Pre-conference workshop

PhD and early career workshop

‘Narrative methods in health research’

27th June 2016, 09:00-12:00, room M2150

This workshop will address the strengths and limitations of narrative methods in the sociological study of health and illness, with a specific aim of helping social science doctoral students and young researchers working in the field who are undertaking narrative research to find their own answers to some of the methodological challenges inherent in this approach. The workshop will provide an opportunity for participants to engage in discussions about their and others’ research projects with student colleagues as well as with experienced scholars in the sociology of health and illness who will assist them as mentors.

The use of narrative methods in health research has grown extensively since the 1980s; both as an interview approach that gives the interviewee control over the direction and content of the conversation and the space in which to provide their own storied account, and as an analytical tool for eliciting deeper layers of meaning from stories of health and illness. Interest in narrative based medicine – allowing patients to tell their own account of illness as a counterpoint to prevailing medical models – has developed in parallel to the growth of narrative methods in qualitative social science. The growth in narrative methods has sparked debates over authenticity, subjectivity and what some have viewed as the imposition of a narrative thread onto disparate events and dimensions of experience. Calls for a more critical engagement with the limitations of narrative research have been countered by re-emphasis on the importance of allowing individuals to tell and retell difficult stories in a way that makes sense to them.        

The workshop will begin with a short methodological lecture providing an overview of narrative methods in the sociological study of health and illness and debates concerning the strengths, limitations and challenges of narrative approaches.  Workshop participants will then be divided into smaller groups to discuss a small number of current research projects presented by fellow participants. The workshop will end with a final plenary session to share the main points that have emerged from the group discussions.

Prospective mentors: The workshop mentors are established scholars in the field of sociology of health and illness and are involved in the Global Health Network, including the international Medical and Health Sociology academic associations (ESHMS, ESA, ISA).

Keynote speakers / convenors:

• Dr Paula Feder-Bubis, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel
• Professor Guido Giarelli, University Magna Graecia, Italy
• Dr Sarah Earthy, University of Hertfordshire, UK
• Professor Hilary Thomas, University of Hertfordshire, UK