounded theory methods and narrative analysis: The author clarifies distinctions between inductive thematic coding in grounded theory, and other interpretive approaches, and narrative analysis. Presents social linguistic methods for analyzing oral narrative: This text makes the approach accessible to readers not trained in social linguistics in part by providing rich examples from a number of different disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences. Employs visual methods of analysis: Riessman takes narrative research beyond the spoken or written texts by showing how exemplary researchers have connected participants′ words and images made during the research process. She also discusses other research that incorporates "found" images (in archives) in a narrative inquiry. This text is designed as a supplement to the qualitative research course taught in graduate departments across the social and behavioral sciences, and as a core book in the narrative course.
Provides: an historical overview of the development of the narrative approach; a guide to how narrative methods can be applied in fieldwork; how to incorporate a narrative approach within a field project; guidelines for interpreting collected or produced narratives; and useful guides for further reading.
Reflecting on a 50 year university career, Distinguished Professor Arthur Bochner, former President of the National Communication Association, discloses a lived history, both academic and personal, that has paralleled many of the paradigm shifts in the human sciences inspired by the turn toward narrative. He shows how the human sciences—especially in his own areas of interpersonal, family, and communication theory—have evolved from sciences directed toward prediction and control to interpretive ones focused on the search for meaning through qualitative, narrative, and ethnographic modes of inquiry. He outlines the theoretical contributions of such luminaries as Bateson, Laing, Goffman, Henry, Gergen, and Richardson in this transformation. Using diverse forms of narration, Bochner seamlessly layers theory and story, interweaving his professional and personal life with the social and historical contexts in which they developed.
"The literature on narrative inquiry has been, until now, widely scattered and theoretically incomplete. Clandinin and Connelly have created a major tour de force. This book is lucid, fluid, beautifully argued, and rich in examples. Students will find a wealth of arguments to support their research, and teaching faculty will find everything they need to teach narrative inquiry theory and methods."--Yvonna S. Lincoln, professor, Department of Educational Administration, Texas A&M University Understanding experience as lived and told stories--also known as narrative inquiry--has gained popularity and credence in qualitative research. Unlike more traditional methods, narrative inquiry successfully captures personal and human dimensions that cannot be quantified into dry facts and numerical data. In this definitive guide, Jean Clandinin and Michael Connelly draw from more than twenty years of field experience to show how narrative inquiry can be used in educational and social science research. Tracing the origins of narrative inquiry in the social sciences, they offer new and practical ideas for conducting fieldwork, composing field notes, and conveying research results. Throughout the book, stories and examples reveal a wide range of narrative methods. Engaging and easy to read, Narrative Inquiry is a practical resource from experts who have long pioneered the use of narrative in qualitative research.
Narrative inquiry examines human lives through the lens of a narrative, honoring lived experience as a source of important knowledge and understanding. In this concise volume, D. Jean Clandinin, one of the pioneers in using narrative as research, updates her classic formulation on narrative inquiry (with F. Michael Connelly), clarifying, extending and refining the method based on an additional decade of work. A valuable feature is the inclusion of several exemplary cases with the author’s critique and analysis of the work. The rise of interest in narrative inquiry in recent years makes this is an essential guide for researchers and an excellent text for graduate courses in qualitative inquiry.
Methodology for the Human Sciences addresses the growing need for a comprehensive textbook that surveys the emerging body of literature on human science research and clearly describes procedures and methods for carrying out new research strategies. It provides an overview of developing methods, describes their commonalities and variations, and contains practical information on how to implement strategies in the field. In it, Donald Polkinghorne calls for a renewal of debate over which methods are appropriate for the study of human beings, proposing that the results of the extensive changes in the philosophy of science since 1960 call for a reexamination of the original issues of this debate. The book traces the history of the deliberations from Mill and Dilthey to Hempel and logical positivism, examines recently developed systems of inquiry and their importance for the human sciences, and relates these systems to the practical problems of doing research on topics related to human experience. It discusses historical realism, systems and structures, phenomenology and hermeneutics, action theory, and the implications recent systems have for a revised human science methodology.
