The value of fiction for public sociology and within qualitative research is well established. However, questions about process remain. Drawing from three contemporary projects – a novel, a series of short stories, and a collection of micro-fiction – this article focuses methodological attention on how sociological imagination may be crafted in and with fiction. In particular I discuss the poetics and aesthetic form of a story: the language, mode of storytelling and voice(s) with which a story is told; and the imagery and sensory qualities which bring a story-world to life. By bringing conceptual considerations together with practical concerns, this article aims to extend the considerable body of work on the value of fiction for the production and dissemination of social research.

小说对于公共社会学和定性研究的价值是公认的。但是，有关过程的问题仍然存在。本文从三个当代项目中汲取灵感–一本小说，一系列短篇小说和一本微型小说-本文将方法论的重点放在如何在小说中以及在小说中如何创造社会学想象力上。我特别讨论了故事的诗学和美学形式：讲故事的语言，讲故事的方式和声音；以及使故事世界栩栩如生的图像和感官品质。通过将概念上的考虑与实际关注结合在一起，本文旨在扩展有关小说对社会研究的生产和传播的价值的大量工作。