Re:imagining Change , livre ebook

Praise for Re:Imagining Change
All around us the old stories are failing, crumbling in the face of lived experience and scientific reality. But what stories will replace them? That is the subject of this crucial book: helping readers to tell irresistible stories about deep change-why it is needed and what it will look like. The Story-based Strategy team has been doing this critical work for fifteen years, training an entire generation in transformative communication. This updated edition of Re:Imagining Change is a thrilling addition to the activist tool kit.
~Naomi Klein
Indigenous peoples around the world are on the frontlines defending our rights and fighting for ecological and climate justice. We are offering powerful stories reawakening humanity to its relationship and responsibilities to defend the rights of Mother Earth. But how can we strengthen our voices and make our calls for change heard? This book offers strategies for our movements to creatively build the power to guide society toward a more just and sustainable future for all.
~Tom Goldtooth , Indigenous Environmental Network
Once upon a time, left-wing activists thought being right was good enough, but the past decade has seen a more elegant and effective understanding that you need to be a lot more if you want to win. Center for Story-based Strategy s guidebook to being that more -smarter, more engaging, more subversive, more powerful-should be in every activist s hands and imagination. It s a great toolkit for change.
~Rebecca Solnit , author of numerous books including The Encyclopedia of Trouble and Spaciousness, Men Explain Things to Me, and Hope in the Dark
CSS shows us that if organizing is the muscle of social movements, and strategy is the brain, then story is the heart and soul. CSS s methodology combines the power of story together with strategy to serve grassroots organizing and build powerful, unstoppable movements. And it s working! From climate justice to low-wage workers; from anti-militarism to migrant rights; story-based strategy is amplifying our voices and deepening our impact.
~Gopal Dayaneni , Movement Generation Justice Ecology Project
Yo organizers! Stop what you are doing for a couple hours and soak up this book! We know the importance of smart issue framing. But Re:Imagining Change will move our organizing further as we connect to the powerful narratives, stories and memes of our culture.
~Chuck Collins, Institute for Policy Studies, author of Born on Third Base, 99 to 1, and other books about economic inequality
There is an African proverb that says, Until the story of the hunt is told by the lion, the story of the hunt will always glorify the hunter. Similarly, for frontline communities, it is too often others who are framing the narratives of the systems, policies, and practices that hold sway over our lives. Through Re:Imagining Change , the Center for Story-based Strategy provides tools and pathways to put community framing, stories, and vision at the center of the transformation that is necessary to transition from systems and structures characterized by extraction and domination to regenerative, cooperative, resilient communities.
~Jacqui Patterson , director, Environmental and Climate Justice Program, NAACP
Our stories are powerful enough to change the world, particularly when we know how to put them at the center of our organizing and direct action campaigns. That s why Re:Imagining Change is an essential how-to manual. Its accessible framework walks activists through the process of aligning transformative storytelling with movement building, organizing, and action. It is a critical resource for any community that is fighting for justice. Don t find yourself on the frontlines without it!
~Sharon Lungo , executive director, The Ruckus Society
Story-based strategy is integral to winning the fight for social, economic, and political power for Black people. On the front lines of civil and human rights, we re not only fighting for our lives but for the right to own our experiences and our stories, too. As we battle long-standing, mythological narratives about Blackness and Black people, many of which lead to prejudicial legislation and deadly policing, we ll use tools like this book to equip our organizers with narrative strategy that advances us to a more equitable and just world for all people.
~Shanelle Matthews , director of communications for the Black Lives Matter Global Network
Re:Imagining Change is worthy of praise. As an introduction to story-based strategy, the book offers organizers and advocates a new and necessary way to understand and transform the impact of stories on our public life.
~Malkia Cyril , executive director of the Center for Media Justice and cofounder, Media Action Grassroots Network
Knowing how to knock on doors, organize community meetings, and plan a street protest is no longer enough. Today s activists need to know how to generate symbols, tell stories, and tap into popular dreams. Re:Imagining Change is THE handbook for fighting on this cultural terrain.
~Stephen Duncombe, author of Dream: Re-Imagining Progressive Politics in an Age of Fantasy
Re:Imagining Change is a one-of-a-kind essential resource for everyone who is thinking big, challenging the powers that be and working hard to make a better world from the ground up. This innovative book provides the tools, analysis, and inspiration to help activists everywhere be more effective, creative, and strategic. This handbook is like rocket fuel for your social change imagination.
~Antonia Juhasz , author of Black Tide: the Devastating Impact of the Gulf Oil Spill: The Tyranny of Oil ; and The Bush Agenda
We are surrounded and shaped by stories every day, sometimes for better, sometimes for worse. But what Doyle Canning and Patrick Reinsborough point out is a beautiful and powerful truth-that we are all storytellers too. Armed with the right narrative tools, activists can not only open the world s eyes to injustice, but feed the desire for a better world. Re:Imagining Change is a powerful weapon for a more democratic, creative, and hopeful future.
~Raj Patel , author of Stuffed and Starved and The Value of Nothing: How to Reshape Market Society and Redefine Democracy
This is a groundbreaking book to mark up, share with friends, and keep within arm s reach of activists. The analysis and case studies you hold in your hand are tools to shift paradigms and raise ruckuses! Please try this at home.
~adrienne maree brown , author of Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds and Octavia s Brood: Science Fiction Stories from Social Justice Movements
Brilliant and invaluable. Lakoff introduced the progressive movement to the power of framing. Canning and Reinsborough take framing to a far more powerful level and provide practical tools essential to the success of every progressive organization that seeks to bring forth a world of peace and justice. It gets my highest recommendation.
~David Korten , board chair of YES! magazine and author of The Great Turning and Change the Story, Change the Future: A Living Economy for a Living Earth
This powerful and useful book is an invitation to harness the transformative power of stories by examining social change strategy through the lens of narrative. Re:Imagining Change is an essential resource to make efforts for fundamental social change more enticing, compelling, and effective. It s a potent how-to book for anyone working to create a better world.
~Ilyse Hogue , president, NARAL Pro-Choice America

Re:Imagining Change-How to Use Story-based Strategy to Win Campaigns, Build Movements, and Change the World
Copyright 2010, 2017 Patrick Reinsborough and Doyle Canning
2017 Creative Commons Non-Commercial License
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ .
ISBN: 978-1-62963-384-8
Library of Congress Control Number: 2016959584
Editing and Book Design by Jess Clarke, Christine Joy Ferrer, and Merula Furtado from Reimagine! Movements Making Media,
www.reimaginerpe.org .
Cover by John Yates/stealworks.com
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
PM Press
PO Box 23912
Oakland, CA 94623
www.pmpress.org
Printed in the USA by the Employee Owners of Thomson-Shore in Dexter, Michigan.
www.thomsonshore.com
This book is dedicated to everyone everywhere who has ever dreamed of a better world and had the courage to move toward that vision.
If you want to build a ship, don t herd people together to collect wood and don t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.
-Antoine de Saint-Exup ry
No necesitamos pedir permiso para ser libres.
-the Fourth Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN)
Re:Imagining Change
CONTENTS
Story-based Strategy Campaign Model Chart
Foreword to the 2nd Edition
Introduction to the 2nd Edition
I Why Story
1.1 The Narrative Animal
1.2 Hacking at the Roots
1.3 The Era of Outdated Stories
1.4 Movement as Narrative
1.5 From Improvement to Innovation
1.6 The Story-based Strategy Approach
II Narrative Power
2.1 Truth vs. Meaning
2.2 Narrative Thinking
2.3 Narrative Power Analysis
2.4 Setting the Frame
2.5 Designer Stories and the Branded World
2.6 Memes
2.7 Power and Mythology
2.8 People-Power and Narrative
2.9 Creation Myths of the United States
2.10 Control Myths Memes
2.11 Narrative Filters
2.12 The Elements of Story
III Winning the Battle of the Story
3.1 Building on the Cornerstones
3.2 Beyond the Story of the Battle
3.3 The Battle of the Story
3.4 Framing the Conflict
3.5 Creating Narrative Frames
3.6 Amplifying Compelling Characters
3.7 The Drama Triangle
3.8 Imagery: Show, Don t Tell
3.9 Foreshadowing
3.10 Challe