|
Countries |
Number of Participants |
Countries |
Number of Participants |
|
Austria |
1 |
Pakistan |
1 |
|
Australia |
1 |
Philippines |
1 |
|
Brazil |
1 |
Taiwan |
9 |
|
Canada |
3 |
Singapore |
1 |
|
France |
1 |
South Korea |
2 |
|
Germany |
12 |
Sweden |
1 |
|
Hungary |
1 |
Thailand |
1 |
|
Indonesia |
1 |
Turkey |
1 |
|
Japan |
9 |
United Kingdom |
2 |
|
Netherlands |
1 |
United States |
6 |
This year's symposium, titled, 'Digital Narratives in the Quest for Sustainable Futures', is the third edition of the KLASICA, or the Knowledge, Learning, and Societal Change Research Alliance, symposium held in Taiwan. The aims of KLASICA is to explore how narratives can be used to understand and accelerate collective behavior change in order to develop pathways toward just and equitable sustainable futures, and as such, brings together experts from around the world to share their experiences and to build on each other's knowledge and expertise to strengthen these pathways locally as well as regionally.
Opening Plenary: How Digitalization Impacts on Narratives
At the opening of this year's symposium, IASS's Managing Scientific Director Prof. Dr. Dr. Ortwin Renn pointed out that insufficient progress has been made bridging equity and economic changes, and that there is therefore greater need to look at the role that narratives can play in shaping the world. Prof. Renn explained that narratives are culturally-specific, and the aim of the symposium is to therefore develop an analytical framework via understanding these various narratives, in order to enhance the capacity of individuals and society to navigate the complex world and to become promoters of change.
Prof. Dr. Ilan Chabay, Head of Strategic Research Initiatives and Programmes at the IASS and founder of KLASICA, also emphasized the need to understand how communities interact and move toward sustainability transitions, and how digitalization can be used to achieve these. Prof. Chabay cautioned however that while there has been increasing access to digitalization, it is nonetheless not universal and equitable, and there also exists the danger of digitalization being a powerful tool manipulated by a few.
Dr. Maja Essebo, Researcher and Director of Studies at the Lund University Centre for Sustainability Studies (LUCSUS), gave an impulse presentation for the opening plenary. Dr. Essebo explained that while stories are a method by which to support change, it is important not to be stuck at simplistic ideas of replacing “bad” stories with “good” stories, because the everyday world is not black or white, and it is therefore important not to be trapped into a binary thinking. In the discussion that ensued, Prof. Ortwin also discussed whether in the age of digitalization, whether the stories developed by algorithms mean that machines are also capable of telling stories and making meaning in itself, or whether people who develop the machines are the ones creating meaning. Dr. Essebo added that the advent of algorithmic stories has resulted in algorithms finding connections for people, instead of people finding them for themselves, though these connections would still need to be understood, she said, highlighting the example of how retailer Target used data from people's consumption pattern which erroneously determined certain customers to be pregnant and delivering coupons for baby items to them, resulting in an invasion of privacy. Nonetheless, Dr. Essebo pointed out that if machines have become part of the storymaking, that they have therefore become building blocks of the story. Therefore, because there are people behind these machines constantly building up the stories, it would be important to find the links between them and to collect more data to look at the time order in how these various aspects become part of the building blocks of a story, Dr. Essebo explained.
KLASICA participants at the opening plenary
Key Questions for Discussion: Understanding How Narratives Work on Digital Platforms
As the KLASICA symposium is also intended to be a discussion-based one where participants could engage in deeper perspectives with one another, the symposium was divided into two groups to discuss the following questions:
- How implicit and explicit stimuli such as deep-seated visions or fears, protection of identities and affinity-group ties, and reactions to perceived unfair or unjust treatment, become the core of why many narratives are created and shared virally in digital media, and how such insights can be used to more effectively catalyze positive change and create constructive dialogues.
- How trust in information sources and content can be increased to overcome the highly polarized echo chamber climate, and how narratives can be shaped to include ambiguity and to sustain empathy and develop trust for those who do not share common beliefs.
- How we can understand the structures and mechanics of narratives, to understand how to empower a sense of agency and transformative capacity among individuals and thereby motivate actions, in order for narratives to become an instrument for social change.
Discussion Group A: How People Can Be Empowered with Information to Spur Understanding and Transformation
In Discussion Group A moderated by Prof. Shew-Jiuan Su from the Department of Geography at the National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU), the discussion centered around the need to use hope-based narratives instead of fear-based narratives to motivate collective action. On the other hand, shared traumatic experiences could also become a powerful force in enabling people to come together, and such fear-based narratives could become a force of good, such as how the shared trauma of natural disasters during Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines helped to create shared discourse on climate change and brought about greater environmental education among local communities, Mariana Reyes, a master's student at the Institute of Oceanography, Nation Taiwan University, explained. Elaine Ying-Syuan Huang, Research Associate at the Faculty of Education under the McGill University, pointed out that hope-based narratives however require a longer time to cultivate and greater effort to sustain, and could more easily fall apart when actual implementation and outcomes are limited. Nonetheless, Steven R. McGreevy, Associate Professor at the Research Institute for Humanity and Nature (RIHN), opined that while “fear-based narratives” might travel faster than hope-based narratives, that there have been examples of hope-based narratives motivating societies into action and aligning societies in a common direction, such as the narratives of “progress”, “the American dream”, and “human colonizing space”. RSPRC Postdoctoral Fellow Milan Chen suggested that hope-based narratives could be more effective among people who are eager to challenge the existing status quo while fear-based narratives might work best for people satisfied with the current status quo. Claire Marshall, Creator at the Museum of Futures and Tutor at the Transdisciplinary Innovation Faculty under the University of Technology Sydney, proposed that instead of using the dichotomy between hope and fear, a better approach might be to focus on empowerment vs disempowerment narratives, as her research has shown that when people are given an invitation to become a protagonist in a narrative, they are given a sense of agency which can help to reframe issues, give an identity, and therefore guide actions and promote change, such as how New Zealand has used the narrative surrounding, “breaking the chain”, to curtail the spread of COVID-19.
RSPRC Assistant Researcher Roy Ngerng raised the question of whether economic inequality has a role in people becoming more insecure and curtailing their access to education and thereby reducing their alignment to science, though Ms. Huang pointed to white supremacism as the underlying factor. Ms. Chen added that while economic inequality could be a factor, the situation in Germany has been that right-wing politics has gained greater ground in Eastern Germany, which Dr. Pierre Glynn pointed to tribalism and fear as therefore being a perennial issue in how groups might blame another tribe when their situation deteriorates for them. Dr. Glynn added that, in the face of groups of people who hold different beliefs, that this raises the question of how truths can be provided in parts in order start conversation between groups of people and to develop a gradual way whereby people can understand each other's beliefs – however, he pointed out that a balance would be needed in terms of providing partial truth and yet not allow the truth to be taken out of context. IASS Fellow Nicole de Paula explained that such a concept has been referred to as “constructive ambiguity”.
KLASICA participants in Discussion Group A
Discussion Group B: The Importance of Understanding the Contexts and Tipping Points to How Information is Spread
In Discussion Group B moderated by Prof. Chabay, there was the discussion about how even though knowledge is being created, that it is not enough because it needs to be packaged in a congruent and authentic manner, and also how the conceptual knowledge of a researcher can create a limitation. It is therefore important to think of how to use narratives to develop ways to communicate to diverse audiences and to create bridges between these societies i.e. to identify narratives that can resonate and cut across communities. However, because sustainability can mean different things to different communities, they need to be contextually understood as well – this is a topic that was brought up in both discussion groups. The group also discussed how it is important to identify the factors that make a narrative stick, so that that narratives can become transformative and effective – to do so, it might be a possibility to study how conspiracy theories, while spread only by small and marginal groups, can become amplified and attract attention globally, which therefore requires an understanding of the tipping points that result in such a spread.
KLASICA participants in Discussion Group B
Final Plenary: The Need for Dialogue and Self-Reflection, and to Break Out from the Expert Paradigm
During the final plenary, in the face of the information war and information polarization, as well as how outrage is being caused by people engaged in disinformation campaigns, Flávio L pointed out that there is a need to bring counter narratives to the same table, and to allow deniers and conspiracy theorists to speak to one another, so that it can result in self-reflection. Flávio pointed out that the key however is to not to only provide a platform, but to create dialogue, so that through debate, people can come to common understandings. Flávio added that because the conversation is still structured within the paradigm of the expertise and the experts, that this constrains who gets to engage in discourse in the epistemological field. Moderator at #VirtualBlueDecade Julia Jung pointed out that there is therefore a need for academics to engage in self-reflection of their own values and biases, as well as to expose themselves to the various indigenous cultures and systems.
You can find more information about KLASICA in the links below: