Thinking in systems: digital storytelling, knowledge hierarchies and environmental narratives

Thinking in systems: digital storytelling, knowledge hierarchies and environmental narratives

Dr Antonia LiguoriLoughborough University Dr Liz RobertsUWE, Bristol

A question as backgroundDo you think that using stories might be a way of getting people into the debate about drought, water scarcity and climate change?

https://soundcloud.com/antonia-liguori/reflecting-on-knowledge-systems-with-prof-mike-wilson-loughborough-university Reflecting on knowledge systems with Prof. Mike Wilson (Loughborough University)

As a starting point of our reflection about the use of digital storytelling to dismantle knowledge hierarchies, today Id like to use a question that you can hear at the end of this audio file. This is a short extract of a seminar that we had a couple of weeks ago at the Swedish International Centre of Education for Sustainable Development in Uppsala where Professor Wilson presented our research project DRY Drought Risk and You and told how he built this connection between his research interest on storytelling and broadly speaking - the debate around climate change. He mentioned a conversation he had at the Department of Energy and Climate Change, with the Communication Department, about how to engage public in the climate change conversation. And this is a short piece of that story, of that particular moment when Mike Wilson found that link.

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Holism, systems andReflecting on the meanings to identify specific dynamicsHolism enables us to link theory and practice in a learning cycle (Michael C. Jackson, 2006)System is an interconnected set of elements that is coherently organized in a way that achieves something (Donella H. Meadows, 2007) Keywords: interdisciplinary research, language, linear vs non-linear, complexityQuestion: Is it possible to discuss systems only with words?

Reflecting on different knowledge systems stimulates a crucial consideration of language.

And in fact every time Im in a meeting with the multi-disciplinary team of Drought Risk and You - DRY Project the project Im going to run over later on I feel as a necessity a deeper reflection on meanings. Sometimes we use the same words with different meanings (what does it mean data for a hydrologist? And what else for a Professor of Drama? Do they both collect/extract data in their research?). Sometimes we mean the same concepts by using different terms, but at the end of the day we can find a common ground as we might do for instance if we started a conversation about holism and systems to reflect on the digital storytelling methodology.Systems theory has had a far-reaching influence with its promise of providing a mechanism to integrate the social and natural (Pelling 2011).To summarize the main ideas of this theory, I like to use the metaphor of the Slinky described by Donella H. Meadows in her publication about Thinking in systems (2007). She explains: The hands that manipulate it suppress or release some behavior that is already latent within the structure of the spring. That is a central insight of systems theory. And it is central in our research if we reflect on how different communities might react to similar drought or extreme weather events. And we have to understand these different results if we have in mind as we planned in DRY Project to develop an innovative drought science-narrative resource that can be used in decision-making for drought risk management in UK.

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Holsim, systems and[Visualising our systems]Knowledge systemsA system of narrativesIndigenous /lay knowledgeTacit knowledgeExpert knowledgeTraditional knowledgeExperiential knowledgeMedia narrativesCommunity memoryLife storiesLocal narrativesDiscourses (e.g. scientific)Social learning

After having read papers and books about the systems theory Im wondering if it is possible to discuss systems only with words And my answer is no.As Donella H. Meadows argues, systems happen all at once. They are connected not just in one direction, but in many directions simultaneously. To discuss them properly, it is necessary somehow to use a language that shares some of the same properties as the phenomena under discussion. She suggests the use of pictures because you can see all the parts of a picture at once -; she also depicts her theory with graphical language just to be understood easily.We propose to use digital stories to investigate people behaviours and the connections between feelings/concerns and the place where they live or have their business when we talk about water scarcity and water use in a broader sense. Also Donella H. Meadows surname awakened in my mind something essential for my first assumption of this paper to present the digital storytelling as a way to decode the multiple languages of complex systems, that is the definition of digital storytelling given by Daniel Meadows.

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a definition of digital storytellingStoring information means increasing the complexity of the mechanism (Ramon Margalef, 1975)Everything we do as individuals, as an industry, or as a society is done in the context of an information-feedback system (Jay W. Forrester, 1989) Digital storytelling - echoing Daniel Meadows - is a form of holistic thinking that has production values that come from the scrapbook Keywords: personal narratives, feedback, storing vs sharingQuestion: Which is the influence of feedback while we are making (and sharing) a digital story?

Again similarities and inspirations starting from definitions: Ramon Margalef reveals stocks as the foundation of any system when he writes: Storing information means increasing the complexity of the mechanism. And while Im thinking of stories digital stories as a stratification of memories, I bring to my mind what Michael Wilson called the mess in storytelling () to primarily describe a range of multiplicities (multiplicities of forms, of media, of perspectives, of truths, of meanings, of texts, of relationships) (Wilson, 2014).And again when Jay W. Forrester talks about the information-feedback system as context of everything we do as individuals or as society, immediately he stimulates my constant reflection on the process of digital storytelling as defined by Joe Lambert in the Digital Storytelling Cookbook (2010). Namely the information-feedback system plays its role in the seventh step Sharing your story when the journey of self-understanding becomes something different, something more: when its time to reflect on the audience and the potential influence of the feedback in the making process.Back to Meadows our Meadows, Daniel Meadows especially in this research project, we are applying the digital storytelling methodology as one of multiple narrative approaches to stimulate a holistic thinking (Meadows, 2009) and we are trying to recognize in that process the production values that come from the scrapbook to braid together different perspectives and develop more nuanced views.It is behind "holistic" health care that tries not only to cure disease but also to build up a body's internal resistance. Thus we are trying to increase communities resilience by using our holistic approach that consists in brokering knowledge. We are not trying to understand how a community could find its stability or productivity, but how could be flexible and practice its resistance in response to extreme weather events.But then there is one word that is very common in the systems theory that we are absolutely not able to use or re-adapt in our context, and this term is hierarchy. Thinking in system (from a scientific perspective, if we think about highly functional system) includes a hierarchical organization of subsystems, whereas we are using the digital storytelling to dismantle hierarchies. In fact one of the aims of DRY Project is to subvert the knowledge hierarchies by using the digital storytelling. And the co-production of knowledge (emphasizing the importance of experiential knowledge) is crucial to encourage active citizenship and increase democratic participation.

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DS as a tool for public engagement and social learningDigital Storytelling as a way of knowing (Wilson)https://soundcloud.com/antonia-liguori/storytelling-as-a-way-of-knowing

Keywords:experiential knowledge,lay vs expert,reliabilityvs scepticism,knowledge brokering

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsLZTQ66m8c

But lets use now the visual language to understand how we are using the digital storytelling as a tool for social learning.This is a story made during another research project funded by AHRC and coordinated by Professor Michael Wilson who is now leading the narrative approach in DRY Project. The main focus of Project Aspect was on How digital storytelling might be used as a tool to engage the public with the issue of climate change?And this is Heathers story.{VIDEO Heathers story }What we are trying to do is facilitating a dialogue between lay and experts through a learning process based on specific examples rather than abstractions and generalities. And we as digital storytelling facilitator are acting as knowledge brokers to create or maintain links between researchers and their audience via the appropriate translation of research findings (Lomas, 1997) or -perhaps better - to reach new audiences and listen to unheard voices.And to propose Digital Storytelling as a different way of knowing{AUDIO Storytelling as a way of knowing}

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Working with communities in 7 river catchments Keywords: top-down vs bottom-up, exchange, identity, networkQuestion: Are we able to subvert the knowledge hierarchies?

Just to give you a quick overview of the context of our research in DRY Project We are working in seven river catchments across seven different domains or sectors, such as agriculture, built environment, business, ecosystem services, health and wellbeing, water supply and communities (seven is a recurring number here around this table today remember the 7 steps of the DS methodology and the 7 stages in the last publication by Joe Lambert). And we are organising digital storytelling workshops to stimulate science-narrative exchange within same catchments among different domains and/or within same domains across different catchments.In this context one of the central methodological questions, which remain unanswered in climate change adaptation research, is exactly how public policy can learn from highly contextual experiences of community-based adaptation and what role should be played by case study research?.And we are talking about a highly contextual community-based research, since we are analyzing personal stories. And place, specific places are the background to stories and memories and also the context through which stories emerge (Pile 2002).

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The inclusiveness of digital storytellingConversational narratives to stimulate new storiesKeywords: participation, decision-making, multiple actors, common values

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3whYiTcnG_o&feature=youtu.be https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FmviVi10bU

What remains unchallengeable is the inclusiveness of digital storytelling and other narrative approaches that we are also applying as prompt for discussion about drought and water use. And of course the effectiveness of this methodology to build mutual trust.Here we have other two videos: the first one is not a digital story: we might call it a digital conversational story- actually is an informal conversational narrative, produced outside of the workshop setting. Wed like to use it as a stimulus for new narratives. In my opinion this kind of conversational materials -as questions generated from lay people who have common values or who use the same language of people we are engaging - might trigger personal reflections and help in finding the focus on conventional digital stories . And its actually a digital story the second video that Id like to share with you, again from Project Aspect.{VIDEOS: Drought awareness, scientists and media and Incredible Edible Todmorden- Mary's Story}Both videos, in my opinion, work very well as trigger for social learning.

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What matters is not structures, but relationships.(Scientific Advisor to the Welsh Assembly)

Keywords: resilience narratives, formal vs informal relationshipsQuestion: Do visual narratives allow unheard voices to enter the official discourse?

Just to end with a quote, another quote, but this time is not from an academic paper, but from an official document of the Scientific Advisor to the Welsh Assembly. They were talking about climate change, as we are doing; they underlined the importance of relationships, as we are doing while we are collecting resilience narratives. But they are using a language that is more similar to the one that we have explored in the system theory.Taking the position that narrative can be understood as a system, we propose the use of digital storytelling as a participatory visual method to broaden engagement with diverse communities. Our aim is not to communicate the science better, but to connect personal stories with science, dismantle knowledge hierarchies and stimulate active citizenship.

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Drought Risk and You is research funded byNatural Environment Research Council NERCEconomic and Social Research Council ESRCEngineering and Physical Sciences Research Council EPSRCBiotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council BBSRCArts and Humanities Research Council AHRC

http://dryproject.co.uk/

@ a.liguori@lboro.ac.uk

Thank you!