Newsletter #24
Pluralist | Rapid | Intuitive
Hi folks,
Sending care in these challenging times.
We’re looking forward to our upcoming public session on 30 May, a rare opportunity to learn from two of the leaders of narrative and cultural change work in the US. If you’re looking for practical guidance, this hands-on interactive session will likely be up your street. Do share with others, this is an event that is open to all.
See you then! In the meantime, our usual collection of shares follow below.
Shared in solidarity
Public Session
Transforming Narrative Oceans through Narrative Systems Design
Bridgit Antoinette Evans & Nayantara Sen | 30 May | 16:30 - 18:00 BST | Online
Achieving a just future in which the majority of people are engaged in building pluralist culture requires transforming the toxic narrative oceans in which we swim. But how can we scale our narrative strategies so that millions of people can change their beliefs and behaviors and engage in the hard, delicate work of belonging together? And how can we design for impactful narrative strategy at scale across a broad range of sectors, issues, and stakeholders?
In this interactive workshop Bridgit Antoinette Evans, CEO of the Pop Culture Collaborative, and Nayantara Sen, Executive Director of the Center for Story-based Strategy, will explore narrative systems design. Participants will learn about the six building blocks of narrative systems, and dive deep into practical examples.
Shares
Key: ⚙️ Tool | 📝 Article | 📋 Report | 📢 Campaign | 🎙️ Podcast
The Reactionary International
Progressive International, CLACSO, transform!europe
“A Research Consortium on the illicit network undermining democracy across the world… The twin insurrections at the US Capitol in 2021 and Brasilia’s Three Powers Plaza in 2023 left no doubt about the international coordination of reactionary forces. Yet far too little is known about the entities of this network, their sources of financing, and their institutional allies operating inside our political systems. That is why we launched… to trace the connections between the politicians, platforms, think-tanks, funders, foundations, publications, judges, and journalists that comprise this global network — and to support democratic systems to become more resilient to their insidious tactics. We invite you to explore the platform, download the resources, and consider contributing to the consortium.” Also see.
#insight #tactics
⚙️ See here
Worldwide divergence of values
Joshua Conrad Jackson, Danila Medvedev; Nature Communications
“We find evidence of global value divergence. Values emphasizing tolerance and self-expression have diverged most sharply, especially between high-income Western countries and the rest of the world. We also find that countries with similar per-capita GDP levels have held similar values over the last 40 years. Over time, however, geographic proximity has emerged as an increasingly strong correlate of value similarity, indicating that values have diverged globally but converged regionally.”
#insight
Dissolving Separations
Julian Corner; Lankelly Chase
“Separation is everywhere you look in the charity model… We note the evidence that complex human problems require deeply relational and collaborative approaches, and that treating them as separate is harmful and more expensive. And then we label these problems as ‘wicked’, as though the separations we have created are a fact of life that we have to deal with… If we aren’t relying on the exertion of control to hold separate variables together, then new forms of coherence and even order have the space to emerge… Instead of predictability, hierarchy and division, what if we leaned fully into interdependence, mutuality, community, entanglement?.. What would we need to give up to stop making ourselves safe and comfortable at the expense of others’ vulnerability?”
#tactics #deepnarrative
Post Capitalist Philanthropy: Wealth as a Transition Pathway
Culture Hack Labs, Transition Resource Circle
“Inquiries into how we might heal and liberate wealth from the grips of neoliberalism. We explore means by which to transition from our current meta-crisis to post capitalist realities that serve Life… An offering to collectively sense-make and find our ways through these troubled times. Our ultimate aim is to transmute the poisons of capitalist modernity, including its ultimate abstraction and mediation, capital itself, into medicine, perhaps even into the ultimate medicine: water. May the dams of wealth flow into the places that need it the most.” In particular, see the piece that offers a narrative reframe strategy.
#narrativestrategy #deepnarrative
RAPID Democracy
New Citizen Project
“A simple framework that combines the best existing and emerging participatory processes, from open idea generation to citizens’ assemblies, into a phase-by-phase process that can achieve real scale and visibility… For leaders and organisations, it is a structured, phased and inclusive process for decision-making that will help democratic institutions of all kinds - including membership organisations, local councils and national governments - to overcome popular distrust and increase both the quality and the legitimacy of crucial decisions. For members of the public, employees and citizens, the process offers more opportunities to participate meaningfully in making the decisions that shape their lives: to speak from their experiences, share their ideas, and develop their social and political agency… The report is an invitation to leaders of all kinds to collaborate with us to develop it further.”
#tactics #issuenarrative #deepnarrative
#WeAreNature
House Of Hackney, Lawyers For Nature
“A grassroots movement to change UK dictionary definitions of the word nature to include humans. Our goal is to amplify that We Are Nature. Supported by a fast-growing group of organisations, charities, academics, artists, writers, politicians, activists and school children who believe passionately that humans are a part of Nature. We hope that amplifying this message will help us to protect the natural world, for ourselves, and for future generations… Our language, words and definitions have a huge impact and influence on society; our aim is that anyone searching for the meaning of nature will see there is a wider alternative and this could impact court cases, legislation and education.”
#framing #tactics
📢 See here
For the intuitives (Part 1)
The Emerald
“This first part is about the centrality, necessity, and normalcy of oracles and visionaries. It's about dreams and premonitions and dialogues with the ancestors and how utterly sane that all is… Ours is the first and only society in history to not make a place in its story of causality for sensing or knowing events in the future… Liminal spaces have long been feared in the industrialized west because the industrialist wants no liminality at play in the world. No downtime, no off time, certainly no dream time. Start dreaming and who knows what might happen… In an age where souls wander, lost, anxious and depressed, ritual reconnection is one of the most pragmatic endeavours there is. In an age of disconnect in which the world is suffering from an over-emphasis on anthropos – on us and us alone – to be in constant dialogue with a world of larger agencies makes total rational sense. It's a reflection of the alignment we're actually in with nature.”
#tactics #deepnarrative
🎙️ Listen here
The Influencer Lab for Tomorrow
TILT
“A global network of content creators who care about our future on Earth. We connect social media creators and influencers with climate experts, academics, and media professionals with a mission to support high quality, engaging, honest and accurate content related to climate change… We’re here to support creators and influencers in communicating what they care about. Whether it’s providing resources, connecting them with opportunities, or building a community of social media champions, we’re dedicated to helping them make the difference they want to make. Join us as we work together to create a brighter future, one viral post at a time.”
#tactics
⚙️ See here
The Climate Reality Check: A Bechdel-Wallace Test for a World on Fire
Good Energy, Colby College
“Asks whether, in a given story: ‘climate change exists’ and ‘a character knows it’… A tool that will allow writers and industry professionals to interrogate their own stories, audiences to see whether Hollywood is representing their reality on-screen, and researchers to measure whether climate change is included in any group of stories or if representation is increasing over time… The Climate Reality Check does not suggest or require that every story center climate change, nor does it prescribe what kinds of stories filmmakers should tell. It simply measures whether our current climate reality is being reflected on-screen. How that is done, friends, is up to you.”
#narrativestrategy #framing
⚙️ See here
Events, Workshops, Courses
Key: 🗓️ Event | 🛠️ Workshop | 🎓 Course
How to engage Persuadables and combat misinformation during an election
ACT Climate Labs | June 4th | London/Online
“This general election is likely to feature more misinformation than any before and threatens climate change understanding. So this year, communicating climate change with ‘Persuadables’ (the 69% of Brits who are neither climate activists nor deniers) will be more challenging, yet more crucial, than ever. Join ACT Climate Labs at their next in person event, to learn how to: Make your messaging more effective and break through the noise; Predict and get ahead of harmful culture wars and misinformation narratives; Identify opportunities to connect with Persuadables about what matters most to them; Feel more confident about the best routes to connect with your audiences.”
Forum Resilient Futures: Can stories change systems? Storytelling and its transformational power
Creative Bureaucracy Festival | June 13th | 14:00 BST | Online
“Join us for a thought-provoking discussion on the potential of storytelling to drive systemic change. From amplifying marginalized voices to dismantling colonial narratives, explore how stories shape our understanding of the world and influence collective action. Gain practical insights into leveraging storytelling and storylistening as tools for building empathy, fostering connections, and co-creating inclusive systems that reflect diverse perspectives and experiences.” With Thea Snow and Derek Alton.
🗓️ Read here
The Earthstronauts
ECF, Pooled Fund on International Energy, Dancing Fox | June 24–27th | Turkey
“An interactive, in-person workshop designed to help participants launch and/or supercharge ideas and projects driving Europe and North Africa’s energy transition. The event will centre on boosting participants’ storytelling and communications skills, and will include the opportunity to pitch for additional funding to help your idea take off.”
🛠️ Apply here
What is to be done?
Climate Vanguard
“Organising for liberation in a planet on fire… Focusing on revolutionary strategy, i.e. HOW we transition from capitalist imperialism to eco-socialism. Amidst the ongoing student protests, the question of transition is more relevant than ever. It helps understand how we consolidate victories and how to build lasting social power on the back of mass uprisings. The workshop can be delivered in-person in Britain or virtually to youth groups internationally.”
🛠️ See here
Intro to Decolonial Sustainability
Possible Futures | July 13/14th – December 14/15th
“This is an introductory course for professionals on the contribution of globalised industry to systemic oppression, centring on the relationship between the Global North and the Global South through industry operations. This course does not seek to present a clear linear framework to decolonise corporate sustainability, or the masses of sustainability professionals in the corporate world. It rather seeks to create space to consider some unknown unknowns within Sustainability, Inc. - corporate sustainability, associated areas of academia, environmental activism - through understanding more clearly our long pasts and complex, confused contexts.”
Quotes
(This selection of quotes is intended as a resource, in the hope that they may be useful for your own communications.)
“We are here, because you were there.” – Sathnam Sanghera
"It was the rendering of humans into mute resources that enabled the metaphysical leap whereby the Earth and everything in it could also be reduced to inertness." – Amitav Ghosh
"Mistreating a gift has emotional and ethical gravity as well as ecological resonance" – Robin Wall Kimmerer
“Continue to contaminate your bed, and you will one night suffocate in your own waste.” – Duwamish chief Seattle, 1885
"The invitation I feel from my people is to listen. To humble ourselves to fall down to the earth and listen differently, listen to the world around us that we have numbed and muted as resource in our attempts to progress beyond the planet." – Bayo Akomolefe
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