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Tactic Storytelling

Storytelling is an important tool for organizing and creating social change. By sharing personal stories, people become more invested in social issues and better able to build solidarity. The Obama campaign effectively used stories to engage voters. The It Gets Better project used stories to encourage LGBTQ youth and involve adults in suicide prevention. Social groups have also used stories through videos and publications to advocate for their rights and perspectives. In all these examples, storytelling allows people to discover themselves and each other, and stay hopeful in addressing challenges.

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49 views

Tactic Storytelling

Storytelling is an important tool for organizing and creating social change. By sharing personal stories, people become more invested in social issues and better able to build solidarity. The Obama campaign effectively used stories to engage voters. The It Gets Better project used stories to encourage LGBTQ youth and involve adults in suicide prevention. Social groups have also used stories through videos and publications to advocate for their rights and perspectives. In all these examples, storytelling allows people to discover themselves and each other, and stay hopeful in addressing challenges.

Uploaded by

exwizard
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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TACTIC

STORYTELLING
Storytelling is far more than telling a tale; it’s a way of organizing reality — and political power. A good
story can build group solidarity, develop a shared analysis of a social problem, and up participation.

CONTRIBUTED BY
Paul VanDeCarr
Paul VanDeCarr is the managing director of
Working Narratives, an organization that
collaborates with social justice groups to use
stories to create change. Previously, he has
worked in such storytelling forms as oral history,
theatre, and documentary film.

“STORYTELLING IS NOT JUST A FORM OF PUBLICITY, BUT A


MEANS OF ORGANIZING.”

“The world changes according to the way people see it, and if you POTENTIAL RISKS
alter, even by a millimetre, the way . . . people look at reality, then
you can change it.” Storytelling can be fun and
—James Baldwin creative, but don’t get seduced
into thinking you’re making
In the last few hours you’ve probably heard, told, or thought of change when you’re just
several dozen stories: a news report, a love song, an online video, a satisfying your own creative
daydream, a piece of gossip among friends. Stories are a impulses. Storytelling, for all its
fundamental aspect of human consciousness: Through their insights transformative power, also
into cause and effect, they are how we make sense of the world appeals to our narcissistic
around us, and we can tap into that power in our efforts to make obsession with technology and
social change (see: PRINCIPLE: Think narratively). media: You make a video, put it
online, and get some views and
In order to bring about social change, people must come together comments. What’s not to love?
to recognize shared challenges, figure out solutions to those Besides, it seems so much easier
challenges, identify allies and enemies, and build the relationships to “change the story” than to
needed to apply pressure and win. All of that happens in no small “change the world.” It’s not.
part through stories. Changing the world through
stories is as hard as by any other
Seen in this light, storytelling is not just a form of publicity, but also
means, and it requires us being
a means of organizing. Storytelling is never just a top-down
generous, courageous, and
transmission of ideas to a passive audience; at its best, storytelling
shrewd with our stories, as well
goes in all directions. People respond to your stories; they may
as willing to leave behind stories
contest them or mash them up; they share their own stories in
that no longer serve us,
response; or pass your stories on in their own words.
recognize when our stories no
Popular storytelling of this sort changes the storytellers just as much longer fit who we are, and write
as it changes the audience. When people share their personal new stories capable of pulling us
stories on a social issue, they become more invested in that issue into our ideal future.
because it is now theirs.
RELATED TOOLS
Consider a few uses of popular storytelling: Stories

To learn: GlobalGiving collected narratives from partner - Angola 15+2


communities in Africa as a way of evaluating the needs and - Citizens’ Posse
strengths of those communities. Those stories influenced - Ghana ThinkTank
GlobalGiving’s direction, and the youth they hired to collect stories - Harry Potter Alliance
got more involved in their communities. - Modern-Day Slavery Museum
- #ThisFlag
To organize: When 2008 Obama campaign volunteers told stories of - Trail of Dreams
“self, us and now” to each other, they learned how to speak with
voters in personal terms about the issues of the day, and build an Tactics
ever-growing base of supporters. Now, community groups
worldwide use the Public Narrative method developed by organizer - Cultural disobedience
and educator Marshall Ganz. - Forum theatre
- Hashtag campaign
To educate: In the It Gets Better Project, responding to tragically - Image theatre
high rates of suicide among LGBTQ youth, tens of thousands of - Legislative theatre
LGBTQ adults and their allies told their personal stories as a way of - Music video
encouraging LGBTQ young people to stay alive long enough to get
to the good stuff. The project reached youth directly, got adults Principles
personally involved in suicide prevention, and raised money for a
- Brand or be branded
much-needed hotline.
- Consider your audience
To advocate: Sex workers in South Africa, intellectually disabled - Expose inequality with a viral
people in Moldova, and other groups funded by the OSF Health gesture
Media Initiative have told their stories through videos, publications, - Lead with sympathetic
and other media to persuade policymakers to recognize their rights. characters
People most directly affected became the protagonists of their own - Reframe the issue
stories, rather than being relegated to the status of secondary - Seek common ground
characters while their helpers or advocates took top billing. The - Think narratively
same is true for prisoner families and former prisoners sharing their
Theories
stories on the Nation Inside platform, as part of the movement to
end mass incarceration. For example, the Campaign for Prison - Action logic
Phone Justice, hosted on the Nation Inside platform, used stories as - Framing
part of a successful effort to pressure the Federal Communications - Memes
Commission to regulate the exorbitant cost of phone calls from US - New Pan-Afrikanism
correctional facilities. - Prefigurative politics
- Theatre of the Oppressed
In all these instances, storytelling is a creative endeavor. Every time
we tell a story, we create something. In the process of articulating Methodologies
what we can and want to accomplish together, we discover
ourselves and each other. When we tell stories about our attempts - Battle of the story
to correct injustice, we stay hopeful and strong. Telling stories is not - Hardship to grievance
just the way we talk about our challenges, it is one of the vital - Story of self, us, and now
means we have for meeting those challenges.
TAGS

Communications, Community
LEARN MORE building

Re-Imagining Change: How to Use Story-Based Strategy to Win


Campaigns, Build Movements, and Change the World
Doyle Canning and Patrick Reinsborough, 2017, 2nd Edition
https://pmpress.org.uk/product/reimagining-change-how-to-use-story-based-
strategy-to-win-campaigns-build-movements-and-change-the-world/

Storytelling and Social Change: A Strategy Guide


Working Narratives
http://workingnarratives.org/story-guide/

Vision, Values and Voice: A Social Justice Communications Toolkit


The Opportunity Agenda
http://toolkit.opportunityagenda.org/

Dream: Re-Imagining Progressive Politics in an Age of Fantasy


Stephen Duncombe, 2007
http://www.stephenduncombe.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Dream_final.pdf

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