Narrative Explanation: An Alternative to Variable-Centered Explanation?
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- 1 August 2004
- journal article
- Published by Annual Reviews in Annual Review of Sociology
- Vol. 30 (1) , 287-310
- https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.soc.29.010202.100113
Abstract
The nature of narrative explanations is explored as an alternative to the better established variable-centered explanations. Narratives are conceived as di-graphs where the nodes are states of the world and the arcs are actions (causes). Comparative narratives are understood as mappings between di-graphs. Ethnographic and historical explanations, where the number of cases is small and causality complex, may depend upon a narrative depiction.Keywords
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