Story-Based Strategy:Amplifying the Impact of Grassroots Organizing

Grassroots International October 22, 2009Boston, MA

PART I: Framing (15 mins)

We are made of stories

Stories help reinforce meaning and values in a culture.

Symbols help recall stories.

People don’t just tell stories. Stories tell people who we are, how to live...

Frame:“schemata of interpretation”(Goffman, 1974)

Frame-alignment: a process to explain social movement theory(Snow & Benford, 1988)

Core framing-tasks:1. Diagnostic framing for the identification of a problem and assignment of blame 2. Prognostic framing to suggest solutions, strategies, and tactics to a problem 3. Motivational framing that serves as a call to arms or rationale for action

Metaphors We Live By (1980) "Our ordinary conceptual system, in terms of which we both think and act,is fundamentally metaphorical in nature."

Embodied Mind almost all of human cognition, up through the most abstract reasoning, depends on and makes use of such concrete and "low-level" facilities as the sensorimotor system and the emotions.

Cognitive Science: "We are neural beings…”

Meta-Metaphor: Strict Father/Nurturant Parent

Elements of Story

Conflict

Characters

Show Don’t Tell Images & Symbols

Foreshadowing

(Underlying Assumptions)

Frame:

The larger story that shapes understanding of information, experiences, and messages; the structure and boundaries of a narrative that defines point-of-view and power. Frames operate is pre-existing narrative lenses in our minds.

PART II: Narrative Power Analysis, Memes & Control Memes (20 Mins)

NARRATIVE ANALYSIS OF

POWER

STORY-BASED

STRATEGYSTRATEGY

EXTERNALPhysical/Economic

INTERNALNarrative/Ideological

Power Over

Narrative Power Analysis

Changing the Stories: not what people don’t know, but what they do know =FILTERS

Examining Dominant Stories/Origin Myths in US Culture

Power shapes Point of View of the story

Stories can Normalize Power/Universalize Experience

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Meme“A unit of self replicating cultural information”

Contagious ideas, stories, images, and rituals that spread from imagination to imagination, generation to generation, shaping and shifting human cultures…

a capsule for a story to spread…

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“Loots” “Finds”

Illegal Aliens

Changing the Story…

Memes:

Resource Rights

Food Sovereignty

Global Justice

Social Movements

?

Positioning

Winning the Battle of the Story

Frame the Conflict Draws our attention to particular details of the story

and avoids others outside the frame

Amplifies the Voices of Impacted Characters Stories speak to us through relevant Spokespeople

Show Don’t Tell -- Engage Peoples Values A good story emphasizes values and imagery over data

Foreshadowing --Shows the Future/Offer Vision People will only go someplace that they have first been to in their minds

Challenges & Changes Underlying Assumptions

Audience

Who are you trying to talk to?

What do they value?

What do you want them to do?

How do they get their information?

Story of the Battle or Battle of the Story?

Can be limiting frame.

WHAT trumps WHY.

Mobilizes choir,doesn’t organize congregation.

Winning the Battle of the Story

Frame the Conflict Draws our attention to particular details of the story

and avoids others outside the frame

Amplifies the Voices of Impacted Characters Stories speak to us through relevant Spokespeople

Show Don’t Tell -- Engage Peoples Values A good story emphasizes values and imagery over data

Foreshadowing --Shows the Future/Offer Vision People will only go someplace that they have first been to in their minds

Challenges & Changes Underlying Assumptions

Elements of Story

Conflict

Characters

Show Don’t Tell Images & Symbols

Foreshadowing

(Underlying Assumptions)

Framing the Conflict

Characters

Who speaks for those most directly affected?

Images/Show Don’t Tell

Foreshadowing: Sets New Narratives into Motion

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Challenging Underlying Assumptions

Design: Campaign Narrative

ELMER HERE

Meme Campaign

Action Logic: World Bank on eBay

Action Logic: Capitol Climate Action

Encapsulating Story as Meme

Story-Based Strategy

Frames/Reframes the Narrative

Amplifies Voices of Sympathetic Characters

Engages Peoples Values

Show Don’t Tell (Images, Symbols, Pop Culture Icons)

Foreshadowing the Future We Want

Challenging Underlying Assumptions

story Amplify

Deepen Analysis/Connect

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Mobilize

Organize

www.smartmeme.org