ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the use of narrative methods with people who have learning difficulties. It argues that sociologists should take their lead from historians by experimenting with ways of constructing narratives that allow more scope for the play of the imagination and for the use of creative writing as a research tool in its own right. The ‘excluded voice thesis’ postulates that narrative methods provide access to the perspectives and experience of oppressed groups who lack the power to make their voices heard through traditional modes of academic discourse. Textbook methods of social research discriminate against people with learning difficulties. Straight transcriptions of interview material may feed perceptions of personal inadequacy. The chapter examines the development of fictional forms of enquiry is intended as a practical response to the challenge of involving people with learning difficulties as participants in narrative research.
