Narrative Change
What is Narrative Change?
According to the Narrative Initiative:
A narrative reflects a shared interpretation of how the world works. Who holds power and how they use it is both embedded in and supported by dominant narratives. Successful narrative change shifts power as well as dominant narratives. Narrative change, writes Brett Davidson, “rests on the premise that reality is socially constructed through narrative, and that in order to bring about change in the world we need to pay attention to the ways in which this takes place.” An ambitious scale is inherent in the strategy of narrative change.
Narratives are the core ideas that define the perspective of a culture, a nation, a generation, or a people. Let me try a metaphor. If I imagine narrative as an object, what comes to mind first for me is a blanket – a nice warm and cozy blanket that can cover your body completely. It is expansive enough to envelope you, to keep you feeling safe and secure. The fabric of that blanket is strategic communications. Strategic communications are persuasive. They were the cues that caught your attention, convincing you to buy the blanket when you saw it for sale at the store. The thread holding it all together are stories. Stories stitch the emotional connections that give the blanket its depth and shape.
Here’s an example of narrative change from advocacy work that I am familiar with. A young woman is having a hard time in life and struggles from opioid addiction. She suffers an overdose. Thankfully, the woman’s roommate had the lifesaving overdose reversal drug, Naloxone, and used it to save her life. This is a story. The woman becomes an advocate for increasing availability and providing training for Naloxone, and she uses her story to persuade her government’s leaders to support harm reduction programs and overdose prevention. This is strategic communications. This woman becomes part of a movement, an organized group of individuals, community leaders, and public figures from many walks of life who are shifting conventional wisdom from seeing criminalization and punishment as an effective response to drug use, in favor of policies that treat drug use as a human rights and public health concern. This is narrative change.
My narrative change practice is designed for the moment and built to sustain for the long term. It involves listening, engaging discussion, and thorough excavation to build a common center of trust and understanding that resonates.
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