Exploring how the concept of narratives is understood and used in peacebuilding, and what role we can play in engaging and influencing the broader ecosystem.
What needs to change to begin co-creating alternative worlds?
Our group set out to reimagine the use of narratives as a tool for peacebuilding. We noticed the diverse ways Community Members use narratives in their work and wondered how might we leverage narratives from the perspective of our translocal community.
Our hypothesis was that by developing a shared definition of “narratives”, we would make it easier for our translocal community to engage in meaningful conversations and harness their potential for peacebuilding. We value narratives because they help us understand perspectives that differ from our own yet hold equal truth for others. In polarized contexts, narratives bridge divides, counter misinformation, and create space for empathy and coexistence.
We knew that many initiatives, including the Institute for Integrated Transitions and the Horizons Project, had already done extensive exploratory work at the intersection of peacebuilding and narratives. Instead of starting from scratch, we focused on learning from their work and building on existing knowledge. Our process began by reading and analyzing resources to understand how narratives are used in peacebuilding contexts and to discuss how this was different or similar to how we had used them. This helped us identify key insights relevant to our translocal community. We also engaged with practitioners in the field, whose experiences enriched our own understanding. Conversations with them were really inspiring.
One of the main challenges we faced was defining an initial experiment that all five pod members could work on together. It was difficult to make sense of our diverse perspectives and goals as a group, which led us to divide into smaller, more focused experiments.
We confirmed that the ecosystems working around narratives are diverse, yet the power of narratives as a transformative tool is still constantly evolving and there are many exciting opportunities to pursue and experiment with. A key insight was the potential to distinguish between narratives and stories (or storytelling). While narratives provide broad frameworks that shape meaning, stories can be more specific and situational. Clarifying this distinction can allow us to use each tool more effectively according to our goals.
At points during this experiment, we felt disconnected, and many questions came up around how our community interacts and collaborates effectively. We believe that using Collectivibe or other internal communication tools could help spark further reflections and help begin to establish a shared understanding of narratives, starting with ourselves. We also close this first phase of experimentation intrigued by the role inner work can play in service of creating new narratives and curious to keep on exploring this.
