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[ a window into ]






narrative & conflict transformation


We live within stories: personal, inherited, and co-constructed. It is often through these very stories that conflict emerges—and through which it may also be transformed.

This inquiry follows the role of narrative across both physical and digital landscapes, drawing from diverse examples to examine how storytelling functions not only as a reflection of conflict but as an active tool for mediating and re-authoring it. How has storytelling helped us witness, understand, and transform conflict over time? And in an era of digital immediacy and cultural complexity, how is its role evolving?

Through case studies, theory, and reflection, this project opens a window into the everyday presence of conflict and the creative possibilities that emerge when we consider its narrative. What stories do we live by, and how might we begin to tell them differently?






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A story is composed of elements such as character, setting, tone, and plot.


(This is within the framework of narratology--the study of narrative and its structure. More here.)

Through narrative, a storyteller arranges these elements in a meaningful sequence—linking events temporally and causally, often through goal-driven action.

Narrative is not just what happens, but how the story is shaped and delivered.
 



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    A story:

At a music festival in Louisiana, a musician speaks passionately in Cajun French to a crowd of festival goers, their eyes turned upward toward the stage. He recounts, and translates, stories of his grandparents’ linguistic repression as Louisiana was anglicized in the 19th and 20th centuries, as well as the violent displacement of his French Acadian ancestors from Nova Scotia in the 18th century–the push which originally brought them to Louisiana.


In the act of speaking freely on stage—in a language once silenced—he reclaims a cultural thread long strained by historical conflict. Later, festival goers dance to the music of the accordion, washboard, and fiddle, facing each other, then spinning away, bodies in movement as culture and its resilience are celebrated.

This is conflict transformation in motion.

For much of the 19th and 20th centuries, Cajun communities in Louisiana faced state-imposed repression aimed at minimizing their linguistic and cultural identity in order to strengthen national American identity. Children were punished in schools for speaking Cajun French, a dialect dismissed as inferior and unfit for modern society. This linguistic marginalization created generational shame, distancing many Cajuns from their heritage. By the mid-1900’s, only about 12% of Cajun children spoke French as their first language.


Yet by the mid-20th century, the dominant narrative began to shift. The 1950s and 1960s saw the emergence of a Cajun cultural renaissance, sparked in part by grassroots storytelling, music, and political advocacy, including the founding of the Council for the Development of French in Louisiana (CODOFIL) in 1968, which signaled a formal commitment to cultural preservation. Through these acts of narrative reclamation—songs, testimonies, festivals, and policies—the Cajun community began to relearn and retell its story on its own terms. What was once nearly a tale of erasure became one of resilience and renewal.


Now, platforms such as Reddit serve as digital spaces for ongoing storytelling, where users contribute to the revitalization of Cajun French through humor, history, and language exchange. These exchanges not only preserve identity, but add new voices to the story.




    The narrative:

In this example, we witness the arc of conflict transformation through narrative: stories of historical marginalization are not buried but revoiced, understood, and integrated, allowing for the Cajun cultural narrative to be claimed and re-authored by the Cajun community themselves.








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“Conflict transformation is to envision and respond to the ebb and flow of social conflict as life-giving opportunities for creating constructive change processes that reduce violence, increase justice in direct interaction and social structures, and respond to real-life problems in human relationships.” -John Paul Laderach



At the local coffee shop on a busy Saturday afternoon, two girls play a card game, their eyes glimmering in competition, their palms pounding the table. Nearby, one customer asks another if they might sit at the table where the other’s belongings are spread. She apologizes that the table is reserved. "I didn't realize we could hold tables here," he challenges. They engage, and she concedes.


These brief frictions are not inherently destructive. They can offer moments of clarity, and mutual recognition. A raised eyebrow, a pause to explain, a willingness to listen—gestures that communicates challenge and re-structuring, ripe for a new way of connecting. When dismissed, these micro-tensions accumulate, becoming fertile ground for what Amanda Ripley calls "high conflict"—entrenched, reactive, and identity-driven narratives that resist resolution and deepen division.



Conflict transformation in everyday life thus begins not with policy change or institutional reform, but with (collective) individual awareness: the ability to step back, recognize the stories we are telling (and living), and ask if another story is possible. It is the act of shifting from reaction to reflection—from assumption to dialogue. It is the act of shifting the narrative.

In this way, everyday friction becomes a site of possibility. When we approach these moments with a fresh lens—open to meaning, metaphor, and reframing—we not only transform conflict, but participate in transforming the culture that engages (or avoids) it.


 

"If you listen carefully, at the end, you'll be someone else." -Vyasa, Mahabharata.





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