Molly Andrews

Explores the ways in which political belief is developed and sustained throughout the course of a lifetime. Through interviews, it focuses on the lives of 15 British men and women, aged between 70 and 90, who have dedicated half a century or longer to working for social change and justice.

Ageing, Politics, Psychology

Lifetimes of Commitment

Corinne Squire

Maria Tamboukou

Written by an international team of experts in the field, the second edition of this popular text considers both the theoretical underpinnings and practical applications of narrative research. The authors take the reader from initial decisions about forms of narrative research, through more complex issues of reflexivity, interpretation and the research context. Existing chapters have been updated to reflect changes in the literature and new chapters from eminent narrative scholars in Europe, Australia and the United States have been added on a variety of topics including narratives and embodiment, visual narratives, narratives and storyworlds, new media narratives and Deleuzian perspectives in narrative research. This book will be invaluable for all students, researchers and academics looking to use narrative methods in their own social research.

Doing Narrative Research

Michael Bamberg

Counter-narratives only make sense in relation to something else, that which they are countering. The very name identifies it as a positional category, in tension with another category. But what is dominant and what is resistant are not, of course, static questions, but rather are forever shifting placements. The discussion of counter-narratives is ultimately a consideration of multiple layers of positioning. The fluidity of these relational categories is what lies at the center of the chapters and commentaries collected in this book. The book comprises six target chapters by leading scholars in the field. Twenty-two commentators discuss these chapters from a number of diverse vantage points, followed by responses from the six original authors. A final chapter by the editor of the book series concludes the book.

Narrating, resisting, making sense

Considering Counter-Narratives

Michael G. W. Bamberg

Narrating, Resisting, Making Sense

Considering Counter Narratives

Looks at how stories & imagination come together in our daily lives, influencing not only our thoughts about what we see and do, but also our contemplation of what is possible and what our limitations are.

Narrative Imagination and Everyday Life

Ivor Goodson

Pat Sikes

Ari Antikainen

In recent decades, there has been a substantial turn towards narrative and life history study. The embrace of narrative and life history work has accompanied the move to postmodernism and post-structuralism across a wide range of disciplines: sociological studies, gender studies, cultural studies, social history; literary theory; and, most recently, psychology. Written by leading international scholars from the main contributing perspectives and disciplines, The Routledge International Handbook on Narrative and Life History seeks to capture the range and scope as well as the considerable complexity of the field of narrative study and life history work by situating these fields of study within the historical and contemporary context. Topics covered include: • The historical emergences of life history and narrative study • Techniques for conducting life history and narrative study • Identity and politics • Generational history • Social and psycho-social approaches to narrative history With chapters from expert contributors, this volume will prove a comprehensive and authoritative resource to students, researchers and educators interested in narrative theory, analysis and interpretation.

The Routledge International Handbook on Narrative and Life History

Social scientists increasingly invoke "narrative" in their theory and research. This book explores the wide range of work in sociology, psychology and cultural studies in which narrative approaches have been used to study meaning, subjectivity, politics, and power in concrete contexts. The Uses of Narrative presents a range of case studies, including: Princess Diana's Panorama interview, media coverage of the 1992 Los Angeles riots, memoirs of the wives of scientists who made the first atomic bomb, popular images of gay marriage, and the effect of the "Velvet Revolution" on writing autobiography. The book brings together contributions from European, Australian, and North American researchers, indicating the diversity and potential of narrative approaches. The editors adopt a distinctive and unique psychosocial approach to narrative, and set the individual chapters in the context of three broad themes: culture, life histories, and discourse. The Uses of Narrative complicates, challenges and stimulates--it will be of vital interest to sociologists, psychologists, social theorists, students of cultural studies, and others who are interested in the relationships between meaning, self and society. Molly Andrews, Shelley Day Sclater and Corinne Squire are co-directors of the Centre for Narrative Research in the Social Sciences, University of East London. Amal Treacher is co-director of the Centre for Adoption and Identity Studies, University of East London. "...For us, the main attractions were the range of topics covered and the inclusive approach to theorizing. Albeit, this is not a book for the faint-hearted; if the reader is willing to engage on a variety of levels then it has a great deal to offer in terms of illuminating and opening up an expansive appreciation of the narrative turn.'"--Christine Horrocks and Nancy Kelly, Feminism and Psychology

Molly Andrews

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