Sharing Stories, Building Bridges - Digital Storyteling for Dialogue Facilitation

In a time, where the political discourse of many European Countries is characterized by an increasing polarization, the capacity to deal with differences in a constructive and differentiated manner is a of crucial importance for the development of a sustainable democratic culture.

One consequence of polarization in conflict situations is that we do not perceive others anymore as individual beings with multifaceted identities but reduce them to representatives of the conflicting party. Such processes of de-individualization make it increasingly difficult to connect with people on the other side and to find common ground for a constructive dialogue.

One approach, which has shown its ability to create bonds among people with diverse and even conflicting backgrounds is the method of storytelling.  Being able to tell and relate to stories is an ability, which connects humans across cultural and even historical boundaries.  Creating a safe environment where personal stories can be shared and listened to, therefore helps to go beyond the polarized perceptions and provides the possibility for relating with others on a very basic human level. Especially for young people this can become an impactful experience and helps them to not only reflect about themselves in a deeper manner but also to form bonds with youth of different backgrounds.

Given this context, the proposed training course ‘Sharing Stories, Building Bridges – Digital Storytelling for Dialogue facilitation’ wants to gather 26 youth workers from 10 EU countries to equip them with the competences to make use of storytelling methods in the work with young people. While storytelling is as old as mankind.

the digital age allows us to make use of additional layers of sounds and images, creating an even more immersive experience. We will therefore be working with the approach of ‘Digital Storytelling’ inspired by the work of Joe Lambert, founder of the Center for Digital Storytelling in Berkeley.

If you would like to get more insights on the method, you can check the website of our cooperation partner Upstream Stories (DK) for examples of stories produced in other workshops.