Hi folks,
Just a quick word to say that we’re looking forward to seeing some of you shortly at our Collective Intelligence session on the potential for unifying narratives (last chance to sign up here if you haven’t already, for 1pm GMT).
Below you’ll find a theme of healing and care in the Shares, along with the first details of our next Public Event.
Shared in solidarity.
Session
Our next Public Event will be curated by Vanessa Andreotti, author of Hospicing Modernity: Facing humanity’s wrongs and the implications for social activism and one of the co-founders of the Gesturing Towards Decolonial Futures (GTDF) Arts/Research Collective.
This will be on March 28th, 17:00-18:30 GMT – more details and an invite soon!
In the meantime, a reminder that you can see recordings of our previous Public Events here.
Shares
Key: 📝 Article
Healing Systems
Laura Calderon de la Barca, Katherine Milligan, John Kania; SSIR
“Humanity is submerged in layers of individual, intergenerational, and collective trauma, but we generally don’t recognize it. This prevents us from addressing the roots of collective challenges we face and keeps us from taking steps toward healing that can transform the systems around us.” A quick but thorough briefing in the types and role of trauma, emphasising its primary role in systems, and asking those of us working on social change to recognise that “only by centering healing practices in the sector’s ways of working can we create the inner spaciousness and external conditions for system transformation to occur.”
#narrativestrategy #tactics
Cultivating the Conditions: Philanthropy’s Role in Fortifying the Infrastructure for Narrative Power
Mandy Van Deven; The Gia Reader
“Social justice movements around the globe are expending enormous effort to make advances toward our goal of a more just future—but they are doing so on an unequal playing field while facing jeers from the bleachers, enduring flare-ups of old injuries, and being outmanoeuvred by opponents that are not just better-resourced and highly practiced, but also designed the game… By working together, we can manifest a world where philanthropy’s investments allow for the creation of not just one but many All-Star teams that operate in a distributed yet deeply connected way, one where the seasoned players guide and mentor the rookies and where coaches are co-designing new plays that can secure irreversible victories.”
#narrativestrategy #tactics
When Transitional Justice Met Narrative Change Theory
Louis Bickford; Memria
Exploring the potential for coordination between Transitional Justice and Narrative Change efforts, with reference to ‘MemoryWork’ as an opportunity to hold it: ”complementing the need to mourn and create new cemeterial forms for healing…seeking to shift societal narratives about ‘who we are’ and ‘who we want to be’.” Includes reference to various case studies and guidance.
#narrativestrategy
How Do Reparations and Atonement address Planet Repair?
Green Living Room, Greens Of Colour
“This article was compiled from questions asked by Green Party Members on Green Spaces in response to the proposal to establish an All-Party Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry for Truth and Reparatory Justice to commit the UK government to atone and make reparations to the descendants of enslaved African people, in accordance with international human rights law.” See here for more on Planet Repairs.
#deepnarrative #messaging #tactics
The (Identity) Politics of Reparations
Trevor Smith; Yes!
Identity politics has been given a bad rap, with many fearing that it fosters ever narrower emphasis on difference over collaboration. But “activists, particularly those who engage in conversations with everyday people in their communities, see the use of identity, particularly liberatory identities, as a unifying force as long as it seeks to explore the depth and principles of the identity” and are formulating strategies to prioritise identity-formation. They argue that “the weaponization of social justice identity politics is purely a tactic that is being used to deconstruct cultural innovation rooted in BIPOC communities” by a pro-authoritarian movement whose own “strategy is entirely about identity formation”.
#issuenarrative
Demilitarisation Series
Climate Vanguard, Climate Propagandist
Three posts: ‘Militarism: The closed fist of imperialism’, ‘The socio-ecological toll of militarism’, and ‘Against green militarism’, explore the relationship between war, justice and climate. “Militarism is the primary means by which economic and political sovereignty is denied to states and peoples across the world. It is incompatible with global eco-socialism and planetary liberation”.
#deepnarrative #tactics
📝 See here (Instagram)
Love Rebuilds Gaza
Vidushi Yadav; Stories from the Future
“This series of speculative fiction invites us to envision and craft the world we dream about. It champions the transformative power of active and radical imagination in creation, it encourages us to lay the foundations for a future that we want our children to have – a future shaped by love, strength in community, empowering narratives and the dissolution of systemic oppression through a collective realisation that it no longe has a place in our world”.
#issuenarrative #tactics
📝 See here (Linkedin)
Who Is Afraid of Degrowth?
Celine Keller
A deep dive through the medium of a graphic novel “that invites you to explore and join this crucial debate about economics, ecology, democracy, human rights, technology, and our future.” An effort to make the debate about degrowth and economics “accessible to climate activists, teachers, students, workers, parents, and anyone else who isn’t a classical economist but wants to help stop climate collapse. The comic contains quotes from a wide range of experts, woven into an engaging narrative that will guide you through this complex topic.”
#issuenarrative #tactics
📝 See here
First Dog On The Moon Runs AMOC
Guardian Australia
“Are you ready for the collapse of the Atlantic Meriodonal Overturning Circulation?… No you are not.” A satirical take on the evidence that the AMOC is tipping, which would raise sea levels, flip Amazonian seasons, freeze Europe and ‘make climate change go ten times faster’. The advice here includes stocking up on Babybels and ‘dismantling capitalism’s death cult obsession with fossil fuel omnicide’.
#messaging #tactics
📝 See here (Instagram)
Courses & Jobs
Key: 🎓 Course | 💼 Job
It’s Just Economics
UK Youth Climate Coalition | Mar 2nd - 13th | London
Three workshops for ages 18-29, to: 1) Learn, 2) Imagine, 3) Act. “We know that economic theory can be overwhelming and intentionally difficult to understand. We believe that a new economic future should be for everyone to imagine and create and in no way exclusionary. Through fun, informative and accessible sessions, we will explore what an economic future that works for people and planet could look like and how we come together as a community to take the steps to transform the current system.”
Curriculum Lead (Parent Cover)
PIRC | Deadline 9am, Mar 25th
“PIRC works to support our movements—for equality, anti-oppression, and climate justice—to tell better stories for a just world. We’re looking for someone who is excited about changing the world through participatory storytelling. You’ll be joining a small, flat team based in mid-Wales, working towards equitable and sustainable social change. As Curriculum Lead, you would be helping develop and deliver a narrative-change curriculum, centred around participation, connection, and liberation.”
Quotes
(This selection of quotes is intended as a resource, in the hope that they may be useful for your own communications.)
“In a strict systems sense, there is no long-term, short-term distinction. [...] We experience now the consequences of actions set in motion yesterday and decades ago and centuries ago.” Donella Meadows
“Our systems don't recognize how trauma impacts people, and as a result decision makers in those systems create trauma and hold people in a space of trauma.” Allison Wainwright
“Some systems are working really, really well, because they're meant to be violent systems and they're meant to oppress people. And so you can't decolonize them, you have to destroy them and you have to create new institutions.” Claire Johnston
“Life, in its essence, is a making new: a wholly superfluous, super-abundant, self-overflowing — an exuberant, self-delighting process of differentiation into ever more astonishing forms, an unending dance, in which we are lucky enough to find ourselves caught up.” Iain McGilchrist
"Courage is the power to let go of the familiar" Raymond Lindquist
Thanks for joining us, see you here again in two weeks.
A reminder that if you have something that you’d love to see in these newsletters, or work you’d like to share in the community sessions, or if you have any feedback, please reach out at inter-narratives@greenfunders.org
Very best,
Paddy & Ella