Madness to the method? Using a narrative methodology to analyse large-scale complex social phenomena

In: Qualitative research, Band 8, Heft 3, S. 435-447

Abstract

Building on earlier research, two related narrative inquiry projects were conducted, concerned with Boer (later, Afrikaner) women's testimonies of their wartime and concentration camp experiences, and with commemoration of the people who died in these camps. Putting the design into practice, and the advantages and disadvantages of the approach, are both discussed. Overall, using a narrative inquiry approach for investigating large-scale complex social phenomena, in this case connected with the rise of proto-nationalism in South Africa and women's role in it, was methodologically and analytically problematic although interesting and instructive.