Mapping out the methodological tool-box for the study of immigration- and welfare-related political narratives in Denmark and Sweden

The article provides theoretical and methodological background for a research project that focuses on the discursive construction of the effects of immigration on the welfare states in Denmark and Sweden. The project explores how immigration and welfare are perceived and discursively “framed” in different ways by key actors in these two countries, which share similar welfare model but pursue different policies. Since immigration issues have been central in debates concerning the welfare state, the study focuses on immigration- and welfare-related narratives that emerge from political forums in these countries. It aims to understand the texture of narratives, including their structure and content, qualitative and quantitative features, their role in political processes, and their appearance in the contemporary modes of political communication. The study implies the development of a novel and interdisciplinary theoretical and methodological framework that is intended to uncover the complex nature of political narration. It includes the construction of political reality, narratives’ and reality’s mutual shaping and imitation, narrative’s reflexivity towards audience’s needs, interests and identities, and narrative’s appeal to polity’s different perception levels. In addition to unfolding and structuring the fundamental features of political narration, the study makes an attempt to deconstruct welfare and immigration discourses, and maps out the methodological tool-box for an empirical case study of political narratives in Denmark and Sweden.