Narrative Networks

Brian Alleyne is a sociologist interested in social movements, information technology, and ethnographic and narrative research methods. He worked as a computer programmer before studying sociology and development studies at the University of the West Indies. After a period in New York, where he studied sociology at the CUNY Graduate Center and then worked as a research assistant at the CLR James Institute, he moved to the United Kingdom. He gained a PhD in Social Anthropology from the University of Cambridge in 1999 and began teaching sociology at Goldsmiths in that same year. For some years, he was a volunteer at the George Padmore Institute, in Finsbury Park, North London. That Institute is made up of a collective of activists, writers, and activists about whose work he wrote a book, Radicals Against Race (Berg, 2002), which was awarded the British Sociological Association's Philip Abrams Memorial Prize for the best new single-authored sociological text published in 2002. More recently he published Narrative Networks: Storied Approaches in a Digital Age (Sage 2015). He maintains his interest in new technologies by hacking code and exploring Linux and other Free Software, and considers himself to be part sociologist and part geek.

Introduction In the Beginning There Was the Social Explorer Narrative Ways of Knowing Analyzing Narrative Narrative at Work in the World Constructing Narrative Techniques and Tools for the Narrative Researcher CODA

In a context where both narrative research and analysis of social media are burgeoning, Narrative Networks achieves something new by examining the multiple ways in which narratives and information technology interweave. Drawing on his extensive experience of digital technology, Alleyne crafts a scholarly text that presents ontology, epistemology, literature and history in engaging and insightful ways. We are invited to think about the now ubiquitous everyday practices of interpreting and producing narratives across a range of modalities. The result is a text that inspires readers to think in new ways about narratives, invites them to analyse narrative texts available on the Web and, for those who wish, suggests how best to employ specialist software. -- Ann Phoenix It's high time we have a book like this. Brian Alleyne has managed to produce the best, clearest, and most comprehensive overview of narrative theory for social scientists I have yet to see. I wish I'd had access to a book like this when I was a student. It would have made my life so much easier. It will surely become the universally recognised go-to book on the subject. -- David Graeber The templates and examples are very concrete and up-to-date; a researcher new to this field would really be able to kickstart his work with them. Alleyne uses an inviting style of writing; in fact, just as he advocates in one of the chapters. I found many positive aspects to this book, and do not hesitate to recommend it. -- Ton van Oosterhout