The Evaluation of Storytelling as a Peace-building Methodology

To evaluate the impacts of storytelling projects in violently divided societies, we need to consider the often implicit ‘theories of change’ embedded in them. That is, how do we think storytelling works in terms of affecting the perceptions and actions of individuals and groups (which are subsequently translated into the structure and content of policies and institutions)?  These questions need to be engaged while we remain attentive to the possibility that storytelling may have negative, as well as positive, impacts.  

When we survey relevant examples, we begin to discern a number of theories of change related to how storytelling may have positive impacts through individuals into the societal level. As Wilhelm Verwoerd noted in his presentation, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) in South Africa, was premised on the belief that the public telling of the “truth” of Apartheid era abuses would have a positive cathartic effect on society. This was seen to be essential for the building of a new, inclusive, and just society. A number of features of the TRC can be seen to have been tied implicitly to a broad theory of change, namely: the very “publicness” of the process; the fact that the stories of individual’s experiences could be told in their local languages; the fact that the TRC was happening under the auspices of the state (in contrast to the suppression of the previous regime); the confessional character of the exercise whereby victims and perpetrators told their stories. (The latter group encouraged by the fact that those who voluntarily told their story were more likely to receive leniency or amnesty in a court of law.)  The underpinning theory of change in the TRC seems to be related to what Samuel Johnson once called “the stability of Truth” even “as it recognizes the destabilizing nature of its own operations and enquiries” (Heaney 1995).