The Power of Narrative: How Social Innovation Initiatives Use Narratives of Change as a Source of Transformative Power

Numerous initiatives worldwide aspire to contribute to transformative social change towards more sustainable, resilient and inclusive societies. In this paper, we answer the research question: how do social innovation... [ view full abstract ]

Numerous initiatives worldwide aspire to contribute to transformative social change towards more sustainable, resilient and inclusive societies. In this paper, we answer the research question: how do social innovation initiatives use narratives of change as a source of transformative power? We conceptualise ‘narratives of change’ broadly as sets of ideas, concepts, metaphors, discourses or story-lines about change and innovation. Such narratives of change reveal the ideas that initiatives have about why the world has to be transformed, who has the power to do so and how this can be done. We theorise the power of narratives based on a literature review of power theory and discourse theory, on that basis developing a conceptual framework to conceptualise and analyse how narratives are used as a source of power exercise. The paper then moves on to empirically analyse social innovation initiatives and their narratives of change. We use an embedded case-study approach, based on in-depth interviews, participant observation and document review, to study three translocal social innovation initiatives at two different scales: at the scale of transnational networks and at the scale of local initiatives. We focus on the following three cases: (1) the Global Ecovillage Network and a local ecovillage in Portugal, (2) the global Impact Hub network and a local Impact Hub location in the city of Rotterdam, and (3) the international movement of Participatory Budgeting, and a local participatory monitoring initiative in Amsterdam. For each of these cases we analyse what their narratives of change are, and how and to what extent the initiatives use those narratives as a source of power.