Storytelling Futures

It's "Code Red" for humanity. How do the media respond to that? This book is for anyone who's interested in using storytelling and media with the aim to shape desirable futures for humanity and all other forms of life on Earth. We're facing a host of serious, global, complex, entangled problems. Nuclear weapons, runaway technology, indestructible waste, resource depletion, overpopulation, pandemics, radicalization, species extinction, ecosystem loss, climate change. It's breathtaking, life-threatening and truly existential. How can anyone look such challenges in the eye without feeling desperate? If humans are the cause of these problems, being as inventive and ambitious as we are, we can also solve them. It's being tried, with some positive effects. But that is not enough. The obstacle seems to be less of a practical nature than a matter of awareness. It's our collective incapacity to feel and act according to what is genuinely beneficial for us and the world we're part of. Humanity lacks a vision of what a livable future – pluralistic livable futures – could look like. There are hardly any convincing, aspirational myths for people to root for. More often than not, stories about tomorrow are dystopias. In the hour of danger our imagination fails us. This is not accidental. It's critical. There is no longer any doubt that we'll only be able to survive on this planet if we radically change our way of life, our economies, our societies. To achieve this, stories and media need to lead the way. We must get better at working with probable, possible and desirable futures. This would be a useful skill for anyone. It's a duty for all those who shape and create realities in the media. As journalists, writers, filmmakers, game designers or XR-creators we can present what we care about to many different audiences. We reach people. We touch them. Our projects can be starting points for collective sensemaking and inspire citizens to become agents of change.

The annals of field primatology are filled with stories about charismatic animals native to some of the most challenging and remote areas on earth. There are, for example, the chimpanzees of Tanzania, whose social and family interactions Jane Goodall has studied for decades; the mountain gorillas of the Virungas, chronicled first by George Schaller and then later, more obsessively, by Dian Fossey; various species of monkeys (Indian langurs, Kenyan baboons, and Brazilian spider monkeys) studied by Sarah Hrdy, Shirley Strum, Robert Sapolsky, Barbara Smuts, and Karen Strier; and finally the orangutans of the Bornean woodlands, whom Biruté Galdikas has observed passionately. Humans are, after all, storytelling apes. The narrative urge is encoded in our DNA, along with large brains, nimble fingers, and color vision, traits we share with lemurs, monkeys, and apes. In Storytelling Apes, Mary Sanders Pollock traces the development and evolution of primatology field narratives while reflecting upon the development of the discipline and the changing conditions within natural primate habitat. Like almost every other field primatologist who followed her, Jane Goodall recognized the individuality of her study animals: defying formal scientific protocols, she named her chimpanzee subjects instead of numbering them, thereby establishing a trend. For Goodall, Fossey, Sapolsky, and numerous other scientists whose works are discussed in Storytelling Apes, free-living primates became fully realized characters in romances, tragedies, comedies, and never-ending soap operas. With this work, Pollock shows readers with a humanist perspective that science writing can have remarkable literary value, encourages scientists to share their passions with the general public, and inspires the conservation community.

Storytelling is part of social action and interaction that actually shapes the future of organizations. Organization and management studies have overwhelmingly focused to date on rational narrative structures with beginnings, middles, and ends, where narrative has proved to be a handy concept in qualitative studies. Far less attention is given however to the more spontaneous and ‘non-staged’ storytelling that occurs in organizations. Storytelling and the Future of Organizations explores the science and practice of ‘antenarrative’ because that is how the future of organization is shaped. Antenarrative is a term invented by David M. Boje in 2001, and is defined as a ‘bet on the future,’ as ‘before’ narrative linearity, coherence, and stability sets in. Antenarrative is all about ’prospective sensemaking,’ betting on the future before narrative retrospection fossilizes the past. Antenarrative storytelling is therefore agential in ways that traditional narratology has yet to come to grips with. This handbook contribution is bringing together a decade of scholarship on ‘antenarrative.’ It is the first volume to offer such a varied but systematic examination of non-traditional narrative inquiry in the management realm, organizing and developing its approach, and providing new insights for management students and scholars.

This research-based book foregrounds Black narrative traditions and honors alternative methods of data collection, analysis, and representation. Toliver presents a semi-fictionalized narrative in an alternative science fiction setting, refusing white-centric qualitative methods and honoring the ways of the griots who were the scholars of their African nations. By utilizing Black storytelling, Afrofuturism, and womanism as an onto-epistemological tool, this book asks readers to elevate Black imaginations, uplift Black dreams, and consider how Afrofuturity is qualitative futurity. By centering Black girls, the book considers the ethical responsibility of researchers to focus upon the words of our participants, not only as a means to better understand our historic and current world, but to better situate inquiry for what the future world and future research could look like. Ultimately, this book decenters traditional, white-centered qualitative methods and utilizes Afrofuturism as an onto-epistemological tool and ethical premise. It asks researchers to consider how we move forward in data collection, data analysis, and data representation by centering how Black girls reclaim and recover the past, counter negative and elevate positive realities that exist in the present, and create new possibilities for the future. The semi-fictionalized narrative of the book highlights the intricate methodological and theoretical work that undergirds the story. It will be an important text for both new and seasoned researchers interested in social justice. Informed and anti-racist researchers will find Endarkened storywork a useful tool for educational, cultural, and social critiques now and in the future.

Pioneering thinker in organizational communication David Boje here compiles a collection of new essays on the theme of ‘antenarrative,’ or non-linear narrative, as applied to organizations and business, bringing together different approaches and philosophical interpretations of the concept.

Neil Powell explores the political and existential problems facing humankind in this philosophical and literary examination of language and society... The Storyteller is tired of telling stories about Love, God and Beauty. With the invention of Eric Crawford, an English teacher at Davenport College, he explores what is required to tell new stories. As a result, a tantalising world of freedom beckons. This encompasses Eric’s family and romantic life, the explosive relationship he has with troubled student, David Spurling, and a protest movement about the role of Art in society. The Storyteller’s control of Eric’s life conversely makes the Storyteller realise the power language has over him. Reminding him that language is a public medium, not the exclusive tool of an authority or author. A stylistically innovative novel, at turns both a philosophy and black comedy, The Office of Future Storytelling, examines the relationship of language to individual identity and freedom. It argues that the stories we need are those which demonstrate our unequivocal connection to the world.

Unlock the power of storytelling with this comprehensive guide! From the basics of narrative structure to the role of AI in storytelling, this ebook covers everything you need to know to craft compelling and engaging stories. Learn about the hero's journey, creating compelling characters, using symbolism, and much more. Whether you're a seasoned writer or just starting out, this ebook will help you take your storytelling skills to the next level. Plus, with tips on social media and interactive storytelling, you'll learn how to adapt your storytelling to the digital age. Get your copy today and start creating unforgettable stories!"

In this book we outline an optimistic, aspirational and unashamedly ambitious agenda for schooling. We make cautious use of the concept of ‘future proofing’ to signal the commitment of the various authors to re-thinking the purposes, content and processes of schooling with a view to ensuring that all children, from all backgrounds are prepared by their education to make a positive contribution to the futures that are ahead of them. The book focuses on issues relating to technology and social justice to re-examine the traditional relationship between schools and technology, between schools and diverse learners, and between schools, children and knowledge. Drawing from examples from around the world, the book explores practical ways that diverse schools have worked to celebrate diverse understandings of what it means to be a learner, a citizen, a worker in these changed and changing times and the ways different technologies can support this agenda.