This list of resources – largely open access – provides practitioners, policy makers, donors and others with additional ideas and practices for enriching simplified, divisive narratives to address polarisation and manage conflict. It includes publications, videos and podcasts, as well as supplementary sources such as narrative journals and initiatives, which are useful for grasping and applying concepts and tools at the intersection of narrative and peacebuilding.
This PDF of the presentation in Features of Narrative: Structure and Dynamics (part 1) serves as a quick reference guide and a training tool for actors working for peace. In the presentation, narrative theory expert and IFIT Inclusive Narratives Practice Group member Sara Cobb explains what narratives are, how narrative dynamics shape our worldview, and how we can transform simplified narratives that polarise societies into complex narratives that help people engage peacefully.
Using examples of polarising narratives in the United States, Cobb demonstrates how they promote the validity of one group’s grievances and the moral superiority of its intentions and actions, while delegitimising the ‘other’. Soon, two to three narratives begin to dominate the public sphere. They appear as the only way to describe what is occurring in politics and society, creating an ‘us versus them’ environment and eclipsing other, less prominent narratives.
Noting that people tend to become stuck in their polarising narratives, the document advocates for using narrative strategies and tools to help people move from simple, linear stories to more complex ones by introducing new values (grey, not ‘black and white’), new characters (beyond heroes and villains) and new plot points (that do not fit the simplified story). This approach can give increased legitimacy to both sides, enable a sense of shared responsibility for conflict, build agency to create bridges between poles, and ultimately foster social engagement for peace.
This PDF of the presentation in Narrative Elaboration: Tools for Change (part 2) serves as a quick reference guide and a training tool for actors working for peace. In the presentation, narrative theory expert and Inclusive Narratives Practice Group member Sara Cobb focuses on practice, sharing a set of narrative tools and how to use them to transform polarising narratives as part of peacebuilding efforts.
Cobb describes a narrative as a tree. The trunk is the visible narrative, which hardens and forms from shared roots and justifies people’s ideas and actions. The roots are facts, events, parables and stories about the collective past, which anchor people’s worldviews. And the branches are actions, policies and other outcomes of the narrative trunk. It is the branches and roots that are most amenable to change, as the trunk tends to be most rigid.
A range of proven narrative tools are then presented. These can be employed in meetings, workshops, public debates and similar spaces for peacebuilding. The first is positive connotation, through which participants describe the opposing side in terms of a positive trait or intention in order to enable humanisation and mutual legitimacy. The second is circular questioning, through which participants make comparisons between their own and others’ stories and thereby introduce new elements that transform their narrative. The third is scaffolding, which helps participants identify exceptions to events in their stories to again introduce new elements and change their narrative. And the fourth is narrative inoculation, where participants identify obstacles to narrative transformation ahead of time so they can strategically address them.
Enriching Narratives for Peace: The IFIT Narrative Model
In this 30-minute video, recorded as part of our 10 Peacebuilding Innovations webinar series, two members of IFIT’s Inclusive Narratives Practice Group, Sellah King’oro and Mauricio Meschoulam, discuss IFIT’s approach to narrative peacebuilding. Using the analogy of a ‘narrative tree’, they explain how simplified, divisive narratives emerge and come to dominate the narrative landscape in polarised contexts. Arguing that the unifying narratives peace actors tend to promote from outside are often rejected, they share IFIT’s approach of enriching narrative landscapes from within by increasing public awareness of narrative dynamics, amplifying many alternative stories, and working with people to transform their narratives.
Sellah and Mauricio reflect on lessons learnt from applying our narrative peacebuilding approach in collaboration, respectively, with the National Cohesion and Integration Commission in Kenya and IFIT’s brain trusts in Mexico and Colombia. A key learning from this work is that lasting peace does not come from imposing a narrative and everyone telling the same story – it emerges in societies where many complex, diverse narratives are encouraged to thrive together.
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As part of the Global Initiative on Polarization, the Institute for Integrated Transitions (IFIT) and the Ford Foundation are pleased to announce “The Global Conversation on Polarization”.
In IFIT’s May 2023 foundational discussion paper, First Principles: The Need for Greater Consensus on the Fundamentals of Polarization, the issue of polarization is presented as a ‘hyper-problem’: the special category of problem that makes the solution to every other problem harder. The paper also notes the dominance of a US-specific, rather than global, conceptualization of polarization.
Building on the wide-ranging global research, consultations and convenings held over the past two years in the context of the Global Initiative on Polarization, IFIT and Ford have now translated the discussion paper into twelve languages (Arabic, Bahasa, Chinese, French, Hausa, Hindi, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swahili, Urdu) and will organize multiple rounds of language-diverse convenings over the coming months, bringing together diverse experts and stakeholders from around the world to discuss key dilemmas, controversies and solutions to polarization in all eleven languages.
Through this intentionally global conversation, we hope to generate a more truly global understanding of the problem than has existed up to now. Along the way, we might also discover what is currently evident in much of IFIT’s and Ford’s global work: that while polarization can be overcome, it is a problem best avoided.
To learn more about the Global Conversation on Polarization, please contact [email protected].
A recognised authority in the field of peace mediation, Teresa Whitfield is an independent consultant for Conciliation Resources, editor of an Accord volume on adaptation and innovation in peace mediation (forthcoming), and advisor to the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue. From 2016 to 2022, she served as the director of the Policy and Mediation Division of the United Nations Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs.
Earlier in her career, Teresa spent five years in the 1990s working with the UN on peace processes in Central America. From 2005 to 2008, she served as the Director of the Social Science Research Council’s Peace and Conflict Prevention Forum. From 2015 to 2016, she was Senior Advisor to the President of the International Crisis Group.
Teresa has published extensively on conflict resolution and mediation. Her books include Paying the Price: Ignacio Ellacuría and the Murdered Jesuits of El Salvador (Temple University Press/UCA Editores, 1995/1998); Friends Indeed? The United Nations, Groups of Friends, and the Resolution of Conflict (United States Institute of Peace, 2007); and Endgame for ETA: Elusive Peace in the Basque Country (Hurst and Oxford University Press/ICIP, 2014/2015).
Teresa holds a degree from the University of Cambridge and a master’s degree from the University of London.
A teacher and politician, Mariana Aylwin has over 30 years of professional experience and has held significant positions in Chile. She served as a Congressional Representative for La Florida (1994-1998), Minister of Education during the government of Ricardo Lagos (2000-2003), and Regional Counsellor of the Metropolitan Area of Santiago (2014-2017).
Mariana began her political career in 1987 as the national deputy director of the Women’s Department of the Christian Democratic Party and was a member of the central Board of Directors of the same party between 1992 and 1993. Currently, she holds the position of Vice President of the Patricio Aylwin Foundation, serves as the President of the Board of Directors of Gabriela Mistral University, and is the Executive Director of the Learn Educational Corporation. Mariana has also served as the Director of the Belén Educa Foundation and as the President of the Oportunidad Foundation. She is a part of the Board of Directors of the Chile Foundation and of the Foreign Policy Council of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Chile.
Mariana holds a degree in Pedagogy in History, Geography, and Civic Education from the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile. She has written several publications related to political issues and education.
Leonardo Padura Fuentes is a renowned Cuban writer, journalist, and screenwriter. With a degree in Latin American literature from the University of Havana, he has garnered international acclaim for his detective novel series featuring Mario Conde. His most celebrated work, “The Man Who Loved Dogs” (2009), delves into Cuban history and investigates the life of Ramón Mercader, the assassin of Leon Trotsky. Padura’s narrative is anchored in crime fiction, while deftly reflecting the realities of Cuban society and offering insightful social commentary.
Beyond his literary endeavours, Padura is a prolific literary essayist and screenwriter, crafting scripts for both documentaries and feature films. In 2016, Netflix launched the miniseries “Four Seasons in Havana,” an adaptation of Padura’s novels published between 1991 and 1998, comprising the tetralogy “The Four Seasons.”
Padura’s literary prowess has been recognised with numerous esteemed awards, including the 2012 National Prize for Literature of Cuba, the Order of Arts and Letters bestowed by the French government in 2013, and the prestigious Princess of Asturias Prize for Literature in 2015.
Alongside his extensive experience in the private construction sector in Venezuela, Central America, the Caribbean, Spain, and West Africa, Joaquín Livinalli has actively participated in the entrepreneurial sphere of his home country, Venezuela. He has been a co-drafter of legislative initiatives on urban development and housing policy. He has also served as a visiting professor in construction management at the Engineering Faculty of the Universidad Metropolitana and the Universidad Central de Venezuela, respectively.
A publisher, author, and editor in cultural affairs, he is currently engaged in two new projects: one on applied behavioural economics and its sociological implications for contemporary elites, and the other a historical investigation of a building he rehabilitated on the palatial Calle Salustiano Olózaga in Madrid, Spain.
Joaquín earned a degree in Statistical and Actuarial Sciences from the Universidad Central de Venezuela. He also holds a degree in Law from the Universidad de Santa María in Caracas.
For 36 years, General Óscar Naranjo served in the Colombian National Police, where his career was marked by major achievements in combating crime, spearheading institutional modernisation, and fostering a profound sense of trust among citizens. In 2007, he was elevated to the position of Director General of the Police. Throughout his tenure, he garnered numerous accolades, including the Semana Magazine Tribute for his exceptional leadership, and recognition as one of the 500 most influential people in the world by Foreign Policy magazine in its Power Issue.
After his service in the National Police, General Naranjo assumed the helm of the Latin American Institute of Citizenship at the Tecnológico y de Educación Superior de Monterrey (TEC), providing expert guidance to the Mexican federal government until 2014. That same year, he was appointed Minister of the Presidency for Post-Conflict, Human Rights, and Security, a role he held until November 2015.
In his pivotal role as Plenipotentiary Negotiator for the Government of Colombia in the peace talks with the FARC, he played a crucial role in the construction of the Final Agreement signed in 2016. In March 2017, he was elected by Congress as Vice President of the Republic of Colombia, tasked with overseeing the development and implementation of the Final Agreement; spearheading the fight against organised crime; ensuring citizen security; formulating and implementing a comprehensive policy for the promotion, defence, and protection of human rights; and advising and coordinating the preparation, structuring, and development of a comprehensive public policy for the fight against illicit drugs. He served as Vice President until August 2018.
On May 1, 2023, General Naranjo assumed the presidency of the Social Council of the Universidad Internacional de La Rioja in Colombia, where he plays a key role in promoting the right to higher education and spearheading initiatives aimed at strengthening peaceful coexistence and safeguarding human rights. He also serves as a distinguished member of the Expert Advisory Group for IFIT’s Peace Treaty Initiative.