Narrative change is an essential tool for our movement. As narrative organizers seek to build a vibrant and equitable democracy where everyone belongs and everyone has a voice, we need to overcome a few obstacles that, while not insurmountable, will require practice!
We must evolve the stories about our communities at the helm of how and where they are shared. Narrative change results from narrative organizing, namely the deliberate practice of bringing people and organizations together to hold and achieve a shared narrative goal. While it is invariably a long process, narrative change is worth the investment it requires because it allows people to find the best path forward through building narrative power.
At Narrative Initiative, we believe building narrative power helps to achieve three important things:
Build a future where frontline narratives are dominant narratives
Shift who owns and run the narrative ‘means of production’
Make community-led policy change and culture change durable
Why do Narrative Research?
Narrative research is a vital tool for any organization, foundation, coalition, or network working with frontline communities. It helps uncover what is being said, how it's said, and why these narratives matter to individuals and communities. At Narrative Initiative we are fortunate to have the mighty shoulders of movement experience from Rinku Sen and conceptual designs from Rachel Weidinger serve as a blueprint for our landscaping efforts. Our narrative research is always improved and iterated upon as we talk to more people and learn from their generous sharing of stories. By researching the stories told about identity, space and place, opportunity, or belonging, narrative research enables us to strengthen our collective orientation with precision in three major ways outlined below.
Narrative research helps to foster deeper solidarity between individuals and groups. Creating space for dialogue and shared understanding allows us to see the common threads that unite across different backgrounds, struggles, and visions. Narrative organizing, as a practice, thrives on the power of many voices. It is inherently polyvocal, meaning it doesn't just amplify one perspective, but rather brings together diverse experiences and viewpoints. This diversity is crucial because it allows for a more holistic, nuanced understanding of the issues.
Narrative research supports narrative alignment. When you share a common narrative framework, you can align strategies and action around a specific goal and avoid risks of fragmentation that weaken the movement or make it vulnerable to outside forces that seek to divide or mislead. When groups and movements share a common narrative framework, they can align their strategies and actions around a unified purpose. This alignment can be a powerful force, enabling coordinated action across campaigns and movements. People power matters.
Narrative research uplifts new leadership within the movement. When new voices emerge and critical perspectives come into play, research allows organizations to recognize and empower those voices, helping to cultivate a new generation of narrative leaders who are equipped to carry the movement forward.
Ultimately, narrative change is an ambitious goal that is unlikely to happen overnight. But through a combination of strategic insight and relentless focus, narrative research enables groups to stay rooted in their mission while evolving in response to the changing tides of culture, politics, and society. It becomes a tool for understanding the world and transforming it.
Tools in the toolkit 1: Research Design
Our research design centers on the principle of self-determination, prioritizing the voices of people with lived experience. We encourage you to engage these individuals and their communities as narrative practitioners. We believe that this approach fosters transformative and generative outcomes across diverse sectors and identities.
After identifying narrative practitioners, our projects unfold in two phases:
Phase One: Landscape and Assessment: We begin by understanding the narrative landscape within which an issue or dynamic is operating and assessing the collective capacity to drive narrative change. This phase helps identify key needs and challenges.
Phase Two: Interventions: In the second phase, we test narrative interventions—like mini-campaigns. Our initial findings will inform these interventions and be supported by technical assistance and a community of practice.
This research ensures that narrative change is grounded in real-world experiences.
Tools in the toolkit 2: Selecting research participants and advisory boards
Advisors
At Narrative Initiative, we like to think of our work as issue agnostic, said another way we tend to collaborate on a variety of issues and policies. To ensure that we are well-positioned to understand the nuance and complexity of a policy agenda or a lived-experience, we often employ advisors on our research projects. These advisors can provide context, orientation and direct feedback for the efficacy of the research project, especially as it pertains to subject matter expertise. Most importantly, these advisors provide community accountability on research projects that may not have a baked-in community partner.
Depending on the scope of the project, we will try to recruit 3-6 advisors. These research project advisors can help in any number of ways but in particular, can help with:
Identifying, gathering, curating, and interviewing thought leaders in the research area
Recommending literature in the research area, including existing polling
Participate in sensemaking and review analysis and research findings to give us feedback
We generally budget to stipend these advisors to compensate them for their labor.
Research Participants
The people Narrative Initiative asks to participate in a research project are typically engaged in the issue area we are exploring. They might be organizers with a local organization managing volunteers; they could be a policy advocate for a specific community or issue area; they might be a lawyer who utilizes the legal system to highlight solutions for the challenges workers and migrants face; or they might be an artist who uses their craft to raise up voices and awareness. No matter the lineage or background of a person, as long as they are available to be in dialogue and candidly share their experiences, they are a good research participant. At Narrative Initiative, we prioritize lived experience. We encourage everyone doing narrative research to center and learn from people with lived experience. A best practice is to identify a list of would-be research participants, and to track outreach, RSVPs, and scheduling in a spreadsheet or database so you can see how many people you have vs how many people you need, as well as a projected number of participants and the dates for the discussions. Having multiple people from a single organization participating can sometimes be useful, especially when they are wearing different hats and fill different roles, such that they each bring a unique perspective that can inform your project.
Tools in the toolkit 3: Conducting interviews
Interviews are key to understanding what is needed to build and hold a shared understanding of the narrative landscape in which these communities exist, and how their collective definitions fit within an ecosystem of partners to create narrative change. These interviews, or “listening sessions,” are typically 60 minutes, one-on-one or panel style, held virtually, and are recorded using a transcription service for later analysis (Sample discussion guide).
Below are four guidelines we find helpful when conducting interviews:
Provide the participants with definitions of relevant language and critical themes and the context of the project.
Describe helpful narratives as the things that make your work easier and harmful narratives as the opposite: things that make your work harder.
Ask participants to share their perspectives on the helpful and harmful narratives they encounter daily in their work.
Listen deeply to responses in each session and ask follow-up, probing questions to gather more data.
Tools in the toolkit 4: Sensemaking and Identifying deep narratives
Deep narratives are the stickiest themes and ideas that have permeated stories for more than 50 years. They undergird collections of narratives and circumscribe how we make sense of our relationships to ourselves, others, and the broader world. They impact how we view power – who can exercise it, how, when, and for what purpose.
After you’ve finished your interviews, it’s time to analyze the content and identify patterns. There are diverse approaches and methods you can use to analyze narratives. Here’s how we advise making sense of narratives you uncover:
Identify Underlying Narratives. When encountering messages, stories, or values, ask yourself: What deeper narrative is being expressed? Look beyond the surface and consider the values or worldviews these narratives represent. For example, is the narrative rooted in fear, hope, equity, or individualism?
Ensure Comparability To make sense of the narratives, compare like with like. It can be helpful to group narratives by themes to analyze them better. Focus on comparing narratives that share similar themes or values to draw clearer conclusions.
Categorize the Narratives Once you've identified the narratives, start grouping them into two main categories: helpful and harmful.
Helpful Narratives: These support justice, equity, and positive social change.
Harmful Narratives: These may reinforce oppression, inequality, or injustice.
Define and Clarify Briefly define each narrative within your categories. For each, include a description and provide examples that illustrate how the narrative shows up in real life.
With these narratives clearly identified and categorized, you can use them to guide decision-making, communication, and organizing efforts. By understanding how harmful narratives influence people’s beliefs and behaviors, you can shift conversations towards more helpful, justice-oriented worldviews.
We would love to hear how these DIY research tips worked for you—stay in touch and let us know what helped or any questions you have to our Program Associate, Zakyree Wallace at la@narrativeiniative.org!