NI Blog
Here you will find case studies, interviews, insights, and reflections from staff.
Campaigners, funders, strategists and storytellers are all thinking about the systems and tools needed to measure, teach and test narrative change strategies. At Meeting the Populist Moment, a convening co-hosted by Narrative Initiative and Open Society Foundations in Berlin this past June, participants spoke of narrative infrastructure in a time...
We live in a moment of great transformations in how we understand ourselves, society, democracy, reality, and the future. While some of these manifestations can seem devastating, others are deeply inspiring. Perhaps Rebecca Solnit says it best: “We are building something immense together that, though invisible and immaterial, is a...
Narrative Initiative recently brought 100 people from around the world to Berlin for Meeting the Populist Moment. From idea to execution, we learned lessons about the power of bringing people together from a small office in Brooklyn. Successful gatherings connect people and create conditions for the formation of a “we.”...
Neoliberalism has been the dominant political and economic paradigm for the last 40 years. It has redistributed wealth and power upward, influencing everything from government policies to business blueprints and global trade deals to collective bargaining agreements. Neoliberalism has also reshaped the way we think about ourselves and the world...
A dozen useful insights and reports from the intersection of narrative, movement power and culture change. Narrative change can be complex. It’s a practice that includes identifying and creating narratives, injecting and translating narratives across activities and coalitions, supporting networked narrative work with dissemination tools and training (not to mention...
Last week, organizers, storytellers, artists and technologists from North America and Europe gathered in Berlin for three days at Meeting the Populist Moment. The convening was part of a longer process exploring how the global rise of populism is rupturing traditional political systems and resulting in opportunities to shift deep...
Starting in 2016, Narrative Initiative began gathering up different ways people talk about narrative change, how it’s structured, and how it moves in the world. As our staff—a team experienced in capacity building, organizing, communications, philosophy and culture work—engage partners and practitioners, we’ve found it helpful to highlight existing terms...
Recapping, and reflecting on, what over 100 changemakers told us about narrative change and grassroots advocacy. The human impulse–no, necessity–to make sense of the world, to justify values and bolster beliefs, is innate and immutable. Two years ago, the Narrative Initiative (NI) team interviewed over 100 people working in and...
We’re excited to introduce you to the Narrative Initiative’s Advisory Board. Each of these people inspires us daily with their deep experience and innovative ideas. Collectively, it’s a diverse group working in advocacy, storytelling, strategic communications, nonprofit leadership, law, academics and other fields. We also want to thank outgoing Advisory...
Decoding Narrative Technology
Technology is neither good nor bad; nor is it neutral. – Melvin Kranzberg I was born in Washington DC in the early 1980s. I have seen computers introduced into classrooms and witnessed the tragic sale of my family’s rotary phone. The cringe-inducing sound of dial-up progressed to an email account,...