Making sense of stories: A rhetorical approach to narrative analysis

Abstract

In this article we show how an interpretative methodology of narrative analysis is beneficial for the study of public administration. We demonstrate the use and usefulness of a method for analyzing narratives that is based in concepts from classical rhetoric and semiotics. The method allows researchers to make more available the unstated, implicit understandings that underlie the stories people tell. We show how we have used this method to examine our data about change in city administrations. This article is a step-by-step demonstration of our method of narrative analysis and an illustration of how this method can be used.