Quantitative Narrative Analysis (QNA)
Roberto Franzosi, Emory University
[email protected]
18-22 May 2015
University of Trento
Plan of lectures
The seminar will be organized as a mixture of formal lectures on Quantitative Narrative Analysis
(QNA) and lab work based on PC-ACE (Program for Computer-Assisted Coding of Events;
available for free download at www.pc-ace.com).
Monday, 18/5 14.30-17.30 in Lab. 4 (School of Social Sciences, via Verdi 26 Trento)
Social science approaches to text: Content Analysis, Frame Analysis, Discourse Analysis,
Quantitative Narrative Analysis
PC-ACE lab work: Setup, Data Entry, Data Query, Data Analysis; Setting up the grammar of
data collection
Tuesday, 19/5 14.30-17.30 in Lab. 4
Quantitative Narrative Analysis I
PC-ACE lab work: How to enter data in PC-ACE
Thursday, 21/5 14.30-17.30 location TBA
Quantitative Narrative Analysis II
PC-ACE lab work: Querying data
Friday, 22/5 14.30-17.30 in Lab. 4
Beyond narrative: Can rhetoric help?
PC-ACE lab work: Analyzing and visualizing data (network models, GIS models)
Seminar description
Abstract. What’s in a text? The seminar tries to provide an answer to that question, tracing the
main approaches to texts developed in the social sciences: content analysis, frame analysis,
discourse analysis, and quantitative narrative analysis. The focus will be on Quantitative
Narrative Analysis (QNA) with lab applications for the software developed to carry out QNA:
PC-ACE (Program for Computer-Assisted Coding of Events). The seminar will also entertain the
question whether rhetoric can help social scientists in their analyses of texts.
QNA. Quantitative Narrative Analysis or QNA is a methodological approach to texts that allows
researchers to structure the information contained in narrative texts in ways that make possible a
statistical analysis of the information. The approach exploits the invariant linguistic structural
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properties of narrative (namely, the chronological sequential order of narrative clauses and their
simple linguistic structure SVO, or Subject-Verb-Object. In narrative, Subjects are typically
social actors, Verbs are social actions, and Objects are either social actors or physical objects.
Each SVO element can also have attributes, namely, the characteristics of both Subject and
Object, such as the name, organization, or type of actor, and the circumstances of action, such as
time and space, or reason and outcome. The SVO and their attributes provide an invariant
structure of narrative also known as “story grammar,” roughly corresponding to the 5 W’s and H
of journalism (Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How).
Unfortunately, a story grammar approach to texts is too complex for a pencil and paper
environment. It requires the aid of computer software. The seminar will show how to carry out
QNA in PC-ACE (PC-ACE, Program for Computer-Assisted Coding of Events), a program
specifically designed for QNA. When implemented in a computer environment in a relational
database system, a story grammar allows researchers to collect narrative information from
perhaps thousands of narratives. The comparative analysis of the elements of these thousands of
narratives can then be carried out with the help of cutting-edge network and Geographic
Information System tools – tools fundamentally based on actors, actions, time, and space. The
approach thus combines quality and quantity, the narrative depth of case studies and the
generalization afforded by large numbers.
To illustrate the power of the approach, data from two of the course convener’s projects will be
used: 1. the rise of Italian fascism (1919-1922) (50,000 newspaper articles coded yielding some
250,000 SVO clauses); 2. lynchings in Georgia (1875-1930) (1,300 articles coded for some
7,000 clauses). These differences in the scope of a project amenable to QNA show that QNA can
be carried out effectively with projects that are appropriate for a doctoral dissertation without
necessarily the help of a team of coders. The illustrations also show that QNA is ideally suited
for the study of conflict and violence as taken from newspaper articles (or police reports), since
these types of articles are fundamentally narrative. But other types of social problems and texts
can be investigated (e.g., children bestselling books, advertisements, blogs, in-depth interviews)
for as long as these texts contain at least some stories.
In the seminar, participants will learn the difference between narrative texts and other types of
texts (e.g., analytical or scientific). It is these texts that expose the limits of QNA, since they do
not possess the invariant properties of a “story grammar” (or of the 5 W’s & H). To overcome
these limits, more traditional approaches to textual analysis popular in the social sciences will be
considered: content analysis and frame analysis. In both cases, however, the fundamental
principle of QNA will be stressed: Relations! Relations! Relations!
Required readings:
Franzosi, R. 2015. “Content Analysis”. In Ruth Wodak and Bernhard Forchtner (eds.), The Routledge
Handbook of Language and Politics. London: Routledge.
Franzosi, Roberto. 2014. “Quantitative Narrative Analysis and Analytical Sociology.” In:
Gianluca Manzo (ed.), Analytical Sociology: Norms, Actions, and Networks. Hoboken,
NJ: Wiley.
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Franzosi, Roberto. 2012. “On Quantitative Narrative Analysis.” In: pp. 75-98, James A. Holstein
and Jaber F. Gubrium (eds.), Varieties of Narrative Analysis. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Franzosi, Roberto, Gianluca De Fazio, and Stefania Vicari. 2012. “Ways of Measuring Agency
and Action: An Application of Quantitative Narrative Analysis to Lynchings in Georgia
(1875-1930).” In: pp. 1-41, Tim Liao (ed.), Sociological Methodology, Vol. 42.
Franzosi, R. 1998. “Narrative Analysis - Why (And How) Sociologists Should Be Interested in
Narrative,” In: pp. 517-54, John Hagan (ed.), The Annual Review of Sociology, Palo Alto:
Annual Reviews.
Franzosi, Roberto and Stefania Vicari. 2014. “What’s in a Text? Answers from Frame Analysis
and Rhetoric for Measuring Meaning Systems and Argumentative Structures.”
Unpublished paper.
Franzosi, Roberto. 2014. “Introduction.” Landmark Essays on Tropes and Figures. New York:
Routledge.
Basic references
On (Quantitative) Narrative Analysis
Franzosi, R. 1989. “From Words to Numbers: A Generalized and Linguistics-Based Coding
Procedure for Collecting Event-Data from Newspapers.” In: pp. 263–98, Clifford Clogg
(ed.), Sociological Methodology, Vol. 19, Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Franzosi, R. 1998. “Narrative as Data. Linguistic and Statistical Tools for the Quantitative Study
of Historical Events.” Special issue of International Review of Social History. “New Methods
in Historical Sociology/Social History” Marcel van der Linden and Larry Griffin (eds.), Vol.
43, pp. 81–104.
Franzosi, R. 1998. “Narrative Analysis - Why (And How) Sociologists Should Be Interested in
Narrative,” In: pp. 517-54, John Hagan (ed.), The Annual Review of Sociology, Palo Alto:
Annual Reviews.
Franzosi, R. 1999. “The Return of the Actor. Networks of Interactions among Social Actors
during Periods of High Mobilization (Italy, 1919–22).” Special issue of Mobilization, Ruud
Koopmans and Dieter Rucht (eds.), Vol. 4, No. 2, pp. 131–49.
Franzosi, R. 2004. From Words to Numbers: Narrative, Data, and Social Science. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Franzosi, R. 2006. “Grammatiche semantiche come strumenti di organizzazione e raccolta di dati
narrativi.” Rassegna Italiana di Sociologia, Vol. 47, No. 3, pp. 465–88.
Franzosi, R. 2006. “Approcci linguistici e sociologici all’analisi strutturale della narrativa. L’uso
della narrativa nella ricerca storico-sociale.” Rassegna Italiana di Sociologia, Vol. 47, No. 1,
pp. 37–60.
Franzosi, R. 2010. “Sociology, Narrative, and the Quality versus Quantity Debate (Newton
versus Goethe).” Theory & Society, Vol. 39, No. 6, pp. 593-629.
Franzosi, R. 2010. Quantitative Narrative Analysis. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
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Franzosi, R. 2011. “Quantitative Narrative Analysis.” In: pp. 409-21, Malcolm Williams and
Paul Vogt (eds.), Sage Handbook of Methodological Innovation. Thousand Oaks, CA:
Sage.
Franzosi, R. 2012. “On Quantitative Narrative Analysis.” In: pp. 75-98, James Holstein and Jay
Gubrium (eds.), Varieties of Narrative Analysis. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Franzosi, R., S. Doyle, L. McClelland, C. Putnam Rankin, and S. Vicari. 2013. “Quantitative
Narrative Analysis. Software Options Compared: PC-ACE and CAQDAS (ATLAS.ti,
MaxQda, and NVivo).” Quality & Quantity, Vol. 47, No. 6, Pp. 3219-47.
On Frame Analysis
Benford, Robert D. and David. A. Snow. 2000. “Framing Processes and Social Movements: An
Overview and Assessment.” Annual Review of Sociology 26: 611-639.
Entman, Robert M. 1993. “Framing: Toward Clarification of a Fractured Paradigm.” Journal of
Communication 43 (4): 51-58.
Entman, Robert M. 2004. Projections of Power: Framing News, Public Opinion, and U.S.
Foreign Policy. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Goffman, Erving. 1974. Frame Analysis: An Essay on the Organization of Experience. New
York: Harper Colophon.
Snow. David A., Burke E. Rochford, Steven Worden, and Robert D. Benford. 1986. “Frame
Alignment Processes, Micromobilization, and Movement Participation.” American
Sociological Review 51: 464-481.
On Content Analysis
Franzosi, R. 2004. “Content Analysis”. In: pp. 547–66, Alan Bryman and Melissa Hardy (eds.),
Handbook of Data Analysis. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
Franzosi, R. 2007. “Introduction”. In: pp. xxi-xlx, Roberto Franzosi (ed.), Content Analysis.
Benchmarks in Social Research Methods series (Quantitative Applications in the Social
Sciences). 4 vols. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
Krippendorff, Klaus. 2004. Content Analysis: An Introduction to its Methodology. Second
edition. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Variable versus Narrative Explanations
Abbott, Andrew. 1990. “Conceptions of Time and Events in Social Science Methods.” Historical
Methods, Vol. 23, No. 4, pp. 140-50.
1992. “From Causes to Events: Notes on Narrative Positivism.” Sociological Methods and
Research, Vol. 20, No. 4, pp. 428-55.
Abell, Peter. 2004. “Narrative Explanation: An Alternative to Variable-Centred Explanation?”
Annual Review of Sociology, Vol. 30, pp. 287-310.
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