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Narrative and Collective Action: The Power of Public Stories
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The problem of collective action may be, as Taylor has claimed, the central problem for
political science.
1
It arises in almost every imaginable context, in voting, interest group
politics, legislative behavior, social movements, and international relations. Unless
overcome, individuals in groups will typically fail to act in ways that achieve their common interests: voters will not turn out, partisans will not join interest groups or
parties, coalitions will fall apart, the public will not inform itself, bureaucrats will shirk their duties, fishers will deplete the oceans, soldiers will desert their armies.
There is a vast literature on collective action, exploring the nature of the problem and
seeking to explain how it is that humans do seem, sometimes, to overcome it. Political scientists working within different paradigms have explored the importance of interests,
institutions, and ideas. There is, however, remarkably little about the role of stories, which is surprising because whenever one considers collective action, whether in social
movements, in labor organizing, in political mobilization, or in any other arena, there are always stories.
This paper argues that there is good reason for the ubiquity of stories: narrative is the
fundamental human device for enabling collective action. First, narratives play an important role in constituting mind: enabling memory, structuring cognition, making
meaning, and establishing identity. Second, because we are creatures constituted by narrative, we can be called by stories: engrossed by them, moved emotionally by them,
persuaded by them, and ultimately motivated to act by them. Third, because narratives are shared, they can operate at both the individual and the collective level, constructing
common desires, enlisting participation in a common drama, and scripting collective acts of meaning. Narratives are particularly important tools for empowering communities of
resistance, which face significant obstacles to collective action and which, therefore, operate at considerable disadvantage in the political arena. It should be no surprise then
that narrative politics is particularly prevalent in social movements.
1
Taylor, 1990.
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| | Authors: Mayer, Frederick. |
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The problem of collective action may be, as Taylor has claimed, the central problem for
political science.
It arises in almost every imaginable context, in voting, interest group
politics, legislative behavior, social movements, and international relations. Unless
overcome, individuals in groups will typically fail to act in ways that achieve their
common interests: voters will not turn out, partisans will not join interest groups or
parties, coalitions will fall apart, the public will not inform itself, bureaucrats will shirk
their duties, fishers will deplete the oceans, soldiers will desert their armies.
There is a vast literature on collective action, exploring the nature of the problem and
seeking to explain how it is that humans do seem, sometimes, to overcome it. Political
scientists working within different paradigms have explored the importance of interests,
institutions, and ideas. There is, however, remarkably little about the role of stories,
which is surprising because whenever one considers collective action, whether in social
movements, in labor organizing, in political mobilization, or in any other arena, there are
always stories.
This paper argues that there is good reason for the ubiquity of stories: narrative is the
fundamental human device for enabling collective action. First, narratives play an
important role in constituting mind: enabling memory, structuring cognition, making
meaning, and establishing identity. Second, because we are creatures constituted by
narrative, we can be called by stories: engrossed by them, moved emotionally by them,
persuaded by them, and ultimately motivated to act by them. Third, because narratives
are shared, they can operate at both the individual and the collective level, constructing
common desires, enlisting participation in a common drama, and scripting collective acts
of meaning. Narratives are particularly important tools for empowering communities of
resistance, which face significant obstacles to collective action and which, therefore,
operate at considerable disadvantage in the political arena. It should be no surprise then
that narrative politics is particularly prevalent in social movements.
1
Taylor, 1990.
2
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