From words to numbers : narrative, data, and social science / Roberto Franzosi.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Franzosi, Roberto.

Series:

Structural analysis in the social sciences ; 22.

Structural analysis in the social sciences ; 22

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Social sciences--Research--Methodology.

Social sciences.

Content analysis (Communication).

Discourse analysis, Narrative.

Physical Description:

xxii, 476 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2004.

Summary:

This book offers a a way to analyze narrative data in socio-historical research.

Contents:

Before

The Ant and the Cicada 1

"It Takes Two to Tango": In Search of the Actor 3

The Lemon and the Grapefruit 4

Of Journeys and Alchemies 5

"The Law of Genre" 8

"Methodological Pestilence" 11

An Antiquarian in a Modern World 14

Breaking the Law 18

Of Prefaces and Introductions: Guidebook for the Journey 20

Part I From Words to Numbers: A Journey

Chapter 1 "In the Beginning Was the Word" 29

"In the Beginning Was the Word" 29

Content Analysis: "Objective, Systematic, and Quantitative" 32

From Event Counts to Event Characteristics 35

Turning to Linguistics for Help 40

Syntax Grammar 41

Semantic Text Grammar 43

Psychologists' Story Grammars 45

A Story Grammar for Sociohistorical Research 47

Examples of Coding 52

Running into Problems with Story Grammars 54

Narrative Discourse 55

What Have We Gained? 59

Chapter 2 Ars Memoriae 62

The Artificial Art of Memory: The Old and the New 62

Database Design for a Story Grammar 66

Computer-Assisted Content Analysis 69

Basic Features of the Software 70

Some Lessons from Cognitive Psychology 72

Reliability versus Efficiency 73

On Sampling: More on Reliability versus Efficiency 73

And More Lessons from Linguistics: Text Schemata 74

Data Verification 76

Navigating a Relational Database 79

Toy Examples and "Real" Data: The Test of Large Data Sets 81

From the "Red Years" to the "Black Years" (Italy, 1919-1922) 82

Simple Counts Tell Complex Stories 82

Stitching the Thread 89

Further Advantages of Story Grammars 91

Scientists' Bitter Fate 92

Chapter 3 "Everything Is Number" 98

"Friends of Friends": Grammars and Network Models 98

Mobilization and Countermobilization Processes (1919-1922): Shifting Networks of Interaction 100

"Everything Is Number" 109

Of Thin Threads and Other Threads 113

And Yet, What Do We Know? 118

In the Linguists' Tool Bag: Theta Theory 122

Of Beauty (and Science) 124

Journeys 131

"A March it Was" 131

Pilgrims on the Road 132

Voyages of Discovery 138

Ways of Seeing 142

Silence and Emphasis 147

"Journeys ... Magic Caskets Full of Dreamlike Promises" 154

Part II Looking Back: What's in the Numbers?

Chapter 4 The Word and the World 161

Founding Fathers and Disciplinary Mottos 161

The "Science of Sociology" 161

"Wie es eigentlich gewesen" 164

The Newspaper "Black Box" 167

Why, Then, Newspapers? Social Scientists' Line of Defense 171

Opening the Box: Behind the Surface of Our 1919-1922 Data 173

Silence and Emphasis Revisited 175

How to Go about Validating Data: A Decalogue of Rules 177

Further Rules: Selecting the Newspaper(s) 180

Barking up the Wrong Tree: Reliability versus Validity 180

Data: "Given" or Constructed? 183

Content and Form 187

Chapter 5 "A Worlde of Wordes" 193

Back to the Linguist's World 193

Stories 194

An Oxford Story 194

A Children's Story 195

The Moral of the Stories: "Where Is Anna Giulia?" 196

"The Body and its Shadow": Play, Aesthetics, and Language Games 199

The Language of Science 202

Poetry and Science 207

Heart and Mind 211

Dialoghi Italiani 214

Confessions of an Ass 216

Content Analysis Myths (Back to Silence and Emphasis) 219

Debunking the Myths: What Is Meaning? 222

True Believers 226

Modern Alchemists: What We Do with the Numbers 229

What's to Be Done? Alchemists' Recommendations to the Novice 232

Chapter 6 Journeys' Ends 237

Sta Viator 237

From Words to Numbers 238

From Thin Explanations to "Thick Descriptions"? 238

From Variables to Actors 240

From Synchronic to Diachronic Time 242

From Statistical Causality to Narrative Sequences 243

From Structures to Events 245

Unexpected Crossings 247

Sociology Meets History 248

The Centrality of the Verb (Linguistics and Sociology) 252

Sociology as the Study of Social Relations 255

Georg Simmel (1858-1918): "The Stranger in the Academy" 256

Von Wiese's "Specificum Sociologicum" 260

Simmel's Cash Among the Heirs 263

"Fatti Maschi, Parole Femmine" 264

The Feminist Critique 266

Memorabilia 270

Tales of Measurement 274

Tales of Horror 274

Tales of Pressure 276

Social Science Tales 279

Wars of Words 282

What Have We Lost? 285

"Garcon, l'addition!" Counting What? 287

Classification and the Numbers 288

Classification in Practice: The Secret of Secrets 293

The Words (and the Worlds) of Science and Metaphor 295

Tales of Time and Space 298

Faust and His World: What Was in the Beginning? 301

And After

"So Long as We Get Somewhere" 309

Poupinel and His World: In the Beginning Was Meaning 312

On the Road, Again 315

"Know Thyself": Notes on Reflexive Sociology 318

Origin and Originality: Limits to Innovation 324

"Murmure Againste Me" 328

Farewell to the Reader 332

1.1. Rough number of published studies based on content analysis (five-year intervals, 1921-1950)

2.1. A relational database representation of a story grammar

2.2. The skeleton triplets of the Romeo lockout lockout article in relational format

2.3. Frequency distribution of articles, disputes, and triplets in the 1919-1922 database

2.4. Frequency distribution of actors (subjects and objects) in 1919 (number of disputes)

2.5. Frequency distribution of most common actors (number of disputes)

2.6. Frequency distribution of actions in 1919 (number of disputes)

2.7. Frequency distribution of most common actions (number of disputes)

2.8. Frequency distribution of most common demands (number of disputes)

2.9. Frequency distribution of the most common actions performed by workers (number of disputes)

2.10. Frequency distribution of the actor "Fascists" (number of disputes)

2.11. Frequency distribution of the actions performed by Fascists (number of disputes)

2.12. Frequency distribution of the actors with whom Fascists "clash" (number of disputes)

3.1. Factor analysis of eighteen types of collective actions in the 1919-1922 database

3.2. Factor analysis of eighteen types of collective actions in the 1919-1922 database (rotated factor matrix)

3.3. Least-squares estimates of a regression model of fascist violence

4.1. Distribution of disputes from Il Lavoro by location of occurrence

2.1. Van Dijk's schema of news discourse 75

2.2. Plot of the yearly number of strikers (1879-1922) 83

2.3. Plot of the monthly number of strikers (1919-1922) 83

3.1. Network graphs for the relations of conflict and facilitation for the Romeo Factory Lockout article from Il Lavoro 101

3.2. Network graphs for the sphere of action of communication 102

3.3. Network graphs for the sphere of action of request 103

3.4. Network graphs for the sphere of action of conflict 104

3.5. Network graphs for the sphere of action of violence 105

3.6. Network graphs for the sphere of action of control 107

3.7. Network graphs for the sphere of action of facilitation 108

4.1. Plots of the monthly number of triplets with workers or Fascists as subjects or objects 175.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [399]-443) and index.

ISBN:

0521815207

052154145X

OCLC:

52197605