I’ve stumbled on this relatively new field called Narrative Change. I look at it as dealing with society’s intractable problems by fighting for meaning, significance and who gets to define those things.
It’s a strategy that a growing number of activists across multiple issues are employing in order to shift public opinion in their favor. The goal is to move public opinion so that policy can be enacted. Why is this important? As we’ve seen, it’s not politicians who go off and decide to introduce bills. Rather, politicians respond to changes in public sentiment. By galvanizing enough support for an issue, the public can force politicians, who are ultimately beholden to voters, to enact changes in policy.
Makes sense to me, as someone coming from a marketing and communications background and who has long had an interest in cultural anthropology. But, where cultural anthropology was listening for signals of cultural shifts moving across the landscape, narrative change is about actively shifting people’s understanding by reframing often unquestioned ideas that they may have on a topic. By widening the frame and helping people see how their beliefs can expand to include the new ideas espoused by artists, activists and academics, the conditions are set for the ultimate goal: Policy change.
So what is narrative change? A simple definition is changing the collective story we tell ourselves in order to support policymaking. The Narrative Initiative says this work is about changing the “shared interpretation of how the world works.” Of course, it’s more complicated than that. Writing in 2016, the Open Society Foundation’s Brett Davidson provided a solid framing of this then-new field. He started by defining narrative as:
…a collection or body stories of characters, joined in some common problem as fixers (heroes), causes (villains) or the harmed (victims) in a temporal trajectory (plot) leading towards resolution within a particular setting or context. + These stories together or collectively convey a common worldview or meaning – an interpretation of the world and how it works.
He went on to say this about narrative change:
Narrative change work 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.
Davidson notes that narrative plays a key role at three levels:
- Individual decision-making
- The Policy Process
- Shaping Cultural Narratives
Individual Decision-Making
It’s clear based on a growing body of research that humans are not 100% rational actors. That is, decisions are based on emotions and biases. As Davidson points out, “we think in mental models…” Narratives, he notes,” are central to the mental models and social beliefs and practices that that guide individuals’ decision-making and behavior, and thus narrative is an important tool for bringing about change.”
The Policy Process
Davidson writes: “In addition to being a part of any advocacy process, narrative strategies play a particularly important role with respect to a particular type of policy change, in which there is large-scale change involving a fundamental redefinition or reframing of an issue.”
Usually, “political processes are usually stable, with incremental change taking place – but occasionally there is large-scale change or upheaval.” In order for that to happen three key conditions must exist:
- An issue has to be more salient. That is, it can’t just matter to a small group or be relevant to a small sector of the population. Rather, it has to be a topic of discussion for everyone.
- The issue becomes defined differently. Something happens that brings new information and emotional appeals to the fore, and that impacts underlying core values and reshapes the way the public understands the issue.
- New voices enter the conversation. As the frame of the issue shifts, new voices feel qualified to step up and confidently express their expertise and lived experiences, where they might not have feel free/able to do so previously. This drives further public attention and momentum, which leads to changes in policy.
Shaping Cultural Narratives
Policies can be reversed. That’s both good and bad. For those of us committed to progressive politics, we’ve watched battles that we thought were won long ago come up for debate again and again. It feels like we’re losing the fight of justice and equity. Here, Davidson helps us understand why this is happening:
One of the reasons for this is that we are often working against powerful narratives that are embedded in the overarching culture. Thus we also need to look beyond the policy sphere, as narratives are embedded in the larger culture and in institutions. They shape the way in which problems and priorities are identified; they limit the types of solutions that are viewed as acceptable and possible, and determine how certain types and of people are categorized and treated.
An Example: Police Abolition
Policy is rooted in culture. The fight is really about who gets to define meaning and significance. Our tribes–family, friends, communities–are held together by these stories and the similar beliefs that undergird them. These assumptions enable us to communicate quickly and succinctly without having to go into detail about how we reached a conclusion. For example, our understanding of understanding of policing is undergoing a huge shift, especially as it relates to the idea–once a huge non-starter–of defunding the police.
The police abolition movement dates back nearly a century, and scholars have pointed out the origins of the police as an instrument of control over America’s Black population. But one reason it was hard, until recently, to get traction on the ideas of abolishing the police were people’s underlying ideas around safety. Specifically, if there were no police, who would protect us from crime? Unfortunately, the brutal murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis cops and escalation of attacks against people protesting police brutality have shown how much of a lie this notion–police provide safety–really is.
This has now made room in the national consciousness for an equally fulsome and vigorous conversation about Public Safety (NYC Public Advocate Jumaane Williams writes about it here; as well, the Movement For Black Lives has this as part of their Defund The Police platform), what that would look like and what, if any, the role of “police” should be in that new framework.
A Shift In Both Narrative & Culture
This is both a cultural shift and a shift in the narrative. And now we have space for new possibilities, which is what narrative change seeks to drive.
Ultimately, narrative change facilitates cultural change, which is much deeper and more lasting. As cultural strategist Erin Potts writes:
…the promise of cultural strategies for social change isn’t just about laws that protect the rights of all people and the land, but a culture that believes that all people have rights, that resources are to be protected, and that it is all of our responsibilities to do so. It is this broad-scale cultural change, not just political change, that we most want and have an opportunity now to build.
Really fascinating stuff here. More to come.
