Narrative, political violence and social change

This special issue is concerned with the development of the study of narratives of political violence and terrorism. While the concept of narrative has become increasingly popular among scholars in the field over the past two decades, this has not been accompanied by an active and critical engagement with its full ontological, epistemological and methodological implications. This issue proposes to view the extant work through a basic framework of three modes of narrative – as lens, as data, and as tool – in order to take stock of the progress that has been made to date and to facilitate the identification of remaining research gaps. Building on this framework, the six contributions in this issue demonstrate how the study of narratives of political violence and terrorism may be advanced. This is done, in particular, through a focus on narrative's value for understanding social and political change, as well as an emphasis on developing interdisciplinary and methodologically innovative approaches.