‘What is the hook?’ she said, ‘what is the story?’
As I tried to come up with a semi-intelligent answer for the grant officer at the NEH (National Endowment for the Arts), I realized I never thought of the project as a “story.” Well, this is not too surprising, as we are not in the business of storytelling in social science research. Usually we are trying to establish credibility and objectivity by establishing distance from our subjects, even as we criticize these methodologies. At most we try to conjure up titles to grab your attention in our articles or conference presentations.
“I’ve never let anyone hold the kids while they’ve got the ciggies: moral tales of maternal smoking practices” comes to mind ***
