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We are about to start our learning journey. We invite you to put on your headphones, fasten your concentration belt and let yourself be inspired by our introductory video:
This content is based on the ideas of narrative leaders such as Reframe, Hope-based Comms, the Global Narrative Hive, the Narrative Avengers, Race Forward, N-Map and other organizations worldwide. We merge their contributions with our Latin American perspective to offer social justice movements a renewed vision of human rights communication.
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Creating Narratives to Change History
A narrative is a set of stories interconnected by common values that, told repeatedly over time and through different media, build a vision of the world, that is, what we understand as common sense.
Scroll through each image to find out how data does not matter so much when the power of narratives has been positioned in society.
A key concept to understand the power of narratives is hegemonic narratives, or rather, those narratives that most people in a society perceive as common sense and that are reinforced through the media, movies, common proverbs, songs, among many other examples.
Let's go back to the example of sharks. Most people consider it common sense to avoid swimming near a shark at all costs, since we assume that it is dangerous. Anyone who dares to swim among sharks is a brave and even extreme person, even if evidence shows that if they are not attacked, these animals are not dangerous.
As with this example, we can think of the stories that have traditionally been told about women, migrants, indigenous communities and many other groups, which have become common sense. Our job as activists is to tell different stories and thus to expand social imaginaries and collectively illustrate other possible realities.
The first step is to map the hegemonic narratives that affect our work: What hegemonic narratives do we find about racism, extractivism, gender roles or meritocracy? Once we have identified them, we can understand and reflect on how they became common sense.
Let's explore other examples of hegemonic narratives. Hover over each icon to discover a notion of common sense installed in our society behind each idea.
This narrative suggests that, through hard work and dedication, anyone can achieve success and prosperity, regardless of their background.
However, it does not match the reality of the global majority, whose experiences exemplify that, despite hard work, structural inequalities and lack of opportunity make these success stories rather exceptions.
This narrative has reinforced the mistaken view that the planet is an unlimited source of resources for exploitation, invisibilizing the environmental and social costs and consequences.
This narrative suggests that romantic love should be preserved at all costs, forgiving or ignoring mistakes or faults that minimize gender-based violence or abuses committed in families and relationships.
Below are some hegemonic narratives and their descriptions. Drag each narrative (column A) vertically to the correct description (column B).
Below are some hegemonic narratives and their descriptions. Drag each narrative (column A) vertically to the correct description (column B).
This narrative suggests that the amount of money a person earns is directly proportional to his or her personal success and worth. It can lead to the devaluation of other achievements, such as personal relationships, emotional well-being and contribution to the community.
This narrative establishes that the world is shaped by binarism: male and female. They must match with the sex assigned at birth. It disregards and stigmatizes other gender identities such as trans, non-binary and any other that does not conform to binarism.
This narrative establishes that certain cultures, usually Western ones, are inherently superior to others, especially to cultures in the Global South. This type of racism manifests itself in the devaluation of traditions, knowledge, languages and cultural practices, while celebrating and promoting certain civilizations as the only desirable ones.
In our society, thanks to the media, social networks and even cultural products such as cinema, music or soap operas, hegemonic narratives impose their vision of the world and their values through stories and content. And this is where organizations and activists can play a key role, since, through our strategies, campaigns, content and in general our collective communication actions, we can promote alternative narratives that propose new visions of the world and challenge them through hopeful stories that illustrate the world we dream of building.
Click on each card to discover an alternative narrative to the hegemonic narrative about the “traditional” family made up of a caring mother, a provider father and biological children who obey.
Men have the same caring abilities as women.
Fathers are tender, loving and attentive.
Present fathers know their children and possess a paternal instinct that manifests through a bond of affection and protection.
Same-sex couples have equal capacity to start a family.
Children to same-sex parents grow up healthy and have happy childhoods.
Love and care can be at the heart of same-sex families.
Family is not determined solely by biological or legal ties.
People have the right to choose and define who they want to be related to.
Our family is where we build relationships of trust, affection, care and commitment.
Unlike alternative narratives, counter-narratives seek to serve as a response to inequalities and injustices by directly challenging a hegemonic narrative.
A common mistake when creating counter-narratives is to use the same frames in our communications that we intend to challenge. For example, when faced with the narrative of abortion as a crime, it would be a mistake to use as a counter-narrative: abortion is not a crime. Why? According to experts in cognitive linguistics such as George Lakoff, using the same frames only reinforces them, since our brain is designed to make connections with the first information it receives. If we say: “Don't think of the elephant,” our brain will automatically think of an elephant; the same happens with the example of abortion as a crime.
In other words, we end up making the path easier for those we want to neutralize. The most effective counter-narratives offer alternative narratives to our audiences, moving away from polarization and offering the mental frameworks that we want to promote, such as empathy, dignity, solidarity, etc.
Reflect on these open questions within your organization, community or activist team.
Identify a dominant or hegemonic narrative that affects your community.
Reflect on the stories through which this hegemonic narrative has managed to position itself and spread over time.
Think about an appropriate alternative narrative and the stories that could be told to promote it.
Think about the channels and the people that could be helpful to spread these stories.
Ask yourself what is needed in your activism or organization to do this collective exercise.
It is clear that culture is made up of hegemonic narratives and many of them are harmful to various people and communities. This must begin to be transformed into new ones, fairer and more desirable. The question is: how to do it?
We build narrative power as a movement. It is a collective ability to create, spread and position stories and messages intentionally to influence society.
The good news is that we are not alone on this journey: El Inspiratorio exists to enable the connections we need in order to create and support this collective learning process. This way we can strengthen our narrative power and, as a community, we can begin to change history through stories.
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