Narrative Analysis and the New Historical Sociology

Abstract

While many scholars assert the importance of the narrative mode in historical inquiry, none have demonstrated how it is used specifically to analyze historical events and social action in processual, action-oriented ways. In this essay, we examine recent research on capitalstate relations and urban development to demonstrate how political sociologists and urban sociologists are using narrative mode to examine the interconnectedness of human agency and social structure and the temporality of historical events in processual ways. We find that this newest research is utilizing narrative to generate new meanings of causality and to redefine the role of theory and explanation. We conclude by considering the implications of these developments for the future of sociology.In the last two decades, considerable debate has taken place over the meaning of causality, the role of theory, and the relative merits of narrative analysis in sociohistorical inquiry (Griffin ). In history, a paradigmatic shift is currently underway as textual deconstruction and the deciphering of meaning, rather than causal explanation, has become the dominant mode of historical inquiry (Appleby, Hunt, and Jacob 1994;Fox and Lears 1993;Koditschek 1993;White 1987). In historical sociology, scholars are increasingly moving away from the grand theorizing and totalizing modes of explanation toward temporality and narrative analysis. This "new" historical sociology is converging on a broad understanding that what demarcates the historical from the nonhistorical in sociological explanation is "the use of narrative mode to examine and exploit the temporality of social action and historical events" (Griffin 1992, p. 405). Yet, while many scholars assert the importance of the narrative mode in historical inquiry, none have systematically demonstrated how it is actually being used to analyze historical events and human agency in processual, action-oriented ways (Abbott 1992a). In this essay we examine two areas of recent research-capital-state relations and urban development and poverty-to demonstrate how political sociologists and urban sociologists are using narrative mode to examine the interconnectedness of human agency and social structure and the temporality of historical events in processual ways. Our objective is to show that the develop-"Direct all correspondence to Kevin Fox Gotham.

Fathering Occupations: An Analysis of Narrative Accounts of Fathering Children with Special Needs

“…Researchers in various disciplines have employed the illness narrative genre to examine the experience of illness and disabilities (Gotham & Staples, 1996;Kleinman, 1988;Lindseth & Norberg, 2004;Stoller, 2004). The illness narrative genre has been expanded to entire families that experience an illness through the child's participation in the family and the act of caring for a child with a disability (Lawlor & Mattingly, 2009;Mattingly & Lawlor, 2000).…”

“…com, a website associated with the Kindle, was used to identify books for analysis. Inclusion criteria included: 1) books published between 2000 and 2011 to obtain a contemporary representation of what people are reading and writing; 2) first-hand accounts, written in the first person, in order to obtain an ''experience near'' perspective (Geertz, 1974); and 3) books with co-authors (3 total) as long as the father was listed as first author. There were no specific requirements for children' s ages or disabilities.…”

Growth Machine Up-Links: Urban Renewal and the Rise and Fall of a Pro-Growth Coalition in a U.S. City

“…The advantage of a narrative analysis is that it joins sequentiality and contingency to highlight the transformative power of events and the role of human agency in explanatory accounts (Haydu 1998;Somers 1996;Stryker 1996, p. 307;Gotham and Staples 1996). My eVort is to situate social action and social structures in their historical and local contexts to develop a historical grounded sociological explanation of the urban redevelopment process occurring in time and through time.…”

Theorizing business power in the semiperiphery: Mexico 1970-2000

“…The analysis sheds light on the causal relationship between increased business power and Mexico's neoliberal transition, and extends historically-contingent theories of state-business relations beyond advanced industrial societies. 2 Scholars have recently moved away from debating the state's absolute autonomy from business and have increasingly accepted that the degree and sources of business influence over the state varies over time (Gotham and Staples 1996;Paige 1999;Prechel 1990Prechel , 2003Tomaskovic-Devey and Roscigno 1996). Doing so has produced theories that identify the historical conditions under which business power changes, as well as theories that synthesize perspectives previously viewed as mutually exclusive (Glasberg and Skidmore 1997;Hooks 1993;Leicht and Jenkins 1998;Liu 1997;McCammon 1994;Mintz and Palmer 2000).…”