Narrative Ethnography expands the focus of narrative analysis to the broader realm of what is called narrative practice. Typically, contemporary narrative analysis focuses on the internal organization of stories. Authors Jaber F. Gubrium and James A. Holstein take up a new, yet related, topic: the social organization of narrative practice. Specifically, they argue that researchers must begin to systematically consider the contexts, circumstances, and resources that shape the production of narratives. The authors provide both the analytic and procedural dimensions of narrative ethnography. The title and term onarrative ethnographyo already is directive and the authors have been developing this vocabulary for decades. Other analytic terms form the basis for chapters and sections of the book: narrative horizons, narrative linkage, narrative editing, narrative space, narrative exposure, narrative control, narrative authenticity, and narrative embeddedness, among others. The book is organized into three sections. The introductory chapters of Part I develop in detail the rationale for, and historical background of, narrative ethnography.Part II focuses on various sensitizing concepts, their procedural contours, and related illustrative material. Part III is comprised of summary chapters that take up broader representational and explanatory issues, such as how to approach the study of narrative practice in relation to the challenges of postmodern, global, and postcolonial perspectives. Narrative Ethnography can be used as a main text in graduate research methods courses across the social sciences and human service professions in which ethnographic and narrative practice are emphasized.
Jaber F. Gubrium is professor and chair of sociology at the University of Missouri. He has an extensive record of research on the social organization of care in human service institutions. His publications include numerous books and articles on aging, family, the life course, medicalization, and representational practice in therapeutic context. James A. Holstein is professor of sociology in the Department of Social and Cultural Sciences at Marquette University. His research and writing projects have addressed social problems, deviance and social control, mental health and illness, family, and the self, all approached from an ethnomethodologically- informed, constructionist perspective.
PREFACE INTRODUCTION PART I. NARRATIVE REALITY 1. Stories in Society 2. Forms of Analysis 3. Into the Field PART II. NARRATIVE WORK 4. Activation 5. Linkage 6. Composition 7. Performance 8. Collaboration 9. Control PART III. NARRATIVE ENVIRONMENTS 10. Close Relationships 11. Local Culture 12. Status 13. Jobs 14. Organizations 15. Intertextuality PART IV. NARRATIVE ADEQUACY 16. What Is a Good Story? 17. Who Is a Good Storyteller? AFTERWORD REFERENCES
