Theory of Narrative in Social Movement - Essay Example

Theory of Narrative in Social Movement Student’s Name: Institutional Affiliation: Theory of Narrative in Social Movement Social movement refers to individuals in a particular setting who come together or through joint action to share their ideas in tackling a social problem or conflict by connecting various occurrences to make meaning thus identifying solutions (Melucci, 1989; Eyerman, 1990). Thus, social movements bring together individual in a political, social and cultural setting to tackle issues and enable them to come up with concrete ground and theories on certain occurrences in the society, therefore, eliminating dilemma. Social movements also can be used together with participatory learning where two or more people learn together or collaborative learning where people learn in a planned curriculum. In the documents, the writers explain the importance of theory of narrative in social movement and the impacts it has on the corresponding audience. It gives the audience the impacts of stories narration on the society which are presented by use of various theories which include social interdependence theories. They further explains the advantages of narration over frames as a tool in the solving of problems in the society setting and approaches assimilated to enable clear understanding of the messages shared to the people. Narration refers to a well-defined and structured format that describes the flow of real and fictional occurrences (Toolan, 2001). How well a story is narrated, directly affect how the audience understands the context. Well-narrated story will bring to understanding of the illiterate and literate to understand the meaning of a story. In order for understanding to take place rewards should be offered for positive results through a structured curriculum (Johnson (1975) in his behavioural theory. Narratives when strategically planned they strengthen all the audience beliefs and convince that such an occurrence is true through constructive learning (Mayer 1987), and it will be a solution to the problem and at the same time making developments on the target audience (Sewell, 1992; Hart, 1992; Somers, 1992; 1994; Carr 1997; Ginsburg 1989). Stories narrated to audience help them to maintain confidence on their leaders in case of political systems and other settings (Denzin, 1987; Ginsburg, 1989; Gareth, 1997). Emancipatory learning which is concerned with political transformations assist political leaders to effectively understand the political setting and deliver what the audience need to hear through the transformative theories and tackle problem within political setting through group learning and dialogue (Belenky, Clinchy, Goldberge & Tarude 1986, Perry, 1965). Narrations differ from frames in that, they do not show the skeleton of an occurrence, but elaborates on the body to make it easy for the audience to grasp the intended meaning by translating the power of the story to audience. Good narrations help the audience to understand his/her internal and external environments thereby assisting them to use their strengths to mine the available opportunities and at the same time, minimising associated potential risk. A good story will motivate its audience and give the audience more reasons of performing a task since it has shown reason why that particular task is conducted by helping them create a world of the narration in their minds (Mayer & Anderson, 1991, Mayor & Moreno 1998). A narration helps individuals to make decisions. A well-narrated story will bring the audience to attention, why there is the occurrence of the challenge and at the same time give remedies to the problem by transporting audience to the virtual world (Gerrig 1993). Through these remedies is where the audience makes the choice that will involve deciding on the most suitable action to undertake (King, 1986; Voss, 1996). Further, narrations even though might bring fear with them; it does not necessarily mean the story has come to demolish whatever existed. But simply it is meant to make the audience dig deep in his/her mind and see the repercussions of adopting a certain strategy in case of an organisation and, therefore, brings to his attention the available options that can make them evade such a disastrous phenomena by making the right decisions. In cases of organisations, new entrant will always find existing employees. These employees in one way or another they will find themselves narrating stories to these new entrants about the organisation. By doing so, the new entrants are able to learn the organisation culture and operation of the organisation as a whole. They also learn the dos’ and don’ts in the organisational setting. The purposes of these narrations in the organisation, is to eradicate the possibilities of defects that occur if such stories are not told and to provide organisational structure for new experience and knowledge (Mandler, 1984). Therefore, these stories help an organisation to define its structure and to withstand threats. Stories in an organisation occur due to past occurrences that shape future of an organisation (Polkinghorne, 1988; Orbuch, 1997). Plot organizes the events according to a “sense of causality” (Forster, 1927). A Plot gives the audience the setting of a story and thus making the ideas of a narrator flow in the minds of the audience by creating curiosity and fantasy (Polkinghorne, 1988, Malone, 1981a). A good plot gives the first impression of the audience thus determining how well the message is received and to what extent will it be of assistance to the recipient. A plot gives the story its flow, it makes events unfold one after the other and by doing so the narrator message is conveyed right . To be effective, a plot must convey the exact ideology values, belief systems of the target audience (Gamson, 1988). A plot directed towards specific group of people must address the issues affecting the group at the moment In order for a story to be effective, it should be able to address the gaps and omissions created by the occurrence of an event and by doing so they succeed in their purpose (Abram, 1993). Therefore, stories in most times are the most effective way of conveying a message to the audience in a way that is easy for them to understand and remember. In such occasions, stories prove to have served their purpose since these narrations remain in the minds of the audience thus taking precautionary measures always. Occasionally in social movement individuals come together to tackle problems, they share experiences where they narrate stories related to subject to give an overview of the problem. From the stories, the social movement come up with solutions to problems and strategically plan so that such problems do not occur in the future. Narrations have proved to have capabilities of tackling major issues in the community setting a national wide. It, therefore, brings peace in the minds of people and generally motivates people (Malone 1981b). Theory of narrative in social movement is effective, though as any other theory, it has its own critiques. First by just telling a story to a group of people, you have not solved the problem. Even though how much the story may be attractive sometimes the lesson brought about by the story might be harsh such that the audience ends up ignoring and, therefore, the problems they are facing still prevails (Miller, 1990). At times, stories will end up contradicting the situations. When audience minds are contradicted, then it means more problems hence serious trouble. Stories sometimes are repetitive making the audience bored. As far as the social movement may want to use theory of narration to solve an issue, it might not work since the audience may have heard similar stories with same lessons that did not work in resolving the issues they face. When such occasions occur, they make the audience have the feeling that the narrator is playing kitten thus worsening the situation (Miller, 1990). As much as a story is narrated to tackle a subject matter, still it might not address the situation such that it does not satisfy the audience or convince them that the solutions will actually work. A narration should, therefore, be able to serve it purpose (Miller, 1990). In other occasions, stories are unclear in that they fail to explain their intentions to the audience, in that they have lots of gaps and omissions (Miller, 1990). Narratives become in effective once they suppose an occurrence in social movement is as a result of planned consequence of intent actions or because their acknowledgment is a result of the match to common field (Tilly 1998, White, 1980). Narratives have also received objections from the Framing theorist who argue that they depend on a limited stock of possible story lines foregrounds the constraints levied by existing cultural understandings. They emphasize the multiplicity of coexisting, often contradictory value positions instrumentally mobilized. They argue that there is room for more ideas that can solve problems better other than relying on narrative. According to them, room should be made available to accommodate ideas from elsewhere (Klandermans, 1992). Ideally, narratives provide solutions to most of the problems faced by individuals. Most of the present occurrences are in some way related to occurrences that occurred previously. As a disease is treated with the same treatment it was treated with sometime ago, so will a problem of the similar kinds will be solved. A narrative can be used as many times as possible to remind the audience on measures to take and it can be used in another setting related to previous one. This is the reflective function of a narrative (Bruner, 1991). Narratives serve a purpose, and attention should be paid to them in case of an occurrence. Although, at other times caution is to be taken not to lock out other options that would be serve the purpose better than narratives. As long as narratives are attractive while listened at, room should be provided for more options. References Adams, M. 1990. Beginning to Read: Thinking and Learning About Print. 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