Canning Doyle - RE:imagining change: how to use story-based strategy to win campaigns, build movements, and change the world

All around us the old stories are failing, crumbling in the face of lived experience and scientific reality. But what stories will replace them? That is the subject of this crucial book: helping readers to tell irresistible stories about deep changewhy it is needed and what it will look like. The Story-based Strategy team has been doing this critical work for fifteen years, training an entire generation in transformative communication. This updated edition of Re:Imagining Change is a thrilling addition to the activist tool kit.

~Naomi Klein

Indigenous peoples around the world are on the frontlines defending our rights and fighting for ecological and climate justice. We are offering powerful stories reawakening humanity to its relationship and responsibilities to defend the rights of Mother Earth. But how can we strengthen our voices and make our calls for change heard? This book offers strategies for our movements to creatively build the power to guide society toward a more just and sustainable future for all.

~Tom Goldtooth, Indigenous Environmental Network

Once upon a time, left-wing activists thought being right was good enough, but the past decade has seen a more elegant and effective understanding that you need to be a lot more if you want to win. Center for Story-based Strategys guidebook to being that moresmarter, more engaging, more subversive, more powerfulshould be in every activists hands and imagination. Its a great toolkit for change.

~Rebecca Solnit, author of numerous books including The Encyclopedia of Trouble and Spaciousness, Men Explain Things to Me, and Hope in the Dark

CSS shows us that if organizing is the muscle of social movements, and strategy is the brain, then story is the heart and soul. CSSs methodology combines the power of story together with strategy to serve grassroots organizing and build powerful, unstoppable movements. And its working! From climate justice to low-wage workers; from anti-militarism to migrant rights; story-based strategy is amplifying our voices and deepening our impact.

~Gopal Dayaneni, Movement Generation Justice & Ecology Project

Yo organizers! Stop what you are doing for a couple hours and soak up this book! We know the importance of smart issue framing. But Re:Imagining Change will move our organizing further as we connect to the powerful narratives, stories and memes of our culture.

~Chuck Collins,Institute for Policy Studies, author of Born on Third Base, 99 to 1, and other books about economic inequality

There is an African proverb that says, Until the story of the hunt is told by the lion, the story of the hunt will always glorify the hunter. Similarly, for frontline communities, it is too often others who are framing the narratives of the systems, policies, and practices that hold sway over our lives. Through Re:Imagining Change, the Center for Story-based Strategy provides tools and pathways to put community framing, stories, and vision at the center of the transformation that is necessary to transition from systems and structures characterized by extraction and domination to regenerative, cooperative, resilient communities.

~Jacqui Patterson, director, Environmental and Climate Justice Program, NAACP

Our stories are powerful enough to change the world, particularly when we know how to put them at the center of our organizing and direct action campaigns. Thats why Re:Imagining Change is an essential how-to manual. Its accessible framework walks activists through the process of aligning transformative storytelling with movement building, organizing, and action. It is a critical resource for any community that is fighting for justice. Dont find yourself on the frontlines without it!

~Sharon Lungo, executive director, The Ruckus Society

Story-based strategy is integral to winning the fight for social, economic, and political power for Black people. On the front lines of civil and human rights, were not only fighting for our lives but for the right to own our experiences and our stories, too. As we battle long-standing, mythological narratives about Blackness and Black people, many of which lead to prejudicial legislation and deadly policing, well use tools like this book to equip our organizers with narrative strategy that advances us to a more equitable and just world for all people.

~Shanelle Matthews, director of communications for the Black Lives Matter Global Network

Re:Imagining Change is worthy of praise. As an introduction to story-based strategy, the book offers organizers and advocates a new and necessary way to understand and transform the impact of stories on our public life.

~Malkia Cyril, executive director of the Center for Media Justice and cofounder, Media Action Grassroots Network

Knowing how to knock on doors, organize community meetings, and plan a street protest is no longer enough. Todays activists need to know how to generate symbols, tell stories, and tap into popular dreams. Re:Imagining Change is THE handbook for fighting on this cultural terrain.

~Stephen Duncombe,author of Dream: Re-Imagining Progressive Politics in an Age of Fantasy

Re:Imagining Change is a one-of-a-kind essential resource for everyone who is thinking big, challenging the powers that be and working hard to make a better world from the ground up. This innovative book provides the tools, analysis, and inspiration to help activists everywhere be more effective, creative, and strategic. This handbook is like rocket fuel for your social change imagination.

~Antonia Juhasz, author of Black Tide: the Devastating Impact of the Gulf Oil Spill: The Tyranny of Oil; and The Bush Agenda

We are surrounded and shaped by stories every day, sometimes for better, sometimes for worse. But what Doyle Canning and Patrick Reinsborough point out is a beautiful and powerful truththat we are all storytellers too. Armed with the right narrative tools, activists can not only open the worlds eyes to injustice, but feed the desire for a better world. Re:Imagining Change is a powerful weapon for a more democratic, creative, and hopeful future.

~Raj Patel, author of Stuffed and Starved and The Value of Nothing: How to Reshape Market Society and Redefine Democracy

This is a groundbreaking book to mark up, share with friends, and keep within arms reach of activists. The analysis and case studies you hold in your hand are tools to shift paradigms and raise ruckuses! Please try this at home.

~adrienne maree brown, author of Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds and Octavias Brood: Science Fiction Stories from Social Justice Movements

Brilliant and invaluable. Lakoff introduced the progressive movement to the power of framing. Canning and Reinsborough take framing to a far more powerful level and provide practical tools essential to the success of every progressive organization that seeks to bring forth a world of peace and justice. It gets my highest recommendation.

~David Korten, board chair of YES! magazine and author of