Environmental Action in the Anthropocene: The Power of Narrative-Networks

ABSTRACT

In this article we present a ‘narrative network' approach, which by virtue of its engagement with the non-human and with collaborative decision-making, is especially well suited to support social scientists in better comprehending the diverse possibilities for environmental governance in the Anthropocene. The most highly salient Anthropocene narrative is focused on physical phenomena, and neglects the importance and dynamism of the social landscape. Despite the dire warnings conveyed by this narrative dominated by the physical sciences, the solutions it recommends rely on status quo institutional arrangements. In this article, we explain and illustrate how the narrative-network analysis can identify and describe successful political action by largely informal networks that bridge geographic, economic, cultural, and political differences and embrace participatory environmental governance. We illustrate the power of narrative-network analysis to reveal an environmental network in the case of the Sonora Desert at the US–Mexican border. Such networks can be the vanguard of discourse and policy change, raising neglected issues and undertaking collaborative action that foreshadows later formalization, and enlist the participation of actors ordinarily far outside the policy-making process. We add to our previous work on narratives by explaining how the narrative-network analysis can be useful to discursive scholarship in environmental planning and policy. We harness analytical methods associated with narratology and social psychology to tap into the communicative dimension of the discourse dynamics.

KEYWORDS:

• Narratives
• social networks
• Anthropocene
• collaborative governance
• U.S.–Mexico border

Acknowledgements

Heartfelt thanks to our editors and workshop organizers Peter H. Feindt, Reiner Keller, Georg Winkel, and Sina Leipold. We are greatly indebted to the other workshop attendees and especially our careful and constructive reviewers, whose comments are responsible for many improvements in this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1 Importantly, we do not intend to privilege human-told stories as full representations of the non-human. Narratives are partial, limited by a lack of sensitivity for the non-human, for example, and an ultimate ‘unknowability', (Kirksey & Helmreich, 2010). However, our focus here is on the usefulness of narrative as a very foundational process via which all people comprehend and order experience and information.

2 In a 2014 article Mumme does acknowledge local networks, and describes them embracing contending narratives and working simultaneously, although ultimately unsuccessfully, as negotiations taking place at national and international levels were dominated by hegemonic discourses (Mumme & Taylor, 2014).