This is a series of tweets I publised today as a response to Ashley Colby’s (@RizomaFieldSchool) tweet on hand-washing clothes and dishes. The tweet acted as a perfect attractor for many of the ideas about complexity, economics, narrative and pattern language that I’m researching for my PhD Comps Exam and developing towards the research element. Thank you Ashley!
This is a really interesting thread. Its one of collection of stories/narratives that are part of the master narrative of #doomeroptimism
As well as being a #lifestory close to my heart, DO can be seen as a masterclass in story/narrative/master narrative dynamics
‘Dirty dishes get clean’. You could think of a mechanistic solution here but it doesn’t capture the social context. ‘We all do dishes, ‘My wife/husband/kids/dishwasher does/do dishes’. This is a #story that speaks to underlying complexity
People exist within multiple narratives (suburban, middle class, LARPer) and master narratives (the Western Tradition, neolaberalism). Fisher suggests that each new story is tested for fidelity and probability against the #narrative
So if the story (hand washing dishes/clothes) doesn’t fit a larger narrative, its rejected. You can see how #narrativeconstellations then might emerge, that become resilient to change much as species do. But as with species, things happen on the edge where narratives meet..
As Nobel economist @RobertJShiller has examined, narratives can be viral, he looks at Bitcoin and the 2008 Crash as examples #narrativeeconomics. Often this is when a celebrity is associated with the narrative. But what if celebrity is anathema to the narrative? Is it doomed?
So what this means is that there are narrative patterns, which like species, are solutions to collections of socio-ecological problems.
And because narratives are a tool for navigating complexity that humans have used since before language, much more attention should be given to their use #mythosandlogos you can follow me as I work this out more through my #PHDthesis..
References
Fisher, W. R. (1985). “Homo Narrans”:The Narrative Paradigm: In the beginning. Journal of Communication, 35, 74–89.
Shiller, R. J. (2020). Narrative Economics: How Stories Go Viral and Drive Major Economic Events. Princeton University Press. https://books.google.ca/books?id=YlDVDwAAQBAJ
James T Jones 