The Logic of Narrative Analysis in Comparative-Historical Sociology

• In Event: 41066 - Methods and Methodological Innovations in Comparative Historical Sociology

Abstract

Social scientists often present historical data and arguments in a narrative form. Yet the logic of narratives is not often discussed explicitly. Scholars who produce narratives normally do so without the assistance of any methodological framework. Likewise, scholars who read narratives usually do not consider them in light of any explicit methodological rules. Indeed, social scientists currently lack well established answers to basic questions such as: What is a narrative? What are its main components? How are narratives structured? What roles do narratives play vis-à-vis larger research goals? What are the benefits of presenting narratives?

We address these and similar questions in this paper. To do so, we create a new block narrative framework. This framework uses three-dimensional diagrams that have a rectangular shape (cf. the “block universe” from physics). We focus on the component units of a narrative and the relationships that exist among these units. We specifically decompose narratives into individual states of affairs that stand in conceptual and causal relationships with another. By developing the general logic of conceptual and causal relationships, we provide tools that social scientists can use for understanding and writing narratives. We see this effort as one step toward the larger goal of elaborating a full-blown methodology of narrative analysis.

Authors

• James Mahoney, Northwestern University

• Talia Rueschemeyer-Bailey, Northwestern University

• Ana Vedovato, Northwestern University