Narratives in society, organizations and individual identities: An ethnographic study of pubs, identity work and the pursuit of ‘the real’

Abstract

Narratives play a very significant role in human social life. An ethnographic study within and ‘around’ a contemporary ‘real-ale’-based pubs organization shows narratives playing a part in the construction of reality at a societal level, in the negotiation of order at an organizational and family level and in the shaping of self identities at the level of the human individual. It is shown that narrative resources at these three levels of social reality come together in particular individual and social circumstances. In the process of doing this an ethnographic narrative about the ‘fall and rise’ of ‘real beer’ and ‘real pubs’ is produced. This offers significant anthropological insights into a culturally interesting aspect of recent and contemporary British life. In addition, insights are offered about processes of ethnographic enquiry and the potential for an ‘everyday ethnography’ style of research that ‘grounds’ theoretical work, without resorting to a notion of ‘grounded theory’.