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The tools in this Chapter are intended for use:
“Well-told stories help turn moments of great crises into moments of new beginnings.”
“Las historias bien contadas ayudan a convertir momentos de gran crisis en momentos de nuevos comienzos.”
— Marshall Ganz
Stories and narratives are distinct in their relation to advocacy. Stories can shift narratives and can be leveraged to build community power.
Stories are a powerful way to connect with others. The stories that are told, believed, and repeated shape who is seen, who is heard, and what change feels possible.
Stories can show the real-life impacts of policy decisions and the ways that systems interact with real people. The stories that people tell themselves shape their behaviors and belief systems.
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❗Why This Matters for Building Power❗
Stories are a powerful tool in an advocate’s and organizer's toolbox because they**:**
Stories are the building blocks for a narrative. The sum of the stories on any side of an issue builds the narrative. A dominant narrative is defined as the set of widely accepted ideas that shape the default perception of an issue. Advocates and organizers may engage in establishing counter-narratives that challenge harmful dominant narratives about issues that matter to them.
This collection of dominant and counter narratives creates a narrative landscape , influencing how an issue is understood, discussed, or acted on. Figure 3.1 illustrates this interplay between stories and narratives.
Figure 3.1: Narrative Landscape
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A narrative landscape on the issue of public benefit programs can look like this:
Dominant narrative: “People who rely on public benefits are lazy and don’t contribute to society.”
Counter-narrative: “Access to public benefit programs helps lift our most vulnerable communities out of poverty and support working families to make ends meet.”
These narratives are reinforced through stories, and power is exercised by determining whose stories are told and considered legitimate.
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Through a battle of competing narratives, advocates vie for dominance of their positions on an issue in public discourse. Different advocates may frame the same issue in opposing ways, and the narrative that gains the most traction shapes how that issue is understood. When one narrative becomes dominant, opposing views can be pushed to the margins.
Narratives are in a constant state of flux, with several external factors influencing whether they become dominant in the public discourse about an issue. For example, a dominant narrative about public benefits is given more power and dominance if it is repeated across media, throughout the course of advocacy initiatives, and in everyday conversations. Moreover, narratives that align closely with personal values, such as freedom, dignity, family, and fairness, tend to gain more traction within a narrative landscape. Typically, emotions are strongly associated with personal values, eliciting stronger responses to narratives that align with or are counter to those values.
When a harmful narrative about issues that are important to advocates and organizers becomes dominant, storytelling becomes crucial to build counter narratives for more effective issue-based campaigns, advocacy efforts, or movement-building initiatives.
Through storytelling, advocates build narrative power, also known as ideological power or the third face of political power. The way in which advocates frame their stories about an issue helps to create strong narratives.
Oftentimes, organizers and advocates must combat harmful narratives about their communities. As part of this work, they also need to grapple with the following questions: