Narrative's Moment and Sociology's Phenomena: Toward a Narrative Sociology

In its urgency to establish itself as a science, sociology missed the opportunity to nurture its narrative character that the Thomas and Znaniecki research represented. Another moment now exists in an array of contradictions inherent in conventional sociological practices and the increasing acceptance and sophistication of narrative work in the human sciences. These conditions contain the potential for developing a narrative sociology in which sociology's phenomena are seen as significantly constituted by stories and in which sociological work is seen as narrative work. This article examines those conditions for purposes of opening spaces that a narrative sociology might fill.