Disruptive Narratives

​What is a narrative?
In its simplest term, a narrative is a story. In systems change advocacy, when we refer to narratives, we’re referencing the deeply held beliefs that shape people’s actions. It’s not any one story, it is the collection of stories, memes, tweets, videos, sermons, books, and dinner table conversations that either help maintain the status quo or give momentum to a change movement.

There is a growing acknowledgement of the power these stories can have. Isabel Crabtree-Condor is a knowledge broker for Oxfam, and she describes narratives as the invisible force that hold things in place and prevents change, even shuts down conversations about change.

​In Crabtree-Condor’s book, Narrative Power and Collective Action: Conversations with people working to change narratives for social good. Part 1, she writes “For me, understanding narratives and what lies behind or under them, is one way of digging more consciously into that invisible web of forces that maintain the status quo.”

Here are some of my other favourite answers from the book to her question, “What are narratives?”

• “Stories and narratives are what define us as humans. They provide the frameworks through which we view and understand the world.’ - Aidan Muller
• “Narratives are about invisible power. How perceptions, belief systems, and ideology shape the way people define what is ‘right’ and what is ‘wrong’.” - Phumi Mtetwa

And from Part 2 of the same collection:

• "I think of a narrative like a song that leaves you with a feeling. It isn’t just a piece of news, but something that stays with you, sits in you, and makes you think...you aren’t aware that you are getting a message, but it travels through you." - Rohini Mohan

 
How narratives help or hinder
Crabtree-Condor writes: “[Narratives] are also being used to persuade people that the status quo is inevitable, change is not possible, and participation or activism is pointless. They keep ideas that don’t serve the majority in place. … Social, public, or dominant narratives help to legitimize existing power relationships, prop them up, and make them seem natural.”
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Using narratives for good
Narratives can also be used to reclaim power, and connect and mobilize communities to action.
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Often, rather than countering problematic narratives head on, it is more effective to provide alternate narratives (similar to what we have done here with income supports and substance use). 

• Consider beliefs you may hold around hard work and wealth, around following the rules and success, or around productivity and worth.
• Ask yourself, who benefits when we maintain these beliefs? What, if any, extractive systems do these beliefs nurture? 
• As you create alternate narratives, endeavor to make them generous, inclusive, optimistic narratives with room for people who are different from you. 

Want to explore further?

• Narrative Power and Collective Action: Conversations with people working to change narratives for social good. Part 1
• This useful summary of the key themes of the Narrative Power and Collective Action conversations.
• The Other Story podcast