The Roles of Narrative in Community Resilience: A Framework for Understanding and Action
- Publication Type:
- Thesis
- Issue Date:
- 2025
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This research examines the role of narratives in shaping community resilience in the face of social, environmental, and economic change. While resilience research has largely focused on structural capacities such as governance, networks, and resources, comparatively less attention has been given to the cultural and interpretive processes through which communities make sense of disruption and organise collective responses.
The research follows a three‑stage mixed‑qualitative design. First, a conceptual synthesis integrates resilience theory, systems thinking, and narrative studies to identify key resilience‑enabling factors and six narrative roles through which communities interpret and respond to change. Second, comparative case studies of Findhorn and Narara Ecovillages examine how narratives emerge, evolve, and interact with governance arrangements, social capital, diversity, and everyday practices. Third, interviews and participatory workshops explore how narratives operate within governance processes, collective decision‑making, and day‑to‑day community life.
Building on this analysis, the thesis develops a narrative–resilience framework that explains how shared meanings, identities, and interpretive practices influence how communities anticipate, respond to, and adapt to change. The findings show that narratives function as a form of cultural infrastructure, shaping how communities interpret change, coordinate action, and sustain collective purpose. Two key narrative dynamics are identified: narrative plasticity, the capacity of stories to evolve and recombine while maintaining coherence, and narrative ecology, the wider system of interacting narratives through which learning, adaptation, and continuity are supported.
The research demonstrates that resilience does not arise from narrative processes or structural conditions alone, but from their ongoing interaction. Narratives gain influence when supported by governance arrangements, leadership configurations, and relational infrastructures that shape how stories circulate, are contested, and become institutionalised. In this sense, resilience operates not only as a structural capacity but also as an interpretive and relational process enacted through evolving narrative systems.
The thesis contributes a transferable framework to support community practitioners, planners, and policymakers seeking to strengthen resilience in complex social‑ecological systems.
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