📢 Narrative & Culture Change Roundup #50
Welcome to Culture Soup, the new home and name for ‘In Other Words’ - the narrative and culture change roundup email, curated by me (Ruth Taylor) from 2020 - 2022. If you want to read more about the thinking behind the changes, please see this post.
Hello,
Happy new year to all readers of the Culture Soup roundup. I hope your transition into 2025 has been a peaceful one.
To kick off the new year, I have curated for you some of the things I have been reading and listening to over the past few months. I hope you find some gems.
Love and solidarity,
Ruth
📝 articles & reports
Five takeaways for what it means to be human at this time | Renee Lertzman, Becoming Guides
A beautiful, short piece by Renee Lertzman reflecting on things she has learnt over the years that she has been exploring the question of what it means to be human in today’s world. I resonated with all 5 points, but the reflection of learning as a form of loss hit me particularly strongly. In our modern worldview, we often conceive of learning as addition - ‘filling up our cup’ is the analogy used by Vanessa Andreotti - but this erases the complexity and sometimes real pain that comes from having the foundations of your perceived reality shaken when you acquire new insight.
The powerful role of storytelling in systems change | Philippa Namutebi Kabali-Kagwa, Collective Change Lab
A brief introduction to the method of systems storytelling, as a means of more thoroughly and accurately understanding a system in all its complexity and messiness. I’m definitely intrigued by this as an approach.
The Cultural Contradictions of Neoliberalism | Shahrzad Shams, Deepak Bhargava and Harry W. Hanbury, Roosevelt Institute
This is a contender for my favourite thing that I read in 2024! It’s a fairly long report (if you’d like my abridged notes let me know), but it’s packed with astute observation and clarity of thought. It argues that neoliberalism must be understood and acted upon as a cultural project and not just as an opportunity for policy change if we are to offer an alternative vision to the rising authoritarian right.
The State of American Culture: 2023 - 2024 | Frameworks Institute
In the latest overview from the Frameworks Institute’s ‘Culture Change’ project, which tracks changes in the dominant cultural mindsets in the US, we see both a growing desire for transformative change amongst diverse segments of the US public, but also a growing reliance on individualistic thinking. Of particular interest to me in this report was the section towards the end presenting the questions the project will be exploring more in 2025.
If all life mattered, what would decision-making look like? | Shrishtee Bajpai and Ashish Kothari, Mongabay
An analysis of a deep narrative prominent in many corners of modern, Western nations, which asserts that human beings are the only creatures in possession of rights and that other species are merely the property of humans, and how this continues to be coopted today, even in environmental justice spaces.
Trump: A Systems Analysis: Part 1 | Carne Ross, Gentle Anarchy
Like many of us, I read a lot of analysis after the US election in November - some arguments I agreed with, others I didn’t, and some just went straight over my head! What I found missing in many pieces was a deeper reflection on how we have got to our present moment, but this piece by Carne Ross offers a thoughtful dissection of the complex and layered influences that have brought us here and perhaps hint at the depth of interventions we need to put our energy towards in 2025.
Interbeing | Daniel Christian Wahl, Age of Awareness
This is an old piece, but one that I stumbled across recently and really enjoyed. It artfully describes the need to move from a deep narrative of separation to one of interbeing. I especially loved the words of Thich Nhat Hanh quoted at length, which perfectly sum up whole-systems thinking by examining a ‘simple’ piece of paper.
Decoupling ‘The Good Life’ from Capitalism | Miho Soon, Post Growth Institute
A brilliant piece by economic psychology researcher, Miho Soon, into the deep narrative of ‘the good life’ and how it keeps us tethered to our current economic, violent system.
Generalised prejudice is a root cause of social and environmental crises | Tom Crompton, Common Cause Foundation
In this blog, my colleague at Common Cause, Tom Crompton, explores how social dominance orientation (a construct in social psychology used to measure a feeling of entitlement to dominant others) can be considered a driver of many of the social and environmental crises of our day.
Ten things we learned about growing hope this year | Iris Andrews, Joseph Rowntree Foundation
In 2024, I had the absolute joy of working with Iris Andrews on the Seeds of Hope project, funded by the Emerging Futures team at JRF. Here you can read more about the thinking behind the work and the incredible array of experiments to build hope that took place across the UK. It was a balm for the soul at a time that felt fraught with challenges and sadness.
In the supermarket of democracy, choice is an illusion. Is there a real alternative? | Ashish Kothari, Scroll
My second link from Ashish Kothari this roundup, this piece explores how the voting in of Trump and other right-wing, authoritarian politicians across the world is an inevitable outcome of a modern, capitalist deep narrative of ‘progress’ and ‘the good life’, coupled with formal education and a media sector which discourages critical questioning and reflection.
The Great Transition: 2025 Narrative Predictions | Reframe
Reframe’s annual predictions provide a sense of the narratives and beliefs in the media ecosystem in the US to inform narrative and organising strategies. Always an incredibly impressive piece of work!
🛠️ resources
Practices for Transitions in a Time Between Worlds | Joseph Rowntree Foundation, SSIR
Over the Christmas break, I have thoroughly enjoyed exploring the SSIR supplement curated by the Emerging Futures team at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. Full to the brim of beautiful inquiry, bold yet humble ambition and heart-stirring prose, I really recommend giving this the time it deserves.
Larger Us’s books of the year 2024 | Alex Evans, Larger Us
Every year I look forward to the flurry of book recommendation lists that come out around Christmas time, and one of the best is from Larger Us. This winter, I had the pleasure of suggesting a book for the list and after much deliberation chose Another England by Caroline Lucas. Have you read it? Plenty of other great suggestions on this list which I am adding to my list!
Representing ‘race’ and migration | HEARD and the Runnymede Trust
A beautifully designed and accessible resource on how to tell powerful and nuanced stories about ‘race’ and migration. Share with the popular culture creators in your lives.
Liberation Stories: Building narrative power for 21st-century social movements | Shanelle Matthews, Marzena Zukowska and the RadComms Network, The New Press
A new book written by narrative strategists Shanelle Matthews and Marzena Zukowska is now available, exploring case studies of social justice movements across the world that have challenged dominant narratives.
Vent Diagrams | Elana Eisen-Markowitz and Rachel Schragis
Recently shared in the final PIRC newsletter of 2024, I’d never heard of this art project before but have since become obsessed! It’s a beautiful artistic expression of the phrase ‘two things can be true at the same time’ and how important it is to recognise and work within the nuance.
🎧 videos & podcasts
Language and Violence with Sunil Amrith | Planet Critical Podcast
A fascinating conversation between Rachel Donald and Sunil Amrith about the systemic nature of violence and the incontrovertible relationship between violence against the earth and violence against people. They also touch on the narratives baked into the language we use everyday which obscures or denies the violence that our modern reality is founded on.
Episode 99: Azul Carolina Duque - Gesturing Towards Decolonial Futures | The Spaceship Earth Podcast
I really enjoyed this expansive and generous episode of the Becoming Crew podcast with Colombian artist and educator, Azul Carolina Duque. Of particular interest to me, and I think to many readers of this newsletter, was the section on imagination at around the 29 minute mark. We hear more and more about imagination in radical circles, but we speak less about how our imagination is necessarily tethered to the desires and dreams sown in our cultural consciousness as it exists today.
How to measure narrative change | Radical Communicators Network
Join a host of narrative evaluation experts in this recorded webinar which unpacks how to craft a narrative change evaluation strategy.
Neuroscience and Narrative Change | Brett Davidson and Dr Suparna Choudhury, IRIS
A fascinating interview with cognitive neuroscientist, Suparna Choudhury, discussing what neuroscience can offer the field of narrative change, and importantly, its limitations.
How to get a white supremacist to leave the KKK - with Daryl Davis | Larger Us podcast
Larger Us put out some brilliant and fascinating podcasts in 2024. In case you’ve missed them, I particularly recommend this one with Elizabeth Oldfield (who also writes a fab substack) and this one with Daryl Davis who is an incredible storytelling!
👀 opportunities & events
Hood Futures: Infrastructuring as Narrative Reclamation, Service and Self-Determination | Inter-Narratives
This event with Amahra Spence and Nabil Al-Kinani is not one to be missed, hosted by the wonderful Inter-Narratives. Amahra and Nabil are experts in the build-environment, a key arena for narrative immersion that so often gets ignored in favour of more traditional communication practices. I can’t make this conversation live, but I am already so excited to catch up with the recording!
Into the Dark: 5-week Deep Winter Community Adventure | Becoming Crew
Join a group of other enquirers to explore how, through darkness, we can root our heart-felt intentions for ourselves and the larger web of life in 2025.
I love the idea of this project so much! The team behind The Book of Uncommon Rituals are crowdsourcing submissions about the practices that folks have crafted to mark key moments in life, to celebrate love and new life and to acknowledge profound loss. Can’t wait to read the book when it’s published!
💼 jobs
Head of Messaging | NEON
NEON is recruiting a framing expert to lead their messaging work, taking over from the wonderful Dora Meade. Hybrid working. Salary of £50,709. Deadline to apply is 22nd January.
Learning Coordinator | Power of Pop Fund
The Power of Pop Fund is on the lookout for a new learning partner to be appointed in March/April. Maximum budget is £30k excluding VAT to cover all fees and expenses. Deadline to apply is 9am UK time on Monday 20th January.
What a fantastic round-up. This list is going to keep me busy for weeks!
b