Scientists as storytellers: the explanatory power of stories told about environmental crises

Barclay, Jenni ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6122-197X, Robertson, Richie and Armijos, M. Teresa ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1020-6056 (2023) Scientists as storytellers: the explanatory power of stories told about environmental crises. Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences, 23 (11). 3603–3615. ISSN 1561-8633

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Abstract

This paper examines how storytelling functions to share and to shape knowledge, particularly when scientific knowledge is uncertain because of rapid environmental change. Narratives or stories are the descriptive sequencing of events to make a point. In comparison with scientific deduction, the point (plot) of a story can be either implicit or explicit, and causal links between events in the story are interpretative, rendering narrative a looser inferential framework. We explore how storytelling (the process) and stories (or narratives) involving scientists can make sense of environmental crises, where conditions change rapidly and natural, social, and scientific systems collide. We use the example of the Soufrière Hills volcanic eruption (Montserrat) and scientists' experiences of the events during that time. We used 37 stories gathered from seven semi-structured interviews and one group interview (five scientists). We wanted to understand whether these stories generate or highlight knowledge and information that do not necessarily appear in more conventional scientific literature produced in relation to environmental crisis and how that knowledge explicitly or implicitly shapes future actions and views. Through our analysis of the value these stories bring to volcanic risk reduction, we argue that scientists create and transmit important knowledge about risk reduction through the stories they tell one another. In our example storytelling and stories are used in several ways: (1) evidencing the value of robust long-term monitoring strategies during crises, (2) exploring the current limits of scientific rationality and the role of instinct in a crisis, and (3) the examination of the interactions and outcomes of wide-ranging drivers of population risk. More broadly these stories allowed for the emotional intensity of these experiences to be acknowledged and discussed; the actions and outcomes of the storytelling are important. This is not about the “story” of research findings but the sharing of experience and important knowledge about how to manage and cope with volcanic crises. We suggest that storytelling frameworks could be better harnessed in both volcanic and other contexts.

Item Type: Article
Additional Information: Financial support: This research has been supported by the Royal Society APEX Award (grant no. APX/R1/180094) and a UKRI AHRC Grant (grant no. AH/S009000/1).
Faculty \ School: Faculty of Science > School of Environmental Sciences

Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Global Development (formerly School of International Development)
UEA Research Groups: Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Geosciences
Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Research Groups > Area Studies
Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Global Environmental Justice
Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Centres > Water Security Research Centre
University of East Anglia Schools > Faculty of Science > Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research
Faculty of Science > Research Centres > Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research
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Depositing User: LivePure Connector
Date Deposited: 20 Dec 2023 02:58
Last Modified: 24 Oct 2024 00:03
URI: https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/94019
DOI: 10.5194/nhess-23-3603-2023

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