From Storytelling to Social Change: The Power of Story in the Community Building

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Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3094947
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From Storytelling to Social Change:
The Power of Story in the Community Building
Yanu Endar Prasetyo
email: yepw33@mail.missouri.edu
Abstract
The critical elements of a community development processes are how to provide the
motivation of people for sharing and consolidate learning. For this challenge, storytelling is
a powerful way to exchange and address the barriers to knowledge transfer within
community members. Stories are an important part of social change because they have the
power to shape the way people think and feel about their worlds and how they interact with
in them. In the community development processes, sharing stories or experiences can build
trust, cultivates norms, transfers tacit knowledge, facilitates unlearning, and generates
emotional connections. Storytelling teaches us how to deal with the different individual
situations by improvising alternative futures through narratives of change. Storytelling will
help the facilitator’s main task in the divergent zone and help create opportunities for
everyone to express their views and creative ideas.
Keywords: Storytelling, transfer of knowledge, community building, social change
Introduction
Stories are compelling and memorable in our culture of human life. All of us have been
given stories by other people. Stories passed on to us by our families and others in
generations before us. Almost everything we know has been given to us in the form of a
story. When we engage in one story, we experience new worlds and discover how other
people travel in a way similar to us. We found stories have the power through time and space.
Stories tell us about the diversity of cultures, traditions, customs, and ways of life that are an
essential part of everyday life (Sirah, 2014). Storytelling is a sharing of knowledge and
experiences through narrative and anecdotes to communicate lessons, ideas, concepts, and
causal relationships. Sharing knowledge through stories is emerging in various activities,
including community development. Storytelling is a powerful way to exchange and
consolidate learning. In organizations, sharing experiences through narrative can build trust,

Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3094947
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cultivate norms, transfer tacit knowledge, facilitate unlearning, and generate emotional
connections (Sole, 2002).
Even though storytelling is a traditional means of delivering knowledge, wisdom, and
culture, it has a central role in social movements because it constructs agency, shapes
identity, and motivates action (Ganz, 2001). Storytelling is how we learn to exercise our
community to deal with new challenges and conscious of alternative futures. Storytelling
attracts us in stories of actors toward valued goals to which they must reply with innovative
action to resolution along a new way, an original purpose, or go down to defeat (Amsterdam
2000). Storytelling teaches us how to deal with the unexpected situation, improvising
alternative futures even while maintaining continuity with our past. Storytelling is how we
access the emotional resources for the motivation to act on those ends. Storytelling is a way
to "frame" our experience as purposive (holding confidence and controlling our anxiety)
(Bruner 1990). For this reason, the most critical elements in telling stories are the identities
of storytellers and listeners itself. Their status and character give credibility to the story
(Ganz, 2001). At last, our self-identities connected with those we share stories with - our
families, friends, communities, colleagues, civil society organizations, and fellow citizens.
There are three underlying narratives of the storytelling: the story of self, the story of us, and
the story of now. The story of self could articulate what we are doing and why we care about
it. The story of us encompasses hopes and concerns. And the story of now will help us
translate our ambitions into action (W.K. Kellogg Foundation, 2010).
Storytelling and Narratives of Change
Numerous community development initiatives worldwide aspire to contribute to
transformative change by using transfer of knowledge. The transformative social change
itself can be defined as ‘narratives of change,' or story-lines about change and innovation
(Wittmayer et al. 2015). However, there are some barriers to the transfer of knowledge, such
as (1) ignorance: People do not know what they know? Conversely, people do not see that
others have the experience they might need (2) Lack of absorptive capacity: People lack the
money, time, or other resources to pursue new knowledge and put it to use (3) Lack of pre-
existing relationships: People do not have the personal ties that make it attractive to invest

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time in teaching or learning, and (4) Lack of motivation: People are unclear about how the
benefits of new knowledge or practices outweigh the investment to learn it. For these
reasons, stories play an instrumental role in many community development initiatives in
confronting dominant norms, values, and beliefs and in devising alternative futures.
The content of narratives has three basic structures; (1) how is the context constructed
in the community? These structures talk about what past and current problems and societal
challenges are framed in the community. Also, what desired future goal is described to
proposed actions? (2) How are actors constructed in the community? Who are the individuals,
organizational, and sector-level actors driving and hindering change? (3) How is the social
change process said to unfold in the community? These structures discuss what events,
experiences or activities lead to the desired future and in what sequence? All of these
necessary structures can be used to develop the role and the production of narratives in the
community development process.
Figure 1. Story-Sharing Dynamics (Doty, 2003). But, how about new technology and the
internet, are they changing this sharing pattern and the dynamics?
Furthermore, stories do not merely recount experiences but open-up new
possibilities for action. They reflect and at the same time create reality (Davies, 2002). These
principles of narratives of change are compatible with the community development
initiatives which encourages the ability of words or story to convince individuals, to unite

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groups, frame reality and evoke imagination. Storytelling is an effective strategy that
incorporates the aesthetic ways of knowing into instruction (Miller & Pennycuff, 2008:41).
Communities of practice do not “work” automatically. It takes effort and time to develop a
real community, and some groups never actually make it. Taking time to tell a community’s
stories is one way to do this. People want to share their passion for life and create a domain
for sharing and learning about each other’s work and life experiences because they are
intrinsically motivating. For this reason, the critical elements of a community of practice are
how to provide the motivation for sharing and accessing a knowledge network, and address
the barrier to knowledge transfer (Doty, 2003).
As we work with stories, here are five key things to consider (Amlani et.al, 2016): (1)
Ask ourselves: Where are we at? What are the dominant narratives in our community? How
have these storylines become so prominent? (2) Try to identify the choices that are being
made in our community that could potentially shape a sustainability narrative. (3) Reflect on
our storytelling skills: Can we tell stories in a way that our audience can quickly relate to? Do
we give others space to come to the meaning of our stories on their own? (4) Consider how
we can create opportunities for sustainability stories to get told and passed on in our
community. (5) Share our experience with others. Share our stories and connect with other
practitioners so we can learn from their experience.
There are some advantages of working with stories rather than with facts, opinions,
or answers to direct questions (Kurtz, 2014:4). First, stories are for negotiation. These
aspects of narrative are important and have to do with the position of stories and storytelling
in social life, as a mechanism for the ritualized negotiation of truths. Second, stories as a social
function. When a person tells a story in a group, that person is given both the floor and the
attention (and silence) of the group. Asking people to tell you stories sends them the message
that you have given them the floor and your attention. It sends the message “I am listening”
rather than the message “I am interrogating,” and thus triggers a different social response.
This gives the sharing of stories both a unique function in society and a unique advantage
when one wants to understand feelings and beliefs.
Third, stories for emotional safety. The separation between narrative events
(storytelling) and narrated events (what takes place in stories) provides an emotional
distance that creates the safety people need to disclose deeply held feelings and beliefs. A

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story is a socially accepted package in which people have learned from a young age to wrap
up their feelings, beliefs, and opinions. When they tell and listen to stories, people often
reveal things about their feelings or opinions on a subject that they wouldn’t have been
willing or able to reveal when talking about the topic directly. People know that they can
metaphorically place a story on a table and invite others to view and internalize it without
exposing themselves to the same degree as they would if they stated those feelings, beliefs,
and opinions directly.
Fourth, Providing a voice. Most people are accustomed to being asked for their
opinions in standard surveys, and they get out their well-practiced poker faces for that game.
Asking people to tell stories puts away that game and starts another one. The storytelling
game is inherently one in which greater respect is afforded to both players. Asking people to
tell stories shows respect by legitimizing their experiences as valuable communications.
Respect is communicated by giving people the freedom to choose what story they will tell
and how the story will take form. It can be very helpful in the divergent zone because it can
allow members to express a wide range of opinions without fearing their opinion will
overwhelm the group’s discussion (Kaner, et.al. 1996:152)
Fifth, Engagement. People seem to compulsively think, over and over, every day,
about the way things happen. We tell and listen to stories in part because it helps us refine
our model of the way the world works so we can predict what might happen next. It’s a
survival skill. To fulfill this cognitive function, every story has a natural shape, with a
situation, a tension, and a resolution. People usually find it difficult to “exit” the story before
the tension has been resolved, whether they are telling it or listening to it. The story pulls
them in and engages them until it has completed its course.
Sixth, Articulation. When people tell stories, they sometimes reveal feelings and
beliefs of which they themselves are not aware. When the answer to a direct question is, “I
don’t know,” asking for a story may provide the contextual triggers that bring out the tacit
knowledge and relevant experience required. After the story has been told, the storyteller
may still not know the answer to the direct question. But the answer is there in their story,
and if you ask them about the story (and do so with many other stories and many other
storytellers), the answers will form into meaningful patterns.

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Seventh, Interpretation. When you ask people to tell stories, and then ask them
questions about their stories, you are asking them to interpret rather than opine. This
displacement gives people both the freedom to say forbidden things—it’s about the story,
not about me—and the safety to admit fault or place blame. People tend to have stronger
reactions to hearing stories, in terms of the emotions they show, than they have to hearing
factual information. I’ve noticed listeners tend to fidget less and lean in more when a story is
being told than when someone is giving opinions or relaying information. This makes asking
people to interpret their own stories a useful means of surfacing their feelings about
important issues.
Eighth, Imagination. When a topic is complex and many-layered, the best course is to
increase diversity, generate many ideas, think out of the box, and prepare for surprise.
Asking a diverse range of people to tell you what they have done and seen enlists their
imagination along with your own. This both broadens the net of exploration (by opening the
inquiry to the varieties of human experience) and increases its flexibility (by capturing
multidimensional content which can be plumbed again and again as needs emerge). In
contrast, direct questioning, though precise, is narrowly focused, and produces
unidimensional content can provide only one answer.
Ninth, Authenticity. When the goal of a project is communicative, stories convey
complex emotions with more ground truth than any other means of communication. Direct
questioning may generate more precise measurements, but a story elicitation ensures
greater depths of insight and understanding into complex topics and complex people. The
act of listening to a story told by another person creates a suspension of disbelief and
displacement of perspective that helps people see through new eyes into a different world
of truth.
Ten, contextual richness. When you ask direct questions, it is easy to guess wrongly
about what sorts of answers people might have and even about what sorts of questions might
lead to useful answers. This is often a problem when exploring complex topics. Asking people
to talk about their experiences can sometimes lead to useful answers even if the wrong
questions were asked, because the contextual richness of stories provides information in
excess of what was directly sought. In fact, being surprised by the questions posed (and
answered) by collected stories is a standard outcome of narrative inquiry.

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Eleven, Redirection. A well-constructed story elicitation results in fewer non-
response behaviors (answering without considering, manipulating the survey to promote an
agenda, trying too hard to do what seems to be expected, and so on) than direct questioning.
These behaviors don’t go away when people tell stories, but they are both reduced and more
obvious when they do occur. Because telling a story pulls in both teller and listener, the
reluctant pay more attention, those with agendas reveal their true thoughts (even while
promoting their agendas), and performers have a harder time guessing what they are
supposed to say (and switch to telling the best story they can). Nonresponses are easier to
spot in narrative results, because the texts of the stories themselves provide clues to why
people gave the answers they did.
Despite their power for building narratives of change, stories can fall short in
achieving their unexpected objectives or responses. Stories may be inadequate or
inappropriate for reasons of form or delivery some “story traps” includes seductiveness,
single point of view, and static-ness (Sole & Wilson, 2002). Stories can be so compelling, so
seductive and vivid the listeners can get absorbed into the “truth” of the story and can have
difficulty critically evaluating it as a template for their own experiences. When this happens,
the listeners can be distracted from the real purpose of the telling, which is to prompt them
to seek analogies and applications in their own work and domains of influence. One of the
limitations of stories is that they are told from the perspective of one individual. This single
point of view may be less directly relevant to the activities and concerns of many other
individuals, and thus loses its power to connect with them. The impact of a story is likely to
vary depending on its delivery – who is the teller and whether it is shared in an oral or
written form.
“Street of Hope”: An Inspiring Story for Social Change
For the example of community social change, we can put “Streets of Hope: The Fall
and Rise of an Urban Neighborhood” (Medoff & Sklar, 1999) as one of the best stories about
community organizing in Boston, MA. It's a bit of an old story but genuinely inspiring and
useful for community engagement and participation. Historically, by the 1960s, the Dudley
Street Area had deteriorated into one of the poorest neighborhoods in Boston and overrun
by the dumping of toxic waste and abandoned homes. In the 1970s, the community became

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more run-down because of neglect and divestment from the city of Boston. As a result, in the
1980s more than one-fifth of the neighborhood's land was vacant. The Dudley’s street
residents became angered by this lack of attention.
In 1984, the Dudley Street Neighborhood was settled by many poor residents from
diverse ethnic groups such as Hispanics, African Americans, Jews, and other minority groups,
which could not afford to live elsewhere. When DSNI was conceived at that time, nearly one-
third of Dudley land lay vacant and scarred after years of disinvestment, arson, and dumping.
The DSNI has created some programs and projects since it started in 1984 to specific issues
and problems within the community. For example: “Don’t Dump on Us!” (1986), “The Dudley
Neighbors, Inc (DNI)” (1988), “Dudley PRIDE (1991)”, and so on. Don't Dump on Us! was a
campaign and protest to end the disposing of toxic wastes on Dudley's area. The campaign
was accomplished and achieved eliminating the illegal dumping and making the
neighborhood’s area cleaner and healthier.
The Dudley Neighbors, Inc. (DNI) is the sub-group of DSNI and functioning as a
community land trust. DNI reached the power of eminent domain after they were approved
by the state of Massachusetts to become an urban redevelopment corporation. Due to this
approval, the DNI has been able to lease vacant lots to developers to create more affordable
housing options and more jobs for their residents. Dudley PRIDE also knew as "People and
Resources Investing in Dudley's Environment" was created in the fall of 1991 for building
the sense of "pride" within the community. Their mission is for improving the aesthetics of
the neighborhood, increasing public safety, heightening responsiveness to health and
environmental issues. They publish a periodic newsletter that is translated into three
languages (English, Spanish and Cape Verdean Creole).
The community built a DSNI Economic Development Committee in 1992 to vast
improvements in the business and economic sector in Dudley’s area. Even the economic and
financial development is often influenced by external forces that are beyond the control of
the residents, the committee keeps focuses on affecting change at a resident and community
level. For instance, they held a conference to highlight the issues and strategies for starting
a business and finding jobs at the Roxbury Community College in 1993 that had over 300
attendees.

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Source: https://www.dsni.org/about-the-neighborhood/
Since DSNI’s first community meetings in 1985, 600 of 1,300 vacant lots have been
transformed into nearly 300 new homes, a Town Common, gardens, urban agriculture,
parks, and playgrounds; 300 housing units have been rehabbed. Businesses are growing and
expanding. Rebuilding continues today. It is an excellent look at how residents of the Dudley
Street neighborhood in Roxbury through the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative (DSNI)
in the late 1980s and early 1990s challenged the typical top-down pattern of urban renewal
and gentrification. They did some fantastic things for rebuilding their community on their
terms, including getting the power of eminent domain from the city. The full story of Dudley
Street neighborhood shows how effective organizing reinforces neighborhood leadership,
encouraged grassroots power and ended up with the successful public-private partnerships
and comprehensive community development until present (see the DSNI website:
https://www.dsni.org/ and social media: https://www.facebook.com/dsni.org/). Thus,
telling the story about the Dudley Street neighborhood will inspire other community
organizing programs and may give them “hope” and a “narrative” that nothing is impossible
for social change.

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Conclusion
Storytelling could help our efforts to change the way we improve our community or
organization. The story itself constitutes the opportunity for exploring how to engage people
in meaningful and lasting change (engagement paradigm). Storytelling, as an approach and
a method, that can help community leaders to connect people and each other, such as
creating a compelling purpose, honoring the past and present, building connections and
relationships, listening to their voices and making the whole system in the community visible
(Axelrod, 2000:81). Community building needs a story as narratives to unite and deals with
cultural diversity in the grassroots. These efforts are rooted in community institutions that
engage in motivating the participation of members in building their social capital and
restoring their dreams, hopes, and faith. Just as the communities and their organizations
keep sharing their history (and stories) that bind them together and motivate them to act
(Warren, 2001:20), so the narratives of change itself are always crucial for social change.
Acknowledgement
We thank Community Development Academy III – University of Missouri Extension
Program for assistance with theories and courses, and Jenifer Pilz Coulibaly for comments
that improved the manuscript. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations
expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of
the University of Missouri.

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