Newsletter #2
Discover more from Inter-Narratives
Hi folks,
Welcome back for the second edition of our updated newsletter.
This week we’re delighted to be introducing our first public session, which has been put together by one of our Expert Curators, Adam Corner. The session will have a climate-narrative orientation, with broader implications for anyone wondering whether to invoke ‘enemies’ in their narratives.
You’ll also find the usual links to relevant work, insight and events, tagged according to our simple model.
Session
Attack, Engage or Ignore? The role of ‘the enemy’ in climate narratives
27th July, 13:00 GMT
Speakers, curated by Adam Corner: Dr Amiera Sawas (Climate Outreach); Funmibi Ogunlesi (NEON); Pippa Simmonds (Countryside & Community Research Institute); and Alex Evans (LargerUS).
The event will be recorded for future reference.
Shares
Key: 📝 Article | 📋 Report | 📢 Campaign | 🎬 Video | 🎙️ Podcast
“Not growing but thriving”: The Beginning of a Paradigm Shift
Kate Raworth, Brave New Europe
Kate Raworth, the author of Doughnut Economics, suggests we need to "create the conditions that enable prosperity to come about," by which she means being able to "lead a life of dignity, community, and opportunity, while we hold the integrity of this delicately balanced living planet." We are warned that it's "too late to pin our hopes" on 'green growth', and so we must shift from a paradigm of control to one of stewardship, measuring life "on her terms" so that together we might serve life and thrive.
#language #narrativestrategy
Lights, Camera, Impact!
USC Norman Lear Center Media Impact Project
“20 Years of Research on the Power of Entertainment to Support Narrative Change” offers an attempt to answer some common questions: “How do we really know these strategies are working? Are there key factors that can be culled from existing evidence to shed light on the conditions under which narrative change strategies are most impactful?”, offering rigorous recommendations for both practitioners and funders. (Thank you for the signpost Alice Sachrajda)
#tactics #data #narrativestrategy
How to write about Africa
Africa No Filter
…in 8 steps. “Stories that reinforce stereotypes about Africa often arise from the power dynamics between those who are telling the stories and those about whom stories are being told. This practical guide aims to address some of these issues by providing practical, ethical guidelines for storytellers to share their work on the continent.” (Thank you for sharing with us Fenya Fischler)
#narrativestrategy
Refugee Week: Compassion
Counterpoints Arts
“For Refugee Week’s 25th anniversary we invite you to celebrate what compassion looks like in action. Together we can create a shared understanding of compassion to ensure we are extending it widely to all….Dangerous anti-migration government rhetoric continues, along with inhumane conditions for asylum seekers…We invite you to show us how arts and culture can help widen our circles of compassion”. The latest polling suggests that efforts like this are working.
📢 See here
#issuenarrative #language #data
Camden Imagines
Moral Imaginations
“The Camden Imagines publication showcases the ideas and updates of the Camden Imagines Project from the project team, collaborators, Camden Council staff and Camden residents on all things imagination, community power, public policy and public value.” Also see their invitation for local government to invest in municipal imagination.
📢 See here
#tactics #messaging
Built To Win
Groundwork Collaborative
A brief overview of an effort in the US that sought to “seed a new narrative about why prices were going up”. It details how they “jumped into the conversation” “at a frequency that people can actually hear.” By blending values-led framing with rigorously compiled evidence (which revealed profiteers were bragging about maximised their returns at the expense of hard-working families) they managed to change the conversation and ultimately steer the policy. (Thank you for the suggestion Charlotte Millar)
#narrativestrategy #issuenarrative #tactics
A Humane Transition
Bob Jensen, Planet: Critical
A sober but warm reflection on where we are now, and what it might take to make the transition ahead “humane”: one that embraces both grief and joy, the chance for community solidarity in shared work, and the opportunity for people to prove that they are competent to run their own lives.
🎙️ Listen here
#deepnarrative #language
Tipping Point: Where are we going, really?
Katy Murphy
The final episode of the three part series ‘Tipping Point: The True Story of The Limits To Growth”’, rounds off the tragically foreshortened story of Donella Meadows’s efforts to veer us away from the systemic failures we are beginning to experience today. As the title suggests, Donella left us with big questions, which we are encouraged to retrieve now as we seek pathways together through polycrisis and collapse towards “material sufficiency, long-term security, sustainability, equity, and purpose.”
🎙️ Listen here
#deepnarrative
Events
Moving With Storms - Report Launch
30 June 6pm (UK)
Join to hear highlights and lessons learned from the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies, University of British Columbia’s ‘Climate and Nature Emergency Catalyst Program’: “with a particular emphasis on institutional cultural change, engagement with Indigenous analyses and the principles of redistribution, reparations, and restitution, the report was designed to be a tangible tool that can be utilized by other institutions seeking to address the Climate and Nature Emergency and to create transformative change.” Read Vanessa Andreotti’s full intro here.
The Nearness – Something More
8 week online programme starting w/c 10 July
The Nearness is a space to explore life’s big questions. Its was started by founders who weren’t traditionally religious, but longed for connection, meaning, and spirituality. Each Nearness course is themed and gathers small groups of five to six people for weekly online discussion, self-inquiry and reflection. It is a place to experience different narratives and worldviews, to find connection across difference and to experiment with new practices and rituals.
Quotes
“Our task must be to free ourselves – by widening our circles of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.” — Albert Einstein
"When we are dreaming alone it is only a dream. When we are dreaming with others, it is the beginning of reality.” — Dom Helder Camara
“We are ground people who have been worshipping sky stories not properly suited to our relational existence rooted in the land.” — Sophie Strand
"We are living off expired or expiring stories." — Vanessa Andreotti
"There is no objective truth, there is only the quality of relationships." — David Abram
“We need to re-pair, to pair again with new alliances and new bodies in order to address and think with these times like we’ve always done. To meet this crisis we need to change relationships. We need to be in relationship again, with other kinds of bodies, to make new moves.” — Bayo Akomolafe
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