Narrative in politics and the politics of narrative

Abstract

This chapter explores the concept of narrative as it is encountered and deployed in the study of politics and international relations. We identify three distinct but overlapping ways in which narrative is used and understood: narrative as tools (deliberate techniques or devices intended to achieve particular political objectives); narrative as evidence (in which we reflect both on how narratives are a form of data and on the ethical and methodological dilemmas in classifying evidence); and narrative as method (in which we explore autoethnography and fiction writing as a form of knowledge production in the study of politics and international relations). In addition to introducing the growing volume of scholarship on narrative in politics and international relations, we hope to demonstrate the utility of the concept for a range of analytical approaches and forms of investigation.