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https://doi.org/10 .14512 /gaia.27.3.14
334
ustainable development is a complex
concept (Fischer and Storksdieck 2018):
it is about meeting the needs of all those
living today and in the future, while at the
same time maintaining planetary bound-
aries. The perspective of sustainability thus
focuses on dynamic interaction processes
of natural and social systems that take place
at different spatial and temporal reference
and coupling levels (Clark and Dickson
2003, Clark 2010). This creates complexi-
ty that makes sustainability sometimes
difficult to communicate: what effects do
actions here and now have on other places
and at other times? How do we determine
limits, be they minimum socio-economic
standards or maximum tolerable ecologi -
cal burdens? The value dimension inher-
ent in the decisions to be made in this con-
text does not make sustainability issues an
exclusive occupation for science, but rather
the subject of social negotiation processes.
Narrative Formats of Science
Communication
Against this background, the transforma-
tion of society is often understood as a joint
effort that requires the activation and par-
ticipation of civil society to a large extent.
What is required is an informed civil so-
ciety whose members have the necessary
knowledge, the corresponding readiness
and the necessary skills to help shape the
transformation towards a sustainable so-
ciety. Effective sustainability communica-
tion is a necessary prerequisite for dem-
ocratic majorities to be able to organize
themselves for socio-political changes in
the direction of sustainable development.
As the German Advisory Council on Glob-
al Change (WBGU) described in detail in
its flagship report from 2011, this kind of
mobilization requires new narratives of
change.Creative forms of science commu -
nication are to be used to prepare these
narratives in such a way that they promote
comprehensibility and liveliness, thereby
reducing fears of dynamic changes and en-
couraging people to overcome inertia and
to help shape a transformation towards a
sustainable society (WBGU 2011). Narra-
tive structures, or stories, are considered
to provide concrete examples of otherwise
abstract and inaccessible facts. The poten-
tial of stories to convey information, to ex-
plain problems and to arouse emotions has
awakened interest of various scientific dis-
ciplines under the concept of storytelling
and has experienced a broad response in
various fields of practice from journalism
and science communication to corporate
public relations.
Conference Narrations of Sustainability
The conference Narrations of Sustainabili -
ty, organized as a cooperation project of the
Schader Foundation, Darmstadt Univer-
sity of Applied Sciences, Partner Network
Media, Leuphana University of Lüneburg
and the Collegium for the Management
and De sign of Sustainable Development
(KMGNE), brought together researchers
and practitioners for the first time with a
©2018 D.Fischer et al.; licensee oekom verlag.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms
of the Creative Commons Attribution License
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0),
which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction
in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
The potential of stories to explain problems and to arouse emotions has
attracted the interest of various scientific
disciplines under the concept of storytelling.
The conference Narrations of Sustainability
brought together researchers and
practitioners with a focus on
sustainability-related storytelling.
S
Narrations of Sustainability.How to Tell the Story of the Socio-Ecological
Transformation |GAIA 27/3(2018): 334 – 336 |Keywords: narration, nature writing, storytelling,
sustainability communication, transmedia
Contact authors: Prof.Dr. Daniel Fischer |Arizona
State University |School of Sustainability |Tempe |
USA and Leuphana University of Lüneburg |
Institute for Environmental and Sustainability
Communication |Lüneburg |Germany |
dfische6@asu.edu
Prof. Dr.Torsten Schäfer |Darmstadt University of
Applied Sciences |Institute for Communication
and Media |Darmstadt |Germany |
torsten.schaefer@h-da.de
Joachim Borner |Collegium for the Management
and Design of Sustainable Development |Berlin |
Germany |borner@kmgne.de
Contact NaWis-Runde: Prof. Dr.Uwe Schneidewind |
Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment
and Energy |Döppersberg 19 |42103 Wuppertal|
Ger many |+ 49 202 2492100 |
uwe.schneidewind@wupperinst.org |
www.wupperinst.org
Daniel Fischer, Torsten Schäfer,
Joachim Borner
Narrations of Sustainability
How to Tell the Story of the Socio-Ecological
Transformation
COMMUNICATIONS |MITTEILUNGEN
334_336_NaWis 11.09.18 10:53 Seite 334
GAIA 27/3(2018):334 – 336
335COMMUNICATIONS |MITTEILUNGENNaWis – Verbund für Nachhaltige Wissenschaft
ings in German, the edition Naturkunden
published by Matthes & Seitz as the leading
publisher, and successful authors such as
Peter Wohlleben, a forestry manager who
has published several bestsellers and writes
vividly and even psychologically about trees
and forests. Nature writing is associated
with the chances of creating new ways of
communicating nature and the environ-
ment. A main motif is the notion of reunit-
ing man with nature and understanding
himself as nature – motivations that the
Zeitgeist is creating as counter-reactions to
development patterns such as economiza- >
focus on sustainability-related storytelling
(figure 1). From 30 to 31 January 2018, it of-
fered the emerging inter- and transdisci-
plinary research field of sustainability nar-
ratives a place for exchange, mutual learn-
ing and consolidation for two days in the
Schader Forum in Darmstadt. The confer-
ence was accompanied by an editorial team
of journalism students from Darmstadt
University of Applied Sciences, who re-
ported on the conference in multimedia
format1. The program included key notes
from various disciplines and presentations
of practical projects as well as workshops
for an in-depth exchange2. The conference
revealed that dealing with narrative forms
of sustainability communication can draw
on a variety of established fields (such as
ethnology, literary studies, media and cul-
ture studies), but against the background
of the normative content of the idea of sus-
tainability also requires new forms of deal-
ing with values and norms. Thus, contro-
versial discussions were held about the
intentionality and purpose with which nar-
rative forms could be developed and which
opportunities and risks narrative represen-
tations, often geared to the experience of in-
dividual protagonists, bear. The multitude
of perspectives and approaches can be il-
lustrated by three examples of narrative
forms, formats and effects, which were inten-
sively discussed at the conference.
Forms of Narration: Nature Writing
Nature writing is a literary and journalistic
way to describe nature precisely, empathi -
cally and subjectively and to experience it
in a new way. Environmental and scientif-
ic journalistic descriptions are mixed with
essayistic reflection and poetic thoughts to
form a style of their own, especially known
in the US and Great Britain. Through a
broad, new social urge for nature, nature
writing is enjoying great success on the
book market and in the media, especially
in Great Britain. Authors such as Robert
Macfarlane, Roger Deakin and Helen Mac-
Donald are celebrated for their new way
of describing nature, species or landscapes
poetically and scientifically. This combina -
tion as well as the focus on nature conser-
vation and environmental activism is a core
element of the genre, which is also begin-
ning to establish itself in Germany. Exam-
ples include a first prize for nature writ-
1http://gruener-journalismus.de/zwei-nachhaltige-tage-in-darmstadt
2www.schader-stiftung.de/veranstaltungen/archiv/artikel/narrationen-der-nachhaltigkeit
Nature writing is associated with the chances of creating new ways of
communicating nature and the environment. A main motif is the notion of reuniting
man with nature and understanding himself as nature – motivations that the
Zeitgeist is creating as counter-reactions to development patterns such as
economization, reification, acceleration and mechanization.
FIGURE 1: Panel discussion at the conference Narrations of Sustainability with Lars Rademacher,
Jan C. Schmidt, Prof. Torsten Schäfer (all Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences),
Prof. Beatrice Dernbach (Technische Hochschule Nürnberg)and Prof. Christian Schicha
(Friedrich-Alexander Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg).
©Schader-Stiftung
334_336_NaWis 11.09.18 10:53 Seite 335
GAIA 27/3(2018):334 – 336
336 NaWis – Verbund für Nachhaltige WissenschaftCOMMUNICATIONS |MITTEILUNGEN
tion, reification, acceleration and mecha-
nization. Numerous examples from the
field of practice and initial research indi-
cate that nature writing can make an im-
portant contribution to narrative sustain-
ability communication (Schäfer 2017).
Formats of Narration: Transmedia
Storytelling
Today, sustainability communication takes
place in various media. A challenge, but al -
so an opportunity, consists in creating com-
prehensive narratives through the combi-
nation of media that transcend individual
media and their boundaries. In the trans-
media storytelling approach, for example,
episodes are told that use different media
and media formats (e.g., spot, podcast, an-
imation or painting) and are serially linked
– often using activating approaches (e.g.,
gamification elements, design fiction). All
episodes taken together then tell a trans-
media “great narration” about transforma-
tion processes to sustainability. For exam-
ple, an international summer academy or-
ganized by the Climate Culture Commu-
nications Lab3has been experimenting with
such approaches in intercultural contexts
for several years. However, the well-devel-
oped forms of practice that have evolved
over the past years have so far only been
researched to some extent. This is where
further potential for the scientific engage-
ment with narrative sustainability com-
munication lies.
Effects of Narration: Impacts of
Sustainability-Related Storytelling
In view of the various potentials, but al so
risks associated with sustainability-related
storytelling, the project SusTelling (German:
Storytelling in der Nachhaltigkeitskommuni -
ka tion)4funded by the German Federal En-
vironmental Foundation (DBU) has set it-
self the goal of systematically researching
the effects of storytelling and making them
fruitful for more effective sustainability
communication. Initial results from a com-
prehensive systematic literature review
across various research fields show that
there is empirical evidence that storytell -
ing can attract attention, arouse interest
and reach new target groups for complex
topics, for example, in the field of risk com-
munication. At the same time, however,
there is also a lack of knowledge on the ef-
fectiveness of sustainability-related story-
telling. This desideratum is to be countered
in the course of the project through own
experiments and investigations.
A Field on the Move
The conference highlighted two things: on
the one hand, the wealth and the potential
for stimulation that already exists in vari -
ous fields of research and practice for the
design of narrative sustainability commu-
nication, and on the other hand, the urgent
need for structured exchange, systematic
synthesis and creative further developments
that respond to new contexts, needs and
challenges in communication in the con-
text of sustainable development. The con-
ference was thus a prelude to the consol-
idation and further institutionalization of
the still young inter- and transdisciplinary
field of research and practice of sustainabil-
ity narratives, which – as all those present
agreed – must be followed by further steps.
References
Clark, W.C. 2010. Sustainable development and
sustainability science. In: Toward a science of
sustainability. Report from the conference
Toward a Science of Sustainability. Warrenton,
VA,November 29 to December 2, 2009.
Edited by S. A. Levin, W. C. Clark. 80–100.
Clark, W. C., N. M. Dickson. 2003. Sustainability
science: The emerging research program.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
(PNAS)100/14: 8059 –8061.
Fischer, D., M. Storksdieck. 2018. Storytelling: Ein
Ansatz zum Umgang mit Komplexität in der
Nachhaltigkeitskommunikation [Storytelling:
an approach to deal with complixity in sustain-
ability communication]? In: Zwischen Ohn-
macht und Zuversicht?: Vom Umgang mit Kom-
plexität in der Nachhaltigkeitskommunikation
[Between paralysis and confidence: Dealing with
complexity in sustainability communication].
Edited by T. Pyhel. DBU-Umweltkommunika-
tion 10. München: oekom. 161–176.
Schäfer, T. 2017. Nature Writing und Journalismus –
warum es der Annäherung Bedarf. https://
gruener-journalismus.de/nature-writing-und-
journalismus-warum-es-der-annaeherung-
bedarf (accessed September 2, 2018).
WBGU(German Advisory Council on Global Change).
2011. World in transition: A social contract for
sustainability. Flagship report.Berlin: WBGU.
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