Listen to Sarah Dillon present storylistening at this LSE panel discussion on narratives in policymaking.
Author: sjd27
Watch Sarah Dillon present storylistening at this LSE panel discussion on narratives in policymaking.
This new paper proposes that the uses of narrative in policy fall within two categories: storytelling to persuade and storylistening to inform. First, we outline the mechanisms of narrative persuasion and review the risks and benefits of using storytelling in science communication and science evidence provision. We then turn from storytelling and narrative persuasion, to storylistening and narrative evidence. We present the theory of storylistening, focusing on the four cognitive functions of stories, and give two examples of storylistening in practice drawn from recent collaborative projects gathering narrative evidence to inform nuclear policy, and future uses of Space. We conclude by pointing to the need for plural, innovative and novel evidence (PINE) in policy-making.
Read our new report – The Case for PINE: Uses of Plural, Innovative and Novel Evidence for Decision-Makers. Instead of thinking ‘finance’ and reaching only for economics, or thinking ‘volcano’ and turning to geologists alone, a PINE approach to evidence gathering is determined by the diverse requirements of the policy matter at hand, not by conventional assumptions regarding disciplinary relevance and robustness. PINE describes an evidence culture which supports and extends existing initiatives seeking to facilitate the effective use of evidence in policy in general, and those seeking to advocate for the inclusion of evidence from less common sources, such as the social sciences and the arts and humanities.
Evidence synthesis is increasingly recognised as an essential element of the provision and use of expert advice in areas of public reasoning and decision-making. Synthesis here refers to an authoritative account of the best available knowledge in a field or fields, relevant to a question of policy interest and accessible to all interested audiences. Synthesis as a practice is well established in many areas of science and medicine. Although less frequent in the humanities, recent examples from funders and the British Academy illustrate increasing recognition of its importance. This new article outlines why synthesis matters and, while pointing to some systemic challenges, shows how it can be done. It illustrates the findings from the literature with practical material from two recent proof of concept projects led by the Storylistening Team.
In light of the storylistening article in Science, Sarah joined Bob McDonald on Canada’s CBC radio science programme ‘Quirks and Quarks’ to discuss how rigorous analysis of narratives can complement scientific data in informing public policy for global issues like climate change and space exploration.
Sarah discusses this important question on an episode of the University of Cambridge’s Bennett Institute for Public Policy podcast – Crossing Channels – hosted by Rory Cellan-Jones, with fellow interviewee Manvir Singh.
In this contribution to Science‘s policy forum, Claire and Sarah explain how expert analysis of narratives can complement and strengthen scientific evidence, laying out how storylistening can be incorporated into the mechanisms and institutions of public reasoning, and what this means for scientists.
In this perspective for WIREs Climate Change, Sarah and Claire expand on the climate change case study in the book, demonstrating how the arguments in Storylistening connect with the most cutting edge interdisciplinary work on climate change.
In October 2022, Sarah and Rachel Fisher (Deputy Director for Land Use Policy at Defra) joined a cross-disciplinary group of academics as part of a Cambridge Zero Policy Forum roundtable discussion on narratives and their links with climate change policy. This blog summarises the highlights of the discussion.