The investigators will use "quantitative narrative analysis" (QNA) to create a database of narratives from two diaspora-based Chinese social movements. QNA is a hybrid methodology involving aspects of in-depth qualitative research and large-N quantitative research. The methodology combines narrative theory, quantification, and computing to discover and demonstrate trends in very large collections of narrative textual information. The methodology, however, is still in its formative stages and is in need of testing and further development. In the present project, QNA will be used to create a relational database of narratives for comparing a religious social movement, called Falun Gong, and a secular, political reform social movement, the Chinese Democracy Movement. Quantitative analysis of the database will permit modeling of mobilization patterns: who did what, when, where, why and how. The database also will allow investigation of discourse patterns relevant to cultural themes and patterns of signification. By using Chinese materials, the project will both assess the generalizability of the QNA approach and adapt QNA methods and software to the particularities of Chinese.
Narrative is a universal form of human communication found in the widest variety of social contexts -- from ancient texts to contemporary blogs, from religious conversion stories to courtroom testimonies. Since so much human communication is conveyed through narrative, innovative methods to exploit narrative structures to draw inferences about social life can potentially find application in diverse areas of social research. The current project will use QNA to improve our understanding of both Chinese social movements and the intersection of religion and politics. The project also will advance the frontiers of computer-assisted analysis of communication. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this award will provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career.
Investigators used a methodology called quantitative narrative analysis ("QNA") to examine two diaspora-based Chinese social movements. QNA is a relatively new technique that seeks to bridge the gap between qualitative and quantitative analysis of texts. QNA is a method for transforming narrative information into numerically analyzable data, based upon the linguistic properties of stories. The methodology combines narrative theory, quantification, and technology to discover and demonstrate trends in large collections of narrative textual information. The methodology has not been widely used and is still in its formative stages. The current project has explored the capacities, including strengths and weaknesses, of the method for social science research. In addition, the project was the first to use QNA methodologies on Chinese language materials, which has extended the international reach and technical capacities of the method and its related software. The grant was executed by Co-P.I. Andrew Junker as part of his Ph.D. dissertation and thereby both contributed to enhancing the skills, experience, and knowledge of a young scholar and to the development of a valuable new work of scholarship. Dr. Junker used QNA to create a relational database of narratives for comparing a religious social movement, called Falun Gong, and a secular, political reform social movement, the Chinese Democracy Movement. The database reflects two years of experience for each movement and is based upon a total of 1,237 published texts. Data was coded using the "narrative grammar" methods of QNA and compiled using the software PC-ACE, which was developed by Dr. Roberto Franzosi of Emory University. The database has permitted modeling of mobilization patterns: who did what, when, where, why and how. The database also allows investigation of patterns of narrative representation that reveal how participants in each movement construed their contexts and devised lines of action. A major outcome of the grant was Dr. Junker’s dissertation, "Religious and Secular Protest in the Chinese Diaspora: Falun Gong and the Chinese Democracy Movement," which was awarded December 2012 and was recognized as Distinguished by Yale Sociology and Yale University. Dr. Junker’s multi-method dissertation presents an original understanding of how political activism has unfolded in two Chinese protest movements in the global diaspora of mainland China, including North America, Europe, and the Pacific Rim. The broader impacts of his research are both substantive and methodological. The dissertation makes substantive contributions to our collective understanding of the cultural sources of democracy, which are richer than prior social science literature has suggested, particularly in the ways that religious sources of political dissent may powerfully, if unintentionally, contribute to creating a democratic politics in a context of previously authoritarian relations. Dr. Junker, now a Harper Fellow in the Society of Fellows and Collegiate Assistant Professor at the University of Chicago, is in the process of publishing articles drawn from his dissertation and converting the dissertation into a book proposal and manuscript.
