Making Sense of Stories: A Rhetorical Approach to Narrative Analysis

2004 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 147-170 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. S. Feldman
Keyword(s):  
Narrative Analysis ◽  
Making Sense

‘It's Different Now’: A Narrative Analysis of Recent Irish Migrants Making Sense of Migration and Comparing Themselves with Previous Waves of Migrants

2015 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 114-132 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louise Ryan
Keyword(s):  
Narrative Analysis ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Economic Recession ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Young Professionals ◽  
The Past ◽  
Shared Experiences ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
Mind Set ◽  
Irish Migrants

The key aim of this paper is to consider how young professionals, who left Ireland since the economic recession, define their migration project – not just individually but also as a shared experience across their generation. Using narrative analysis and the concept of ‘speech acts’, I explore how these young people working in England talk about and make sense of recent Irish migration. In particular, the paper explores the extent to which the participants construct a sense of ‘cohorts’ to articulate their shared experiences and expectations as a ‘group’, ‘wave’ or ‘generation’ of recent migrants and, in so doing, contrast themselves with previous waves of migrants from Ireland. I highlight their emphasis on ‘choice’, ‘opportunities’ and ‘mobility’ in contrast to their image of the older Irish migrants as ‘forced’, disadvantaged and ‘stuck’. I suggest that this is not just an over-simplification of the past, but more importantly represents a device for making sense of the present. The paper also adopts a reflexive approach and situates myself as a researcher and an Irish migrant in the research process. In this way, I consider how my questions and comments may have influenced how narratives were constructed and shared as well as how I may have approached the analysis of the data through a specific socio-temporal mind set.

Drawing on knowledge: Visual narrative analysis for critical environment and development research

2020 ◽  
pp. 251484862097534
Author(s):  
Gregory L Simon ◽  
Bryan Wee ◽  
Deepti Chatti ◽  
Emily Anderson
Keyword(s):  
Narrative Analysis ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
Visual Narrative ◽  
Critical Research ◽  
Human Environment ◽  
Visual Narratives ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
Environment And Development ◽  
Everyday Realities ◽  
Development Discourses

Counter-narratives to dominant development discourses are made possible using research methods designed to elicit marginalized voices. In this article, we propose a new analytical framework called the interpretive schema for drawings for analyzing visual narratives. The interpretive schema for drawings consists of five themes or interpretive lenses ( scale, centrality, inclusion, connections, and relationality) that were generated from maps of fuelwood collection in rural India. We suggest that the interpretive schema reflects and animates a range of spatialities that are central to geographic studies of human–environment dynamics. Using the interpretive schema for drawings in this way enables us to emphasize emic socio-spatial perspectives, and offers a critical research avenue through which everyday realities can be represented, understood, and validated. While other image-based research approaches, critical cartographies and participatory mapping exercises may encourage the expression of alternative knowledges, our proposed interpretive schema for drawing presents a specific set of guidelines for interpreting and making sense of visual narratives through explicit socio-spatial analysis.

scholarly journals Making Sense of the Unknown: A Narrative Analysis of COVID-19 Stories as Told by WSU Research Students

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 183-198
Author(s):  
Alicia Van der Spuy ◽  
Lakshmi Jayakrishnan
Keyword(s):  
Narrative Analysis ◽  
Personal Narratives ◽  
Literacy Skills ◽  
Eastern Cape ◽  
Effective Learning ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
Analysis Methodology ◽  
Or Practice ◽  
Specific Concept ◽  
Research Students

Storytelling is an important tool through which to make sense of life experiences. Stories can be classified as personal narratives, historical documentaries and those that inform the viewer about a specific concept or practice. These narratives can be used to promote discussion about current issues in the world. Storytelling can thus be seen as an effective learning tool for students by providing a strong foundation in “Twenty First Century Literacy” skills as well as advancing emotional intelligence and social learning. This project used storytelling to gather information regarding people’s encounters with COVID-19 and lockdown, with specific focus on the Eastern Cape of South Africa. Employing a content analysis methodology, it attempts to analyze responses to narrative inquiry interviews about the COVID-19 pandemic as conducted by students, as part of their introduction to the methodology of research.  These responses were used to generalize findings, as well as to look at individual reactions that could bring light to, and make sense of the human experience of the pandemic within an educational context. Both negative and positive experiences were related by interviewees and students.    

Stories from the Front Lines: Making Sense of Gender Mainstreaming in Canada

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 208-234 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesca Scala ◽  
Stephanie Paterson
Keyword(s):  
Gender Equality ◽  
Narrative Analysis ◽  
Implementation Research ◽  
Social Transformation ◽  
Policy Formulation ◽  
Gender Mainstreaming ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
Local Actors ◽  
Policy Work ◽  
Micro Level

Gender mainstreaming (GM) is a strategy used by governments to promote gender equality. It entails integrating gender and intersectional considerations into all aspects of policy work, including policy formulation, implementation, and evaluation. However, its success in achieving gender equality and social transformation has been limited. Drawing on implementation research and narrative analysis, this article explores the micro-level dynamics and the local actors that help shape the character and outcome of gender mainstreaming. Using narrative analysis, we explore how GM specialists within the Canadian public service make sense of their role, and we identify the strategies they use to make gender matter in policy work. By examining their stories of isolation, disempowerment, and resistance, we uncover the administrative and political forces that shape not only the “space” for gender work but also the opportunities for individual activism and resistance. These stories convey how, by engaging in these micro-level strategies, GM specialists both challenge and reinscribe, at the macro level, technocratic representations of GM and of policy work in general. We conclude with some reflections on the insights that micro-level analysis and implementation research can bring to the study of gender mainstreaming.

“And in Israel we became Russians straight away”

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 404-426
Author(s):  
Elena Maydell
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Narrative Analysis ◽  
Social Constructionism ◽  
Life Experiences ◽  
Jewish Woman ◽  
Cultural Environment ◽  
Cultural Resources ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
Complex Process

Abstract Social constructionism suggests that identities are created through interactions with others, as well as the wider socio-cultural environment. This research employs constructionist narrative analysis for a case study of a Russian-Jewish woman who emigrated from Russia to Israel and then to New Zealand. Lara’s first two societies of settlement, Russia and Israel, seem pre-occupied with the ethnic demarcation of their members, which contradicts to how she feels “deep inside”. Ascribed an inferior identity in both, Lara provides rich explanations for her husband’s remark that in Russia they were “bloody Jews” and in Israel they became “bloody Russians”. While making sense of her life experiences, she articulates the complex process of changes and assigns positive meanings to her identity using available cultural resources. Her fascinating narrative provides a unique in-depth account, allowing for a better understanding of the interplay between such notions as identity, agency, and community across different cultural environments.

Collective Stories of Exercise: Making Sense of Gym Experiences With Disabled Peers

2017 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 276-294 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emma V. Richardson ◽  
Brett Smith ◽  
Anthony Papathomas
Keyword(s):  
Narrative Analysis ◽  
Peer Group ◽  
Narrative Approach ◽  
Disabled People ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
Group Data ◽  
Group Interviews

Using a dialogical narrative approach, we explored how disabled people made sense of their gym experiences as part of a peer group. Interviews were conducted with 18 disabled people (10 men and 8 women, aged 23–60) who had experience exercising in the gym as part of a group. Data were rigorously analyzed using a dialogical narrative analysis. Within their peer group, participants crafted a collective story that they used to resist disablism in the gym. The dialogical components of the collective story functioned to (a) validate participants’ experiences of oppression in the gym, (b) forge an unspoken understanding with peers, (c) craft a more affirmative identity, and (d) instill a sense of empowerment in participants so that they can tell their own story. This study extends knowledge in the field of exercise and disability by showing that despite the oppression disabled people experienced in the gym, they can create a collective story, which is useful for helping to promote and sustain exercise in this space.

scholarly journals Enabling Analysis of Big, Thick, Long, and Wide Data: Data Management for the Analysis of a Large Longitudinal and Cross-National Narrative Data Set

2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (10) ◽  
pp. 1629-1639 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kate Winskell ◽  
Robyn Singleton ◽  
Gaelle Sabben
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Behaviors ◽  
Narrative Analysis ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Cultural Meanings ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Communication Practice ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Cross National

Distinctive longitudinal narrative data, collected during a critical 18-year period in the history of the HIV epidemic, offer a unique opportunity to examine how young Africans are making sense of evolving developments in HIV prevention and treatment. More than 200,000 young people from across sub-Saharan Africa took part in HIV-themed scriptwriting contests held at eight discrete time points between 1997 and 2014, creating more than 75,000 narratives. This article describes the data reduction and management strategies developed for our cross-national and longitudinal study of these qualitative data. The study aims to inform HIV communication practice by identifying cultural meanings and contextual factors that inform sexual behaviors and social practices, and also to help increase understanding of processes of sociocultural change. We describe our sampling strategies and our triangulating methodologies, combining in-depth narrative analysis, thematic qualitative analysis, and quantitative analysis, which are designed to enable systematic comparison without sacrificing ethnographic richness.

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