The Stories We Tell : Designing Values-Oriented Narratives of Radical Change Initiatives Towards Sustainability

Abstract: While extensive communication around the sustainability challenges have lead to increased awareness, the expected behavior change correspondent to that level of awareness has not been observed. After decades of information-based sustainability communication the research community recognizes values as important drivers of peoples behavior. Consequently, communication needs to be designed intentionally, so as to implement the change necessary in order to shift society to a sustainable level where the global community lives within the planetary boundaries. This thesis was inspired by this call from the field of sustainability science for a new narrative around sustainability that would inspire more radical change. In the first step we used the European Citizens ́ Initiative for an Unconditional Basic Income (EUBI) as a case study, to analyze what types of values the current narrative of the EUBI speaks to and compare that with the values of the population of the European Union. In the second step our research focused on what types of Guidelines could be developed so as to intentionally design a values-oriented narrative. We identified three ways in which the narrative of EUBI is misaligned with the values of the population of the European Union. We identified as well 13 Guidelines for designing a values-oriented narrative that could contribute in moving society strategically towards sustainability. When utilizing the Guidelines as a tool in crafting a potentially more successful narrative as part of a new sustainability communication, the contribution to SSD may be to strategically overcome the above described misalignment and inspiring more action to bridge the gap.