Pre-Conference Workshop

XVII International Congress for Cross-Cultural Psychology

Friday, July 30th and Sunday, August 1st, 2004

8:00 am - 11:30 +  2:00 pm - 5:30 pm

 TWO FULL DAYS WORKSHOP

NARRATIVE ANALYSIS: How to work with narrative data - with Michael Bamberg, PhD, Professor of Psychology, Clark University

The aim of this workshop is to learn how to work with narrative data. The focus will be on narratives in interaction, and their use in ‘Cultural Identity Work’. This workshop targets researchers in the social sciences who are interested in the analysis of particular social (and personal) phenomena; who are using stories and story-telling as tools to analyze these phenomena; and who approach social phenomena as experiential and cultural phenomena through the lens of personal experience and identity-formation (development). The focus is on the analysis of narratives as ‘ordering devices’ for the world that is depicted within the story (characters in the ‘there + then’); the world of the interaction (characters in the ‘here + now’); and the formation of a sense of self (and identity). This two-day workshop will give a broad theoretical introduction, with several examples on issues of ‘adolescence’ and ‘gender’, and a second unit in which there will be time to discuss projects of the participants and work on some data that the participants have brought along and/or generated during our introductions.  

Workshop Contents
The focus of this particular workshop is on narratives in interaction, i.e., the ‘Cultural Identity Work’ that is done in the course of giving accounts by telling stories.

FRIDAY MORNING: We will start with a broad outline of how and why cultural phenomena can be researched by narrative methods. However, before that, we will get to know each other and record our personal stories of introduction (in English).

FRIDAY AFTERNOON: TWO exercises with stories from two video clips. The transcripts can be found under TRANSCRIPT  1 and TRANSCRIPT  2

small EXERCISE between Friday + Sunday: Transcribe your personal story of your introduction

SUNDAY MORNING: Two exercises with video clips. The transcripts can be found under TRANSCRIPT 3 and TRANSCRIPT 4   We also will begin to discuss other projects of how to work with narrative data.

SUNDAY AFTERNOON: We will work with the recorded stories (of your friend or relative on how they transited from child to grown-up) you brought along <see below for more information> and your personal stories of introduction, discuss other projects, and end with a final wrap-up.

In case you would like to discuss parts of your ongoing projects, please feel free to contact me (mbamberg@clarku.edu) in the next few days <before the workshop>, so we will be able to accommodate as many projects as possible.

 

Workshop Material
In the course of the two full days we will discuss four transcripts (apart from your own material (green + red):
<<click on the purple links <below or above> and you will be able to read or print out your copy of the transcript>>

 

n      TRANSCRIPT  1     The Davie Hogan Story 

o       A story shared by four 12-year-old boys around the campfire form the movie Stand By Me (Rob Reiner, 1982)  This is a story about SOMEONE ELSE (= not a story that thematizes the self of the speaker)

  

n      TRANSCRIPT  2         Betty tells her Story

o       A twenty-minute segment consisting of two stories of the same events told by Betty to the camera/film maker (Liane Brendon, 1972) (In these two stories Betty thematizes the fact that she lost her dress; AND in the course of her story thematizes ‘herself’)

 

n     Pre-Teenagers narrative interactions

·         “Small Stories” – shared in discussion groups and everyday interactions – mainly about others (here ‘girls’) but thereby also (indirectly) about <or: reflecting back on> themselves

TRANSCRIPT  3 (four ten-year-olds discussing why girls are “disgusting”)

and

TRANSCRIPT  4 (two thirteen-year-olds discussing why it is okay to ‘tease girls’)

 

HOW TO PREPARE (TWO Assignments - one in green, the other in red - if you have color):

ASSIGNMENT 1: In preparation for the workshop, please collect ONE story in your native language before you come to the workshop. RECORD the story of a friend or relative on his/her ‘growing up’ or ‘becoming adult’. You may start the interview with “How do you define yourself in terms of a ‘grown-up, adult person” (and in case your friend/relative looks puzzled, follow up with a brief explanation WHY you are doing this interview, and that the purpose of it is to collect a personal account of ‘how we grow up and become ‘ourselves’ in our native cultures’. Within the course of the interview try to encourage the interviewee to give a PERSONAL account of an episode or story that BEST captures and exemplifies his/her experience of transiting from childhood to becoming an adult.. Do not transcribe the full interview but pick ONE (short) story that you find interesting., transcribe it and begin to think about how to gloss it in English.

ASSIGNMENT 2: Please prepare a short statement in English as your personal introduction for our first meeting. Do NOT write this down – just THINK about how you would like to “come across” Friday morning when we first meet (=“Who am I?” or “What is my identity?”). <<This is NO test; so don’t be nervous about it!!!>>

            If you have extra time and you feel your English is probably a little bit rusty, please don’t hesitate to familiarize yourself with the transcripts we will use as exercises. If you click on the purple links <above OR below>, you will find the transcripts.

 Transcript I             Transcript II            Transcript 3           Transcript 4

                                                              

 

MATERIAL USED