Newsletter #50
Positive Tipping | Dramatic Desire | Complexity Consciousness
Hi everyone,
Welcome to our 50th edition (or 86th if you’ve been with us since Reset Narratives) 🥳
We hope you’ve been finding ways to rest and recover over the summer, amongst all the chaos, violence and grief.
This week we have a few bits of infrastructure and some provocative reflections and suggestions on virality, impact, design and strategy. There’s also quite a bit on the noticeboard, including something today!
Shared in solidarity
Spotlight
Metarelational AI
A “community-rooted initiative” exploring how AI – what they call “emergent intelligences (EIs)” – can provide support, in various forms, to people doing the tough work of responding to our complex existential predicament. “We collaborate with grassroots movements, educators, Indigenous advocates, climate organisers, artists, and frontline workers to co-create ‘EI companions’ – not as replacements or tools, but as ‘relational technologies’,” which are designed to help with burnout and healing in high-pressure contexts. MetaRelational AI is supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) through the Insight Grant ‘Decolonial Systems Literacy for Confronting Wicked Social and Ecological Problems.’ Their work “weaves together speculative design, relational ethics, and decolonial inquiry to imagine and build different ways of being with – and becoming with – technologies inside collapse.”
Note that many of these efforts are now having to depart from OpenAI and the US, following the GPT-5 upgrade, so some functionality may be limited. Also see an overview of learnings from some of these experiments.
🔆 See here
Shares
🧱 Infrastructure | ✏️ Article
See our full searchable library of every share from these newsletters
Links
🧱 Positive Tipping Points Toolkit – Green Futures Network
🧱 Understanding Authoritarianism: Resources to Defend Democracy – Miriam Juan-Torres González
✏️ How a Green Party Video Went Viral – Jeremy Clancy
✏️ Ripple effects: How Impact Travels Through Systems – Jen Casorso
✏️ Spacial Dramaturgy and the Composition of Desire – Amahra Spence
✏️ Raging Against the Dying Light: A Systems View of Human Futures – Julian Norris
Summaries
Positive Tipping Points Toolkit
Green Futures Network, University of Exeter
“After the first Global Tipping Points Conference in 2022, the University of Exeter’s Green Futures Network ran a series of workshops to explore the potential and enthusiasm for applying the growing research into Positive Tipping Points in practice to different contexts, including economics, food systems, activism, climate justice, and business. The response was clear: the idea of positive tipping points has huge potential for helping those working on systems change to better understand how complex systems can change, and how we can shift our thinking to work towards non-linear change… Following these workshops, the Green Futures Network began a slow and intentional process of co-creating an open source Toolkit that could make the ongoing research accessible to a wider community of people already working on meaningful and long-term systems change.”
#narrativestrategy #tactics
🧱 See here
Understanding Authoritarianism: Resources to Defend Democracy
Miriam Juan-Torres González; Othering & Belonging Institute
“Today, almost 40 percent of the world’s population live in countries where democracy is deteriorating; a sharp increase in the last ten years; 80 percent of the global population lives in countries or territories rated not free or only partly free; and the trend of democratic erosion shows no signs of slowing down… This resource library is a curated collection of articles, essays, tools, and analyses designed to help you understand the roots, tactics, and impacts of authoritarian movements. But knowledge is only the first step. These resources are meant to empower educators, organisers, students, and everyday people with the insight and language needed to challenge authoritarianism, stand up for democracy, and build a world of belonging without othering. Whether you’re just beginning to learn or seeking deeper context to take action, you’ll find resources here to inform, connect, and inspire.”
#insight #tactics
🧱 See here, and also this broader library
How a Green Party Video Went Viral: 4 Narrative Tools For Political Impact
Jeremy Clancy; Video Activist
The newly elected leader of the UK Greens ran an ad earlier this summer, which racked up 2m views on social media. Here we learn the “nerdy” strategy that went into it, with some lessons for comms elsewhere. ”Some things happen above the line: visible, graspable, immediate. Others happen below it: structural, symbolic, emotional – shaping what people feel before they know why. This film was built on both… The structure makes the metaphor land. That’s the diamond… It’s not just a call to action. It’s an invitation to ask: what kind of country are we? And what will we refuse to become?… The deeper thread: ecology → psychology → sociology. The crisis isn’t just ecological – it’s structural. And the Greens get that.” In what Clancy calls “the narrative war – over meaning, memory, and who gets to define reality,” this film “wasn’t just a political act – it was a strike in that deeper war.”
#narrativestrategy #framing #tactics #deepnarrative
✏️ See here
Ripple Effects: How Impact Travels Through Systems
Jen Casorso; Mycelium Notes
An encouragement to recognise that systems are “dynamic and relational”, and the truth in Donella Meadows’ insistence that “we can’t impose our will on a system”. As such, “impact isn’t always immediate, and meaning often takes time to surface,” because “impact isn’t linear – it radiates, overlaps, collides; feedback matters – as ripples encounter edges, they return, reshape, or amplify; scale doesn’t always equal significance – even small drops can change the pattern if they land in the right place; and context shapes movement – what lies beneath the surface (culture, trauma, history, relationships) can alter how far and fast impact travels.” Which means recognising that “sometimes, our work is not about causing the biggest splash. It’s about creating the conditions for the right kind of ripple – one that is generative, sustaining, and in harmony with the broader system.”
#narrativestrategy #deepnarrative #tactics
✏️ Read here
Spatial Dramaturgy and the Composition of Desire
Amahra Spence
A reflection on how to “reshape the spaces around us – not only as containers of action, but as co-authors of meaning.” How space “whether physical or social,” becomes “a site to unearth conflict, negotiation and power dynamics;” architecture “a score for living”, and how designing is composing: “to layer time, relation, and desire into form” beginning with longing, and centering the erotic. “To engage in spatial dramaturgy is to ask: What is this space rehearsing? And what other stories and worlds might it be capable of holding? Activating this lens, invites reflection through Black feminist thought, to dream how we might recompose the world otherwise, as led by the curiosities of those who have opted out of the dominant script and developed counter-compositional practices for survival, joy and memory.”
#narrativestrategy #deepnarrative
✏️ Read here
Raging Against the Dying Light: A Systems View of Human Futures
Julian Norris; Wolf Willow Institute
A review of the Cascade Institute's Polycrisis Core Model Technical Synopsis prompts an uncomfortable question: “are you preparing for collapse, resisting decline, or building alternatives?” The answer, “we need all three: resilience, resistance, and renewal,” with the insight that across the 10,000 possible ‘Hope attractor’ scenarios (0.25% of all possibilities*) “strong democracy” is a cross-cutting feature. This demands “a critical mass of mature, engaged citizens” equipped with “complexity consciousness” and “long-term, relational, ecological and principled perspectives.” All of which requires a shift in our “how we belong to and are in relationship with the world.” Norris calls this ‘worldview:’ something which “unfolds through the living relationship between the inner and outer arcs of our experience.” As such, shifting worldviews “becomes less reformation and more remembering. Not so much building new mental structures but dissolving back into the aliveness that predates all our stories about it.” *yes, it’s a lot like that scene in Avengers: Endgame
#narrativestrategy #deepnarrative
✏️ Read here
Noticeboard
🗓️ Event | 🎓 Course | 💼 Role
The Real Story Behind Big Oil
Earth Percent & Climate Spring
TODAY, Sep 4 | 17:00-19:30 GMT | London
“An exclusive opportunity to hear award-winning investigative journalists and leading climate advocates expose the tactics and propaganda playbook of Big Oil, and to share ideas on the role popular culture and artists can play in fighting back.” Includes a ‘Mad Men of Big Oil’ game show, and a panel discussion: “What can we do to reclaim the story?” with Amy Westervelt, investigative journalist, Founder, Critical Frequency; Tessa Khan, Founder/Director, Uplift; Amiera Sawas, Head of Research & Policy, Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty; Lucas Amin, Journalist & Founder, Democracy For Sale; hosted by Tori Tsui, Author, Activist, Senior Advisor, Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty. Live music from Gwenno Morgan.
Depth Education Collection
University of Victoria, Gesturing Towards Decolonial Futures
Sep 6 onwards (various) | Online
“In the face of compounding global crises, the Depth Education Series offers courses that support participants in confronting complicity in systemic harm, deepening relational intelligence and accountability, cultivating non-transactional partnerships with human and more-than-human intelligences – including AI. These courses invite participants on a learning journey beyond universal answers and simplistic solutions, toward more Earth-aligned and complexity-resilient futures.” Places are available across the various courses between September and November.
Launch: Britain Talks Climate & Nature research update
Climate Outreach & More In Common
Sep 11 | 11:00-12:15 GMT | Online
“What do British people think and feel about climate change and nature in 2025? And how do we involve and engage everyone when we talk about it?” An introduction to new research based on the MiC’s updated segmentation. The event is “designed to support communicators and leaders, to engage across British society thinking practically about how Britain Talks Climate & Nature can be used and put into practice” with “practical comms advice for engaging across audience segments.”
Trustee (Board Director)
Social Change Lab
Deadline: Sep 15 | Remote | Voluntary
“We are seeking to strengthen our Board of Directors with at least two new Directors who can bring diverse perspectives, expertise, and strategic guidance to help us maximise our impact. We are currently a non-profit company limited by guarantee, hoping to become a charity in the near future. This role would be a company Director for now and a charity trustee if our application is approved.”
Creative Integrity: How Leading Brands Are Rethinking Agency Partnerships
Creatives For Climate
Sep 17 | 15:00-16:00 GMT+1 | Online
“In June 2025, 30+ health bodies representing around 12 million health professionals globally, made a pledge to drop ad and PR agencies that also work with fossil fuel companies. This webinar marks this shift, outlining the risk of working with agencies who continue to drive planetary and health harm, and the pathways beyond and solutions.”
Make Them Pay
Various (civil society alliance)
Sep 20 | 12:00 GMT | Portland Place, London
“Make Them Pay is an ambitious and growing civil society alliance (64 orgs and counting), working to build unprecedented unity across the climate, workers’ and social justice movements. We’re demanding action that can tackle the climate crisis and social injustice, rebuilding society for the people who keep it running, not the rich and powerful. This is just the beginning. To sign up as an organisation, union or group, email contact@makethempay.org.uk”
🗓️ Details here
Storytellers x 2
Blagrave Trust
Deadline: Sep 21 | Contract | Hybrid
“We’re excited to be offering two new storytelling contracts – one for Challenge and Change and one for Roots & Routes. We’re looking for two brilliant storytellers to work with our partners, helping them share their stories of social change with the wider world. This opportunity is open to individuals, groups, or organisations — and in line with our values, we’ll be prioritising lived experience leaders and those from underrepresented communities. We are open to a storyteller delivering both contracts dependent on skill set and capacity. Please indicate in your proposal if you are interested in making a proposal for the delivery of both contracts.”
💼 Details here (Consultancy Vacancies tab)
Call for Consultants & Collaborators: Narrative Researchers & Strategists
NEON’s Messaging Programme
Deadline: 30th Sept | Contract | £350/day | Remote
“NEON is looking to expand our pool of trusted freelance narrative researchers, analysts, and strategists to support our growing messaging programme. If you’re a consultant experienced in progressive framing, messaging or narrative research and strategy – we want to hear from you!”
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.)
"If I promise my child survival, knowing the crossings are closed...Am I lying or loving?" – Duda Latif
“It's easy to get buried in the past // When you try to make a good thing last.” – Neil Young
“In organisations, real power and energy is generated through relationships. The patterns of relationships and the capacities to form them are more important than tasks, functions, roles, and positions.” – Margaret J. Wheatley
“Entanglement is evidence that the whole universe has ontological priority with respect to its parts: the parts derive their identity and properties from the whole, rather than the other way around.” – Olimpia Lombardi
“One is never afraid of the unknown; one is afraid of the known coming to an end.” – Jiddu Krishnamurti
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