Hi everyone,
Hope you’re well 🙏
We’re still feeling the energy of the recent Narrative Power Summit in New Orleans, hosted by RadComms and Reframe.
We were only able to attend some of it online, but what we saw was hugely inspiring. From suggestions of leaning into collective grief, to build practical power and solidarity in defiance of systemic separation and rivalry; to an encouragement to go beyond advocacy towards movement building; and a proposed shift therefore from ‘persuasion’ to enabling ’protagonism’. Look out for further reflections from people who were on the ground soon.
Thank you again for all your feedback in our survey – we want to find ways of making the insights we share easier to digest, so for starters you’ll now find a quick list of all the shared links, before we go into the fuller summaries of each share.
Shared in solidarity
Shares
Links
Key: 📝 Article | 🎙️ Podcast | 📋 Report
📝 The Pro-Democracy Movement Playbook – Scott Nakagawa
📝 Communicating About Democracy Under Threat – Clara Blustein Lindholm
🎙️ On Our Lives with the News – David Bornstein
📝 The Answer to Trump is Revolutionary Love – Laura Basu
📝 The Fightback Against Reform – Alex Evans
📋 Fabric of Repair – BLIS Collective
📝 Systems Thinking Will Not Save Us – Zainab Kabba
📝 Mainstream Economics is not Sustainable – Jennifer Wilkins, Katy Shields
📝 Death Doula to Dying Empire – Kazu Haga
Summaries
The Pro-Democracy Movement Playbook
Scott Nakagawa; The Anti-Authoritarian Playbook
“The more unpopular the authoritarian agenda becomes, the more leverage we have at every level of government. The key to making the most of this leverage is not just resisting, but advancing a positive, durable vision of democracy. The goal must be to institutionalise democracy through protecting marginalised groups, expanding rights, and rebuilding public trust through visible gains.” To support this, Nakagawa offers: Core Strategic Principles; A Tactical Pivot (“from Protest to Policy”); Core Demand Frameworks with suggestions for Levels of Action (Local, State, National); and Messaging Priorities. “The current moment demands audacity. Democracy advocates must pivot from reacting to building – faster, sharper, and at every level. Specific demands tied to institutional change are the key to turning temporary backlash against authoritarianism into permanent democratic renewal.”
#narrativestrategy #tactics
Communicating About Democracy Under Threat
Clara Blustein Lindholm; Frameworks US
Three insights about the “common beliefs and assumptions” people in the US hold about “democracy, authoritarianism, and the rule of law”, and how to make them “feel real and relevant to people’s everyday lives” to resist attacks on democratic institutions. We learn that people equate ‘government’ with (swappable) individuals, rather than durable institutions; that people think ‘democracy’ is “simply whatever the US does;” and that concepts like ‘democracy’ and ‘authoritarianism’ are too abstract for most people to relate to. We’re encouraged to “make explicit the connections between the rule of law and the experiences of arbitrariness and uncertainty… affirming and acknowledging people’s feelings and then tracing one of their root causes”, and put a name to it: “executive overreach, the erosion of the rule of law”, grounding the abstraction “in the very real, very felt experience of uncertainty that people are living through.”
#narrativestrategy #framing
On Our Lives with the News
David Bornstein, Krista Tippett; On Being
A reflection on how mainstream news media has become so negative and unhelpful, and a suggestion for what to do now. Bornstein’s main recommendation, as a way to "make goodness as riveting as evil" is to engage people with curiosity. Because "we're wired to pay attention to threats, but we're also wired to love puzzles." So he suggests that we tell positive "How dunnit?" stories that present some positive event – a success in government or institutions, in the way that business is typically covered in the media, rather than just the failures – framed in a way that encourages people to be curious about how the success was achieved. For example: "how did this school actually increase the high school graduation rate when all the other schools with similar resources haven't been able to figure that one out?" They also explore a ‘Hippocratic Oath for Journalism’, which seeks to make media “radically helpful”.
#insight #framing
🎙️ Listen here
The Answer to Trump is Revolutionary Love
Laura Basu; Grace Blakeley
Analysis of what “the shrieking migraine of Trumpism” reveals about our socioeconomic system: capitalism and authoritarianism “gel very well” – not capitalism and democracy; and the loudly-touted opposition between class and identity politics is encouraged, to distract from the reality that people’s needs and freedoms are so often a hindrance to the system’s central goal of making money “for those at the top”. What we need instead is “a lovely new economic system, one that is centred around the things that actually matter: our health, knowing that we are cared for, being close to the ones we love, knowing that we are safe, and that we have the freedom to express ourselves in all our glittering abundance,” which “requires taking love from the realm of the personal into the political.” The first step: “refuse to buy into the politics of hate and fear that the Trumps of the world are selling”, then “open our eyes to the politics of love and care already being practiced all around us, and join in where we can.”
#narrativestrategy #deepnarrative
The Fightback Against Reform
Alex Evans; The Good Apocalypse Guide
A “deliberately provocative” assessment of the “much deeper malaise” beneath Reform’s rise: “a loss of faith in the future”, enabled by civil society’s failure to respond with a suitably uplifting vision. Evans lists four reasons for this failure: the “professionalisation of so much of civil society”; the Charity Commission’s insistence on funders being ‘apolitical’; funders themselves being risk-averse and short-term; and those civil society professionals’ disconnection from the majority. “We so often end up deepening divisions in a way that helps the populist right, instead of bridging divides and building the broader coalitions that we so urgently need.” This piece tees up a second part that will explore the “incredible points of light out there that we can learn from and build from,” which can help us all see “a positive, people-powered insurgency: one that brings us together instead of dividing us, that fires us up with a sense of possibility and purpose, and that enables us to build a brighter future together.”
#narrativestrategy #insight
Fabric of Repair
BLIS Collective
A detailed practical exploration of “The Impact of Braiding Narratives of Reparations and Land Back on Black and Indigenous Audiences.” The findings have broad implications, demonstrating that “movements for repair are stronger when they explicitly recognize and elevate their shared histories and common causes…pointing to the untapped potential of sustained cross-movement organising and storytelling,” and how skepticism about implementation feasibility reveals that “transforming solidarity into tangible political change requires not just building support but cultivating hope and belief in the possibility of radical transformation.” But when done well, “by braiding their narratives, sharing resources, and building joint infrastructure for organizing and storytelling, these movements can help construct a new ‘American’ narrative.” Includes specific recommendations for Movement organisations, Storytellers and Creators, Researchers, and Funders.
#narrativestrategy #tactics
Systems Thinking Will Not Save Us
Zainab Kabba; LinkedIn
An argument that “while understanding complexity is important, the uncritical centring of systems thinking risks becoming a dangerous distraction.” Kabba outlines five conditions of the way systems work – e.g. "Systems are not neutral,” “Complexity masks power,” “Knowledge without action is paralysis” – and how they reveal deficiencies in current leadership, before proposing five principles for a new mode of leadership that “goes further”. They suggest this leadership will be an “every-day practice – rooted in ethics, reflexivity, responsibility, and the courage to lead when the system maps are incomplete and the stakes are high.” The ask, which might feel galling for those of us who still find comfort in retreating into theory, abstraction and the padded embrace of a desk chair, is to recognise the risk of “circling conversations that feel comforting and sophisticated but ultimately defer the real work leadership demands today.”
#tactics
Mainstream Economics is not Sustainable
Jennifer Wilkins, Katy Shields; LinkedIn
A brief summary of four essays by the Tipping Point podcast host, delivered by a post-growth economist, which suggest that mainstream economics is neither socially nor economically sustainable. Wilkins suggest seven actions to get beyond this, some of which are particularly relevant for narrative change work: “4. Take back the narrative: economics is about wellbeing, resilience and regeneration; 6. Insist, as citizens, on political and business accountability and media focus on progress on wider indicators, including the genuine progress indicator, the human development index, wellbeing economy frameworks and planetary boundaries.” They suggest that “if you work in sustainability, these essays are essential reading. They’ll help you understand the system that’s been holding back your work – perhaps your life's work – and give you language to push back.”
#insight #framing
Death Doula to Dying Empire
Kazu Haga; Waging Nonviolence
“Our big systems are on their death beds…Our medical systems make us sick. Our food systems create malnutrition. Our educational systems are failing our kids. Our criminal justice system makes our communities less safe. Our democratic systems are run by a select few. Our economic systems continue to create poverty. And, of course, our ecological systems are collapsing all around us. I don’t believe we’re approaching the ‘end of the world.’ But I do believe we’re approaching the end of something, and it’s something big.” In the context of this collapse, Haga proposes a need to normalise death, and recognise the “incredible liberation in the work of accepting our own mortality.” Which means “accepting the grief that naturally comes with it,” because “if we bury grief, we don’t normalise death; we suppress it.” Haga ends by catching our inclination to find this overly negative: “becoming a death doula to dying empires means we’re giving birth to a new one. The work of accepting death isn’t about giving up on life. It’s about honouring the fullness of it.”
#narrativestrategy #framing #tactics
Events & Courses
Key: 🗓️ Event | 🎓 Course
Begin Again
Abbas Zahedi; Tate Modern
Saturdays until Jan 4th | London
“On the first Saturday of each month Abbas Zahedi hosts a support group for the collective processing of ecological grief. In collaboration with thinkers, artists and musicians, participants are invited to consider ‘How can we make sense of a world increasingly shaped by loss and disconnection?’. The discussions take place in a new commission entitled Begin Again. As part of the installation, instruments and playback devices have been plugged into Tate Modern’s utility pipes and deeper architecture. The sound composition shifts between moments of harmony and disintegration. Each sonic collapse prompts the piece to rebuild, emphasising the power of renewal and beginning again. The commission creates a space for collective listening where participants can reflect on how to protect and restore ecological connectivity. Begin Again is part of the exhibition Gathering Ground which explores threatened ecologies.”
🗓️ See here
Project Tipping Point
(re)biz
May 29th; Jun 5th, 12th, 19th, 26th; Jul 3rd, 10th July | Online
“A pioneering self-paced journey, community and education-in-action movement that is bringing into the world: 1) Raw and truthful conversations with a global community to about how we feel about the state of the world, our current system and its symptomatic expressions of dominant thought patterns, action and the steps to shift; 2) Brave spaces where it is okay not to know the answers and to swim in the liminal leadership questions of our transitionary times; 3) Courage, support and accountability structures to actually transform our worldviews, relationships, lives and organisations alongside the safety of large numbers of others doing so and to explore our ideas and initiatives with brilliant, heart-led people; 4) Pragmatic step-by-step action, strategies and accountability for us to begin a redistribution of our efforts and skillsets into a more beautiful world rooted in authentic regenerative, beautiful, post-growth futures as we decompose the existing system.” Use the code 2WAVE50 for a 50% discount.
Storywalk
Beyond Storytelling
Jun 11-14th | Altmühltal, Bavaria
“Today, we are inundated with backward-looking tales that threaten to undermine the ecological, inclusive, democratic, and progressive narratives our societies have built. What narratives can we offer to dangerous ideologies and fabricated realities? Which stories truly resonate with us? How can we reimagine our world? How do we re-author a shared human future? And what concrete actions can we take — starting now? To explore these questions and unlock our imagination for new solutions, we invite you to set your mind, heart, and stories in motion — and join us on a transformative StoryWalk!”
🗓️ See here
Quotes
(This selection of quotes is intended as a resource, in the hope that they may be useful for your own communications. See a full list of all the previous quotes.)
“You can’t fundamentally change big systems. You can only abandon them and start over or offer hospice to what’s dying.” – Deborah Frieze
"When you understand that under capitalism a forest has no value until it's cut down, you begin to understand the root of our ecological crises." – Adam Idek Hastie
“It is much better for all of us to discuss, plan, and make a mistake collectively than for each of us to do the right thing as individuals.” – Gilmar Mauro, MST
“The moral of a successful story is emotionally experienced understanding, not only conceptual understanding, and a lesson of the heart, not only the head.” – Marshall Ganz
“New narratives emerge from experience. We must go out and practice. Doing, remembering, doing, expanding.” – Colin Campbell
Thanks for joining us, see you here again in three 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