Conditions to Flourish: Understanding the Ecosystem for Narrative Power
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In 2021, a group of activists, campaigners, communications experts, researchers, artists, journalists, filmmakers, organisers and creatives from around the world, and from across different movements, began a vast collaboration. What united the group is a deep belief in the importance of narratives to create systemic change and an understanding that this can only happen when movements themselves possess the knowledge and resources to effectively use narrative strategies and take collective action.
It paints a picture of the ecosystem of actors who are working to build narrative power in movements, as well as of the movements themselves. The picture shows different groupings — or kinds of actors — within this ecosystem, the interconnections between them and what they need to succeed.
Conditions to Flourish lifts up the main themes from hundreds of conversations with members of civil society movements, and the narrative and communications workers supporting them, that took place during the co-creation process from which the Global Narrative Hive emerged.
The term ‘narratives’ has specific interpretations within different academic disciplines and fields; this mapping focuses on narratives within the context of social movements working to create sustainable change.
This synthesis is one of a number of resources published in 2023 as part of the Global Narrative Hive’s launch. Most importantly, it highlights what practitioners and members of movements are themselves saying about the contexts in which they are operating and what they need. This is a perspective that we believe is too often missing from analysis of this ecosystem.
This picture is, ultimately, based around a vision of what a healthy, just and successful ecosystem for narratives work could be. This is one where the key actors have strong relationships; are able to align their efforts when they need to; are resourced for the long run; and where they are able to share and benefit from the learning that they are collectively generating.
This is an ecosystem where, in the words of the generous visionaries at ReFrame,
“[movements are] not only end-product consumers of narrative; they are essential creators and drivers of narrative change”
Many diverse groups of actors together make up the ecosystem of narratives work. This mapping has broadly categorised them into three groups — narrative actors, movement actors, and funders — to help understand better their roles, perspectives and needs.
Narrative Actors
Individuals and groups involved in bringing knowledge, relationships and capabilities that can (or could) be used by movements to learn about, generate and disseminate narratives.
These include ‘Builders’ — those who are involved in generating knowledge, guidance or building power of movements around narratives and supporting the development of narratives — and “Creators and Broadcasters” — those that are involved in supporting the dissemination of these narratives).
Movement Actors
Individuals, initiatives, organisations and networks that are seeking change through collective action. The movements that we have been working with are working for rights, freedom, equality, dignity, peace, democracy and the planet.
This categorisation of movement actors includes both formal organisations (INGOs and NGOs) as well as other entities including social movements and actors operating online to shift values. Unlike the ‘Builders’ described above, they aren’t categorised by their function — it’s our view that all of them have a critical role to play in narratives work — but they are distinguished from each other on the basis of their structure and position within civil society.
Funders
The actors working to provide resources to the different parts of the ecosystem. Some of these could be considered as part of movements but have been separated out given the distinct characteristics and role they might play.
Observations from the Ecosystem
The ecosystem is a remarkably fragmented system with siloes and separation appearing across multiple dimensions.
“To use an agricultural metaphor, the current system is focused on generating and cascading seeds of knowledge, but overlooking the soil where it is hoped that this will flourish.”
Looking again at the ecosystem as a whole, there were certain key themes articulated by actors throughout the different parts of it. These were as follows:
- A powerful desire to find ways to work on narratives across different movements, in other words to ‘build common cause’.
- A need to bring people into a community and facilitate space, time and healing to help build relationships between those within the community and those seeking to support the community externally.
- A strong interest in the role of futures, as well as planting narrative ‘seeds’ that could be harvested in the future, in the way that anti-rights actors were seen to be effectively utilising.
- A desire for better measurement and evidence about narratives, particularly to be able to show ‘what works’.
There was a widespread recognition that movements were having to react defensively to crises with short-term strategies and that this needed to be balanced with the building of longer-term visions.
In tandem, there was an interest and desire to explore and potentially adopt new tools, new platforms and new tactics.
Finally, there is recognition across the ecosystem of the challenges in building movements’ power to lead narratives work. Many activists are being threatened and almost everyone is feeling that they are living through multiple crises. This has several impacts on the narratives space; for example, activist communities who are already marginalised and discriminated against risk being exposed to attacks both online and in real life if they become more visible and vocal. A call for more support in the form of care and security for those working to shift narratives was raised repeatedly throughout this process.
Read more about the needs articulated among narrative actors and movement actors by downloading the full report, here.
