Telling stories is a powerful thing to do.

Whether it’s “the role of storytelling as a key practice for navigating and steering the transformations that lie ahead” [Storying the future | 8 | Storytelling practice in transformative systems]

Or going beyond Aristotle’s philosophy that “storytelling is an essential connection between cause and effect” [Design the future through the power of storytelling | by Chiara Aliotta | Medium]

Or “helping to make sense of confusing information”: as the futurist Gaston Berger put it, some future stories usefully ‘disturb the present’; that’s the case with a lot of science fiction – from Margaret Atwood and Ursula LeGuin to Charles Stross. [Tell me a story of the future | Nesta]

Here’s just the start of a look at the power of story by Bright Flame of Columbia University:

Change the story, change the world

What is the future you desire for generations forward? Let your mind wander, your imagination flow. Let images emerge, listen to the sounds around you, notice smells and movement as you explore.

To create the just, regenerative world we want, we need to make it real in our minds, to point ourselves towards it, and to help others widen their view of the possible. Storying the future is an important tool for changing the world.

I offered an experiential workshop for our Center’s international collaboration in December 2020 that included visioning a sustainable future using some of the prompts in the previous paragraph. The collaborative image created by participants captures a small slice of their imagined futures: 

I refer you to my workshop and its accompanying slides for more details about the importance of and cognitive science of story to affect our lived experiences, motivations, and actions… 

Solarpunk | News | Sustainability | Teachers College, Columbia University

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