The study presents results of the project 'Working on and with narratives for sustainable development – Preparing the ground for social transformation', which was conducted on behalf of the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN) (2020-2021). The topic of the project was narratives, understood as fundamental patterns of thought, explanation and interpretation that can be told in the form of stories. The focus was on the question of what role societal narratives play with regard to a societal transformation towards sustainability. Another question was what role societal narratives (can) play for the actions of state actors. The aim of the project was to bring together knowledge on the emergence and impact of societal narratives from different disciplines and to identify sustainability-relevant societal narratives, and to make this knowledge fruitful for the FOEN as a state actor. In the project, a method mix of literature analysis, document analysis and dialogue methods (in the context of a workshop with the FOEN) was used (a project description can be found in Part A of the study). The central part of the study is the results of the interdisciplinary literature analysis (Part B). This first contains a description of what narratives are (in general and in relation to socio-political problems), what narratives achieve, and how social narratives are created and what influences their success. This concludes with a presentation of the findings on the question of why the communication of environmental and sustainability issues does not have the effect that successful social narratives have. In the next chapter, five groups of social narratives are presented that appear to be particularly significant with regard to a social sustainability transformation:
- ten narratives that address how change towards sustainability is achieved ('narratives of change'),
- three narratives that do not address change but provide an identity that is in line with sustainable development goals,
- three narratives that hinder change towards sustainability because they question its foundation,
- nine 'issue-specific narratives' on nutrition (as an example of narratives that address relevant dimensions of sustainability or sustainability policies), (5) nine 'issue-specific narratives' that address sustainability (as an example of narratives that address relevant dimensions of sustainability or sustainability policies). of sustainability policies) as well as five related identity-forming narrative elements,
- seven narratives that shape Switzerland's national identity.
A further chapter is devoted to the question of whether and how targeted work can be done on and with societal narratives and what this means for state actors. Part B of the study concludes with reflections on what can be learned from the Covid 19 pandemic for working on and with narratives for a societal sustainability transformation. Part C is devoted to results from the document analysis. In this analysis, material from FOEN communication products was analysed from the perspective of working on and with societal narratives. The study describes the aim and approach, and makes an assessment of relevance and usefulness that could be useful for a wider target audience. Recommendations for state actors and two lists of questions that can be used in implementing these recommendations complete the study (Part D).
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