Enrica Tedeschi

After the linguistic turn in Social Sciences, the investigation on how Sociology should be communicated has become a central issue for postmodernists. The choice of pursuing a narrative sociology is not inspired only by the new paradigm of communication. It takes into account the changes in the sociological field which affect the ways of communication, the relation with expert audiences and the self-representation patterns of this discipline. The theory of this essay is that, within the context of the ethnographic research on the field (in particular the Grounded Theory), the sociologist engages in practices which have a certain affinity to literary work, as he plays a role of storyteller and painstaking manager of the written material related to the collection and interpretation of data. In all the main stages of the research process Sociology builds theories and at the same time communicates its results by means of an articulated writing which should be treated with the greatest care and attention.