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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
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