Abstract

This entry provides an introduction to narrative analysis in the social sciences, identifying different theories and methods, and relating it to the recent history of social science research. It discusses narrative analysis’s contemporary value for social science research and policy and locates narrative analysis’s recent and older antecedents within history, literary, and cultural studies, art and computer theory, as well as in sociological, psychological, and anthropological research. The entry primarily focuses on the use of narrative analysis within the social sciences, be it in personal narratives produced by individuals or groups of individuals, obtained by researchers or studied as secondary data, and their individual, social, and cultural significance.