Documentation | Narratives of Care Storytelling workshop

Talk to me excercise:
the point of the excercise is that there are some implicit information about care. 
The group slit up in 3 people groups
one people ask question 
one people answer question
one people is documenting
each session is 20' 
 
Workshop Notes (Contributed by Pauline)
 
Going from the personal and going global to create 
  • Common ground (everywhere)
  • Connection → Empathy
 

Providing care is providing empowerment for you and the other, helping build steps to autonomy.

Create expectations?
Responsibility?
 
When does storytelling create empathy? What are the conditions? That it create a connexion to the other person’s circumstances. 
 

Common experiences – if I have been through an experience, am I more equipped to support the other facing that experience?

→ If I was a combatant, I can share my story first then be better equipped to support the combatant I work with. 
→ Create a link through storytelling fro better care?
 

The connexion depends on each particular case – dependency? There is a very personal experience.  It is very different when your web of personal experiences are involved. 

→ The relationship to distance and care is not as simple; it may be easier to care for someone who is not personally involved. 
→ Idea of proximity and whether it is helpful or not
 
Idea of expectations from a particular context: only support certain things in certain circumstances. You only want to care about certain things at certain times so there is the question of:
  • Timing
  • Context when shared?
 
Important concepts for care (therefore to include into storytelling practice):
  • Communion
  • Compassion
  • Self-care
  • Awareness
  • Why you help and whether you are more helped yourself. 
 
Burden of care should be spread among people. 
 
Sharing care experiences. 
 
What does this mean for narratives of care?
 
  • Create a context for storytelling. 
→ Get to know each other + basic needs?
→ Expectations
→ Communication and identity/sculpture
 
  • Showcase the offer and manage expectations. But how?
→ Communication around culture
→ Storytelling could also be the basis on which you build the context for care. 
  • Frame it as a tool for empowerment. 
  • Shared intentions and part of context.
What stories?
  • Does the narrative approach scale as well as we think it does?
→ Can you actually bring it global? Yes if you recognize the identity and scaling issue?
 
  • Availability heuristic
  • Narrative pattern – ‘imagine a world where…. Oh yeah by the way it already exists…’
  • Carriers of narratives – Fiction of narratives, fables, archetypes or a story pattern (David and goliath, or the fool, the hero who goes on a quest). Look at propaganda in the LRA.
→ Are there universal stories?
→ But is it personalized better?
→ Note on George Lucas mythologist
 
  • David Hume
 
Conclusion:
Space for care includes a variety of aspects that one should balance nut still take action.
  • Intention
  • Expectations
  • Context-setting
  • Storytelling as a tool not a universal answer
  • Parties
 
Passive, Active, Proactive
Give - Receive | Request - response = Communication space around care (actively caring)
They are a lot of difficulties in communicating around care.
Stories – legends - can be a tool to not directly address the issue but rely and build on universal stories. 
 
What then would be 5 steps to design your context of care?
→ Current future vs ideal future
 
 

This was a surprisingly effective approach

I had used the 3-person ‘storytelling’ approach before (possibly at another LOTE?) but I really found it effective here. Maybe because our current societal view of care can at times be very practical and mechanical: you take a symptom to a professional, and procedure or medication is applied… There’s not often much chance for deep reflection. So this was a nice chance to gradually eke out insights from our collective experience, we started on a relatively basic level and then by the end we had covered a lot of ground, a sense of trust and intimacy was developed we got into some very interesting questions (and answers!)

Here are my notes from the first interview, with Constantino asking Lorenzo about his experiences with care.

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Impressive!

Either Lorenzo has a very clutter-free brain or you took great notes. Or both. Either way, this is really insightful.

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yes that session was quite impressive

!!

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