This chapter focuses on narratives. The strategic resources people mobilized in the focus groups fall into three general categories: (1) those based on personal experiences or the experiences of friends; (2) those based on reading or viewing the news media; and (3) those based on fictional “experiences” such as those in movies and television programs. These resources are similar in that they generally take narrative form: they are stories told in strategic context; as such, unpacking their meaning in the group becomes a significant interpretive task for other members. Narratives help build...

This chapter focuses on narratives. The strategic resources people mobilized in the focus groups fall into three general categories: (1) those based on personal experiences or the experiences of friends; (2) those based on reading or viewing the news media; and (3) those based on fictional “experiences” such as those in movies and television programs. These resources are similar in that they generally take narrative form: they are stories told in strategic context; as such, unpacking their meaning in the group becomes a significant interpretive task for other members. Narratives help build democratic imagination by providing comparative cases: preevaluated, or at least self-evaluating, events that lend moral and intellectual meaning to new situations.