Coming to Narrative ― A Personal History of Paradigm Change in the Human Sciences

Reflecting on a 50 year university career, Distinguished Professor Arthur Bochner, former President of the National Communication Association, discloses a lived history, both academic and personal, that has paralleled many of the paradigm shifts in the human sciences inspired by the turn toward narrative. He shows how the human sciences?especially in his own areas of interpersonal, family, and communication theory?have evolved from sciences directed toward prediction and control to interpretive ones focused on the search for meaning through qualitative, narrative, and ethnographic modes of inquiry. He outlines the theoretical contributions of such luminaries as Bateson, Laing, Goffman, Henry, Gergen, and Richardson in this transformation. Using diverse forms of narration, Bochner seamlessly layers theory and story, interweaving his professional and personal life with the social and historical contexts in which they developed.

Arthur P. Bochner is Distinguished University Professor of communication and co-director of the Institute for Interpretive Human Studies at the University of South Florida. He is coauthor of Understanding Family Communication, coeditor of two influential edited volumes on interpretive ethnography?Composing Ethnography and Ethnographically Speaking?and coedits the Writing Lives book series. He has authored over 100 refereed articles and book chapters on personal relationships, personal narrative, and philosophy of communication. Bochner served as president of the National Communication Association in 2008 and has won numerous awards for his teaching and research.