“Narratives are powerful. They can swing juries and elections. They can fill prisons. But they can also fill the streets.” —The Narrative Initiative
So, what is narrative change?
Society is built on stories. Stories—of our past, present and future—are the scaffolding of our political systems, social structures, and our own thinking.
The old stories told us things would only get better; if we work hard, we’ll do well in life; and some of us are better than others.
These stories—or ‘narratives’ as we understand them at PIRC—have failed us. Across the world we see wide scale inequality, climate collapse, societies built on individualism and extractivism, lacking care and community. Communities and ecologies who have survived generations of marginalisation and trauma are often the deepest impacted by these harmful narratives: racialised people, women, LGBTQ+ people, those of us who have migrated and sought refuge, and those living in poverty.
We need new narratives, to help bring new worlds into being.
At PIRC, we know that our social movements—led by folks impacted by their issues—are where the dreams, the alternatives, the new narratives are born. Throughout history activists, organisers, culture workers and communicators have worked to shift society’s broader understanding of itself, its values and its future: from the posters of women’s suffrage fighters; to songs of the civil rights movement; to banners from the picket lines of Welsh mining communities; to the public art of the Reclaim the Streets protests; to the social media story-sharing of the #MeToo movement.
The work of narrative change is already happening at the grassroots in our communities, but we don’t always call it by the same words, right? We can see it in movements like Black Lives Matter and School Climate Strikers; in the spread of grassroots collectives like renters unions; in the mutual aid groups that emerged during the pandemic; in the resistance to attacks on trans and migrants’ rights in the ‘culture wars’; in the public outcry and vigils held for women killed by men; in the growing public discourse over decolonisation, reparations, land access and rewilding.
CASE STUDY
One of the most famous examples of narrative strategy in practice is Martin Luther King Jr’s “I have a dream” speech. He told a story of change that challenged the dominant narratives about race at the time. His speech encouraged a better narrative—centring equality, justice and hope for Black people—to gain momentum, which was a big factor in making progress on rights and justice for Black people in the US. Through his dream and his vision, he inspired people to action, which led to change.
Some notes on language
Jargon-busting time!
These are the terms that we use at PIRC when we talk about narrative change work, and we’ve included our definitions here so it’s clear what we’re talking about during the course. We see story and narrative as different, and we’ve explained why below!
- Story is something that happens to someone or something, and has a beginning, middle and end.
- Narrative is the meaning-making, the gradual building up of worldviews, values and common sense through the collection of stories. (A bit like the individual tiles in a mosaic build a bigger picture when placed together*).
- Framing is what you do to trigger different narrative beliefs about your issue—whether that be through storytelling, direct action, campaign messaging—through your choice of characters, dialogue, imagery, what you say and what you leave unsaid.
Take a look at the first learning link below for a beautiful example of these terms in action—spoiler alert, it’s focussed on sharks, and we love it!
Why should we care about changing narratives?
“While narrative alone cannot win us real (practical/material) change, it is crucial to create the conditions to win.”—Centre for Story-Based Strategy
We’ll hand over to the wondrous Donella Meadows on this one. She taught us that it’s relatively easy to change practical things, but incredibly important to change culture. Changing culture is harder to implement (and measure) but hugely powerful for shifting the societal goals, beliefs and values that have maintained oppressive systems for so long.
To overcome the embedded systems of oppression and deep disconnection that we see at the roots of many of the issues we currently face, we need so much more than legal reform or technological fixes. The type of change we need is systemic, sustainable culture change. This requires deep shifts in public mindset: Changes in our relationship to power, in how we define ourselves and those around us, and in how we view the natural world and our economic systems.
This means we need to change public and political discourse: the stories we tell ourselves. We can easily get trapped in stories that restrict the possibility for change. New stories require new ways of thinking and can help new worlds come into being.
We know grassroots and campaign groups have a crucial role to play in this: building movements for change based on stories of the alternative. So, we’ve set out to support our movements’ crucial work on storytelling, narrative and framing. This work is concerned with the impact of our movements’ communication on the underlying beliefs, values being strengthened, and how helpful they are—not just for a single issue, but for wider radical change.
“We are all constantly placing tiles in the narrative mosaic, and without conscious effort, we’re likely to be recreating the same old familiar patterns.”—Elena Blackmore
Let’s get reflective…
This week’s reflective questions
From the work of the wondrous Centre for Story Based Strategy (or CSS):
- Think of a story, myth or fable you were told as a child. Where did it come from (family stories, religious texts, national/cultural rituals, films, books, school, etc)? Are there lessons you draw from this story? Is any part of it not true? Does that take away from the “lesson” you drew from it? How does it impact your life? Is it meaningful to you?
- ‘Dominant narratives’ can be understood as commonly-held collections of stories that normalise certain beliefs, practices and worldviews. In the words of our friends at CSS, these dominant narratives “disproportionately represent powerful institutional interests and perpetuate the stories that validate their political agenda. These stories can become invisible as they are passed from generation to generation, carrying assumptions that become ‘conventional wisdom’.”
Can you think of a particular dominant narrative related to your issue(s) / the work that you are doing that is not true? What does the story say? Who or what does it leave out? What underlying assumptions allow it to operate?
This week’s learning links
If you’ve got 15 minutes:
- Waves: A model for deep narrative change—Narrative Initiative: For that shark story we promised you above!
- The Crumbling Foundations—PIRC: A short summary of the harmful ideas underpinning deep narratives in our society today, rooted in the colonial mindset.
If you’re keen for more:
- Toward New Gravity—Narrative Initiative: For a deeper dive into narrative change and related terms.
- Narrative is Fractal—PIRC: Why we need more than words to change the narrative of white supremacy. Content note for discussions of racism and anti-Black violence.
Got lots of time? Great:
- We Need New Stories—book by Nesrine Malik: Unpacking six key myths that have taken hold, which are at odds with our lived experience and in urgent need of revision.
- Re:imagining Change—free e-book by Centre for Story-Based Strategy: including tools, practical lessons and case studies on harnessing the power of narrative, culture, and imagination to help our movements win.
In the next chapter, we’ll explore strategies for narrative change in action. Meanwhile, if you’ve got any questions or feedback you’d like to share, feel free to drop us an email on courses@publicinterest.org.uk.
