ABSTRACT
One of the more important issues in narrative inquiry and the social sciences pertains to the relations between personal stories and collective stories. This chapter discusses the background of the approach and research to date and presents a comparative analysis of institutional closings in Detroit during the 1980s, on the basis of which author offers a preliminary conceptualization of narrative and social institutions. It also presents the data, includes a discussion of the closings of Hudson's Department Store and the General Motor's Fleetwood Plant as events located in an economic institution, followed by data on the process of the Detroit Arch-diocesan parish closings as events located in a cultural institution (religion). The inevitable and ubiquitous process of social change can be thought of as an ongoing process of beginnings and endings that make themselves felt in the various areas of institutional life.
