Ways of Measuring Agency
Ways of Measuring Agency
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DOI：
10.1177/0081175012462370
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发表时间：
2012-08
影响因子：
3
通讯作者：
R. Franzosi;G. De Fazio;S. Vicari
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
R. Franzosi;G. De Fazio;S. Vicari
本文主张以行动者为中心的关系代理观，并提出定量叙事分析（QNA）作为一种有前途的方法来操作和测量代理。QNA通过利用叙事的不变的语言结构特性来组织叙事文本中包含的信息，即以可预测的序列组织的SVO（主语，动词，宾语）集，其中S是演员，V是动作。QNA提供的关系数据非常适合地理信息系统（GIS）工具，序列分析或网络分析。这些工具在对社会现实的社会科学解释中保持了能动性（行动者及其行动）的中心地位。将QNA应用于格鲁吉亚（1875-1930）的私刑新闻报道，将说明这种方法的力量。本文用另一种流行的社会科学语篇分析方法--语篇分析来补充这种定量测量能动性的方法。我们将依靠这种方法来说明如何使用语言和修辞策略来隐藏文本中的主体，以及这对测量带来的挑战（和解决方案）：我们如何测量不存在的东西？
This paper advocates an actor-centered, relational view of agency and proposes Quantitative Narrative Analysis (QNA) as a promising method for operationalizing and measuring agency. QNA organizes the information contained in narrative texts by exploiting the invariant linguistic structural properties of narrative—namely, sets of SVOs (Subject, Verb, Object) organized in predictable sequences and where in narrative S are actors and V are actions. The relational data made available by QNA are ideally suited for analysis with geographic information systems (GIS) tools, sequence analysis, or network analysis. These tools preserve the centrality of agency (actors and their actions) in social scientific explanation of social reality. An application of QNA to newspaper stories of lynchings in Georgia (1875–1930) will illustrate the power of this approach. The paper complements the illustration of this quantitative way of measuring agency with discourse analysis—another popular social science approach to texts. We will rely on this approach to illustrate how linguistic and rhetorical strategies can be used to hide agency in texts and the challenges (and solutions) this poses for measurement: How can we measure something that is not there?