Sharing Stories: The Role of Personal Narratives in Community Mobilization

In: Humanity & society, Band 40, Heft 4, S. 442-461

Abstract

The focus of this study is the role of health narratives play in mobilization when shared among community members experiencing exposure to air pollution from numerous sources of industrial pollution. Grounded in the practice of community-based participatory research, The Stories Project (as the collection of narratives has been colloquially named) highlights various aspects of both the process and outcome of community and academic partnerships. Drawing attention to the process illustrates the complexity of such relationships in the field, and how an understanding of these relationships is vital to successful engagement of community members in such studies. The process of storytelling became the tool for successful mobilization in this community. Narratives became strategies and vehicles for social justice. Throughout, the reflexivity of the researcher also informed the process. It is this complexity that serves as the primary focus of the study, for intertwined in a reflection of storytelling and empowerment is the role the researcher plays in such outcomes.