In this article, we propose ‘narrative resistance’ as a potent and useful concept for both social work research and practice. A concept that attends to power and oppression, narrative resistance provides a platform for tangible applications to support people’s efforts to resist harmful storyings of their lives. The aim of this article is to provide practical guidance for how social workers can attend to and support people’s acts of narrative resistance. This is achieved by introducing the functions of narrative in people’s lives and its inextricable links to power; discussing ‘master narratives’ and their potential for harm; and exploring narrative resistance by articulating the role of ‘counter narratives’ as a means to ‘talk back’ to injurious master narratives. The remainder of the article outlines considerations, skills and tools required to enhance counter-storying efforts in the service of emancipatory change. We spotlight examples of narrative resistance in the literature to illustrate the pragmatic mobilization of this work.
AdamsPJTownsAGaveyN (1995) Dominance and entitlement: The rhetoric men use to discuss their violence towards women. Discourse & Society6(3): 387–406.
2.
AndersonIDohertyK (2008) Accounting for Rape: Psychology, Feminism and Discourse Analysis in the Study of Sexual Violence, London: Routledge Taylor and Francis Group.
3.
AndrewsM (2004) Opening to the original contributions: Counter-narratives and the power to oppose. In: BambergMAndrewsM (eds) Considering Counter-Narratives: Narrating Resisting Making Sense, Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing, pp. 1–6.
4.
BambergM (2004) Considering counter narratives. In: BambergMAndrewsM (eds) Considering Counter-Narratives: Narrating Resisting Making Sense, Amsterdam, Netherlands: John Benjamins Publishing, pp. 351–371.
5.
BambergM (2005) Master narrative. In: HermanDJahnMRyanM (eds) Routledge Encyclopaedia of Narrative Theory, New York: Routledge, pp. 287–288.
6.
BeckerH (1973) Outsiders, 2nd ed. New York: Free Press.
7.
BondurantB (2001) University women’s acknowledgement of rape: Individual situational and social factors. Violence Against Women7(3): 294–314.
8.
BrownC (2014) Untangling emotional threads and self-management discourse in women’s body talk. In: McKenzie-MohrSLafranceMW (eds) Women Voicing Resistance: Discursive and Narrative Explorations, East Sussex: Routledge, pp. 174–190.
9.
BrunerJ (1987) Life as narrative. Social Research54(1): 11–32.
10.
CareyMWaltherSRussellS (2009) The absent but implicit: A map to support therapeutic enquiry. Family Process48(3): 319–331.
11.
CarneyS (2001) Analysing master narratives and counter stories in legal settings: Cases of maternal failure-to-protect. In: FineMHarrisAM (eds) Under the Covers: Theorising the Politics of Counter Stories, London: Lawrence & Wishart, pp. 61–76.
12.
ChadwickRJ (2014) Bodies talk: On the challenges of hearing childbirth counterstories. In: McKenzie-MohrSLafranceMW (eds) Women Voicing Resistance: Discursive and Narrative Explorations, East Sussex: Routledge, pp. 44–63.
13.
DelgadoR (1989) Storytelling for oppositionists and others: A plea for narrative. Michigan Law Review87(8): 2411–2441.
14.
DeVaultML (1990) Talking and listening from women's standpoint: Feminist strategies for interviewing and analysis. Social Problems37(1): 96–116.
15.
FoxMFineM (2013) Accountable to whom? A critical science counter-story about a city that stopped caring for its young. Children & Society27(4): 321–335.
16.
FrankA (2010) Letting Stories Breathe: A Socio-Narratology, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
17.
FreemanM (2011) Narrative foreclosure in later life: Possibilities and limits. In: KenyonGBohlmijerERandallWL (eds) Storying Later Life: Issues Investigations and Interventions in Narrative Gerontology, New York: Oxford University Press.
18.
GaveyN (2005) Just Sex? The Cultural Scaffolding of Rape, East Sussex, England: Routledge.
19.
GergenK (2009) An Invitation to Social Construction, 2nd ed. London: Sage.
20.
GibsonAMacleodC (2014) Beyond ‘coming out': Lesbians' (alternative) stories of sexual identity told in post-apartheid South Africa. In: McKenzie-MohrSLafranceMW (eds) Women Voicing Resistance: Discursive and Narrative Explorations, East Sussex: Routledge, pp. 29–43.
21.
GulletteMM (2004) Aged by Culture, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
22.
HarrisACarneySFineM (2001) Counter work: Introduction. In: FineMHarrisAM (eds) Under the Covers: Theorising the Politics of Counter Stories, London: Lawrence & Wishart, pp. 6–18.
23.
hooksb (1989) Talking Back: Thinking Feminist Thinking Black, Brooklyn: South End Press.
24.
Kohler RiessmanCQuinneyL (2005) Narrative in social work: A critical review. Qualitative Social Work4(4): 391–412.
25.
KorobovN (2004) Narratives as drawn-upon and narratives as occasioned: Challenges in reconciling an emic and etic analysis. In: BambergMAndrewsM (eds) Considering Counter-Narratives: Narrating Resisting Making Sense, Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing, pp. 191–199.
26.
KossM (1985) The hidden rape victim: Personality, attitudinal, and situational characteristics. Psychology of Women Quarterly9(2): 193–212.
27.
LafranceM (2014) Depression as oppression: Disrupting the biomedical discourse in women’s stories of sadness. In: McKenzie-MohrSLafranceM (eds) Women Voicing Resistance: Discursive and Narrative Explorations, London: Routledge, pp. 141–158.
28.
LafranceMMcKenzie-MohrS (2014) Women counter-storying their lives. In: McKenzie-MohrSLafranceM (eds) Women Voicing Resistance: Discursive and Narrative Explorations, London: Routledge, pp. 1–15.
29.
MadiganS (2003) Counterviewing injurious speech acts: Destabilising eight conversational habits of highly effective problems. Journal of Narrative Therapy and Community Work2003(1): 43–59.
30.
McAdams D, Josselson R and Lieblich A (eds) (2001) Turns in the Road: Narrative Studies of Lives in Transition. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
31.
McKendyJP (2006) I’m very careful about that: Narrative and agency of men in prison. Discourse & Society17(4): 473–502.
32.
McKenzie-MohrS (2014) Counter-storying rape: Women’s efforts toward liberatory meaning making. In: McKenzie-MohrSLafranceM (eds) Women Voicing Resistance: Discursive and Narrative Explorations, London: Routledge, pp. 64–83.
33.
McKenzie-Mohr S and Lafrance M (eds) (2014) Women Voicing Resistance: Discursive and Narrative Explorations. London: Routledge.
34.
McKenzie-Mohr S and Whitmore E (2015) The ‘tell-ability’ and ‘hear-ability’ of intimate partner sexual violence: Attuning our collective ears to women’s resistance efforts. In: Violence: Children, family & society conference, Northampton, UK, 24–26 June 2015.
35.
MishlerEG (1995) Models of narrative analysis: A typology. Journal of Narrative and Life History5(2): 87–123.
36.
NelsonHL (2001) Damaged Identities Narrative Repair, Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
37.
Noonan D and McKenzie-Mohr S (2012) Re-storyings: Opportunities and challenges in narrative care programming. In: Narrative matters international conference, Paris, FR, 29 May–1 June 2012.
38.
O’LearyVIckovicsJ (1995) Resilience and thriving in response to challenge: An opportunity for a paradigm shift in women’s health. Women’s Health1: 121–142.
39.
ParkerI (1992) Discourse Dyanamics: Critical Analysis for Social and Individual Psychology, London: Routledge.
40.
PlummerK (1995) Telling Sexual Stories: Power, Change and Social Worlds, London: Routledge.
RussellSCareyM (2003) Feminism, therapy and narrative ideas: Exploring some not so commonly asked questions. The International Journal of Narrative Therapy and Community Work7(2): 67–91.
43.
SmithLT (2001) Troubling spaces. In: FineMHarrisAM (eds) Under the Covers: Theorising the Politics of Counter Stories, London: Lawrence & Wishart, pp. 175–182.
44.
TedeschiRGCalhounLG (1996) The Posttraumatic Growth Inventory: Measuring the positive legacy of trauma. Journal of Traumatic Stress9(3): 455–471.
45.
ThrosbyK (2004) Negotiating “normality” when IVF fails. In: BambergMGWAndrewsM (eds) Considering Counter-Narratives: Narrating Resisting Making Sense, Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company, pp. 61–82.
46.
TuttyLRotheryMGrinnellR (1996) Qualitative Research for Social Workers: Phases Steps & Tasks, Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
47.
UssherJM (2006) Managing the Monstrous Feminine: Regulating the Reproductive Body, New York: Routledge.
48.
UssherJM (2013) Diagnosing difficult women and pathologising femininity: Gender bias in psychiatric nosology. Feminism & Psychology23(1): 63–69.
49.
WhiteM (2000) Reflections on Narrative Practice: Essays and Interviews, Adelaide: Dulwich Centre Publications.
50.
WhiteMEpstonD (1990) Narrative Means to Therapeutic Ends, New York: W.W Norton.
