Narrative methods: an overview of my approach
This note is a summary of some of the main theoretical and methodological points from the literature on
narratives that I use in the study, and as such is intended to provide an overview of narrative analysis as a
mode of research. With reference to the initial analysis and the first interviews I've done, I then show how I
employ narrative methods in the study.
1) Narrative inquiry and methods
Because narratives order characters in space and time and presents a format for examining character
transformations it enables social research to inquire about the construction of subjectivity in depth. The
sequential development of a narrator's experience and position reveal her identity and gives an insight in to
the speaker's lifeworld. Taking narrative as a starting point for social inquiry and focussing on the social role
of stories in grassroots movements is a way of finding out more about how situated narration enable (or
disable) new perspectives on and actions in the world. I have previously explored this in both the research
proposal and notes for supervision discussions. Here, I focus on the methodological implications for
researching narratives.