Stories Changing Lives analyzes the strong significance of personal stories for social change. The book brings to the fore the multimodalities of narratives; the value of multiple stories, genres, positions, and intersectionalities; and the interdisciplinarity, historical reach, and transnationalism of narrative research.

Chapter 1: The Personal is Political: The Social Justice Functions of Stories Elliot Mishler and Corinne Squire Chapter 2: The Mystery of the Dangerous Book Molly Andrews Chapter 3: Using Narrative Analysis to Inform About Female and Male Sexual Victimization Jennifer O'Mahoney and Irina Anderson Chapter 4: Changing Lives in Unanticipated Ways? Disagreements About Racialized Responsibilities and Ethical Entanglements in Joint Analysis of Narrative Stories Ann Phoenix Chapter 5: Hidden From View: Some Written Accounts of Community Activism Michael Murray Chapter 6: The Power of Bearing Wit(h)ness: Intergenerational Storytelling About Racial Violence, Healing And Resistance Alisa Del Tufo, Michelle Fine, Loren Cahill, Chinyere Okafor and Donelda Cook Chapter 7: Living Lives of Resistance in Multiple Registers: Dialogic Co-Constructions, Genocidal Violence and Post-Genocide Transitional Justice M. Brinton Lykes Chapter 8: Narrative Subjects: Tense, (In)tension & (Im)possibilities For Change Jill Bradbury Chapter 9: Cultural Identities and Narratives That 'Race': Representations and Resistance in the Context of a South African University Shose Kessi

"Reading across the whole collection can suggest why holistic, interdisciplinary approaches are vital to the future of academic study. Overall, the book provides a necessary and practical development of issues that were identified. Each essay--and the whole collection--touches on the complex necessity of personal testimony in working toward social justice. Recommended. " -- D. R. Boscaljon, CHOICE "A timely and accessible book that opens up the complex relations between personal narrative and social change that will be a valued resource for students and established scholars alike." -Catherine Kohler Riessman, Professor Emerita, Boston University "This is a far reaching and innovative collection of original essays that highlight both local and global progressive political change. Taken together they show in close detail the radical implications of personal stories for changing both lives and the world. It will become vital reading for all students of narrative, politics and change." -Ken Plummer, Emeritus Professor of Sociology, University of Essex "Stories Changing Lives offers us a method, a theoretical lens of reading the social. The contributions engage the familiar and unfamiliar entanglements and connections of our lives and times. Entanglements that occur within contexts of racial, classed, gendered, spatial and other inequalities are examined with beautifully insightful vigor. Narrative's promise to understand and theorize for social change is presented in this collective of chapters." -Peace Kiguwa, Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, University of the Witwatersrand "Now more than ever, in our current historical moment, the importance of stories to effect social justice interventions, is indisputable. This book unites narrative and social justice research and is essential reading for all who work towards the social good" -Ronelle Carolissen, Professor of Community Psychology, Faculty of Education, Stellenbosch University, South Africa

Selling point: Illuminates the political significance of narratives and illustrates their ability to be effective means of social change Selling point: Directs attention to transformational postcolonial and decolonial agendas on both micro- and macro-levels Selling point: Provides a transnational collection of topics with research from contributors in Europe, North America, Central America, and South Africa

Corinne Squire is Professor of Social Sciences and Co-Director, Centre for Narrative Research, at the University of East London. She is also a research associate at Witwatersrand University, South Africa. Her research interests lie in narrative theory and methods, citizenship and HIV, subjectivities and popular culture, and the politics of forced migration.

Selling point: Illuminates the political significance of narratives and illustrates their ability to be effective means of social change Selling point: Directs attention to transformational postcolonial and decolonial agendas on both micro- and macro-levels Selling point: Provides a transnational collection of topics with research from contributors in Europe, North America, Central America, and South Africa