Narrative as Topic and Method in Social Research

Donileen R. Loseke is a Professor Emeritus in the department of sociology at the University of South Florida. She received her BA and MA in psychology (California State University, Dominguez Hills) and her PhD in sociology (University of California, Santa Barbara). Her books include Narrative Productions of Meanings: Exploring the Work of Stories in Social Life; Methodological Thinking: Basic Principles of Social Research Design, 2e; The Battered Woman and Shelters, which won the Charles Horton Cooley Award from the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction; and Thinking About Social Problems. She also is the editor of Current Controversies on Family Violence (with Richard Gelles) and Social Problems: Constructionist Readings (with Joel Best). Numerous journal articles and book chapters report the findings of her empirical research projects, which have been on a variety of topics including evaluation research, social problems, criminal justice, social service provision, occupations, emotion, identity, and narrative and have used a variety of data generation techniques including field experiment, written survey, in-depth interview, ethnography, and document analysis. Among her editorial positions include former editor of the Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, advisory editor for Social Problems and Deputy Editor for Social Psychology Quarterly.  She received the Mead Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction and was the Past- President of the Study of Social Problems as well as Past-President of the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction.   

Part I: Narrative as Research Topic
Chapter 1: Conceptualizing Narrative for Social Research
Chapter 2: Empirical Questions About Narrative
Part II: Narrative as Research Method
Chapter 3: Narrative Research Foundations
Chapter 4: Narrative Research Practices
Part III: Narrative Research Practice
Chapter 5: The Story Character of the “Deserving Poor”
Chapter 6: The Story of the “American Dream”
Chapter 7: The Story Character of the “Dreamer”