Research Programs: Images & Voices of Hope in Media

Research Direction and Important Questions

Images and Voices of Hope is an international conversation on the impact of public story telling and image making on society. Since the launching conversation in New York City in June 1999 Images and Voices of Hope has proven to be a viable grass root initiative that is making unique contributions to the world, such as:

An exploration of language, stories, and images that generate a sense of possibility: The Images and Voices of Hope initiative addresses the public discourse of our highly diverse and complex society at the beginning of the 21^st Century. The many artists, journalists, publishers, media executives, teachers and others who are attracted to this initiative share an interest in the quality, richness, and variety of the life stories and images that we create, disseminate, and consume through the common resource we call media – the marketplace of language and ideas that shape our world. Participants in Images and Voices of Hope explore the emerging and powerful stories, vocabularies, and images that give the foundations to see the world in a new light and that open up new avenues for action. Generative language in other words that has the capability to unsettle the status quo and that can point to new directions.

The creation of safe spaces for appreciative conversations: The Images and Voices of Hope initiative is a living dialogue in which people participating in multiple roundtable conversations connect into a public discourse that can be perceived as a microcosm of the discourses we want to see in the media and the world at large. Images and Voices of Hope provides participants with spaces for conversation in which it is safe to explore and express the language, stories and images that inspire new ways of being together. It offers opportunities for people to participate in authentic, and heartfelt conversations that open up their senses, their artistic, creative sensitivities and highest aspirations in ways that connect the participants to each other and a larger whole. The conversations hosted by Images and Voices of Hope are deliberately appreciative in nature – aiming to shine a light on the uplifting stories and images that spark a sense of infinite possibility for constructive human action.

A contribution to our practical knowledge of Appreciative Inquiry: One of the underlying assumptions of Appreciative Inquiry is that positive image will lead to positive action (Cooperrider, 1990). The Images and Voices of Hope initiative is a unique application of Appreciative Inquiry in its conscious effort to understand and impact the quality of the internal dialogue of our society. The affirmative topic of Images and Voices of Hope is the positive internal dialogue of a community, a professional field such as healthcare, and society at large. We are developing a practical knowledge of how through conversation we can explore and influence the guiding images and stories on which we want to build our future.

The Research Program that is proposed in this paper aims to illuminate, communicate, enhance, and surpass the special contributions of the Images and Voices of Hope initiative. Research will provide an ongoing reflection on the practice of Images and Voices of Hope. It aims to spark and enrich the conversations with a growing understanding of generative stories, images, and language as well as insights in the dynamics of appreciative public discourse. Last but not least the Images and Voices of Hope Research Program aspires to develop knowledge about approaches to inquiry that lead to what Ken Gergen (1982/1994) calls ‘generative theories’ – theories that enlarge our repertoire for possible constructive action and that are embraced in public conversations for their practical value and emotional appeal. Such theories convey images and voices of hope. The Images and Voices of Hope Research Program will find its home in the future Center for Advanced Appreciative Inquiry.

In his article on Positive Image, Positive Action David Cooperrider (1990) introduces the concept of the internal dialogue of a society as the place where the guiding images of a culture reside. In his discussion on the power of positive images he quotes the Dutch sociologist Fred Polak in saying that: “The rise and fall of images of the future precedes or accompanies the rise and fall of cultures. As long as a society’s image is positive and flourishing, the flower of culture is in full bloom. Once the image begins to decay and lose its vitality, however, the culture does not long survive” (p. 111).

From this statement follows that if we can articulate and enhance powerful, positive images and stories we build the foundations for a promising future society. An intriguing thought – and one on which the Images and Voices of Hope initiative is based – but not unproblematic in our times.

In a period of growing diversity and the emancipation of many voices that were silenced in the past it has become difficult to find any particular meta-narrative from which a majority of us are willing to take guidance. Some postmodern scholars simply declare the demise of all meta-narratives and are cynical about any attempts to find common grounds in human aspirations and values. Others are more hopeful. They will say that we are in between stories and that we can already see the contours of the new stories that will guide our actions. The Images and Voices of Hope initiative seems to embrace the second stance. However, if we follow Robin Lakoff’s thinking it will be hard to predict which stories will become the guiding stories. In her book “The Language War” (2000), she writes about the social and political construction of language and narratives. In her vivid description of for instance the O.J. Simpson story she discovers fierce struggles about language, about “who has the ability and the right to make meaning for everyone. Language-based controversies like these are really about which group is to enter the millennium with social and political control. Whose take on things will be the take? Who gets to make meaning for us all – to create and define our culture? Culture, after all, is the construction of shared meaning” (p. 19). Ronald Arnett and Pat Arneson in their book “Dialogic Civility in a Cynical Age: Community, Hope, and Interpersonal Relationships” (1999) admit that “we are in significant need of conversation about the need for public narratives (p. 73)”. Rather than giving up on guiding narratives or focusing on hegemonic struggles about narratives, they find hope in enabling public conversations through their notion of ‘dialogic civility,’ which exists “wherever there is genuine effort to offer public change within a conversational context that seeks not violence, but concern for the other and calls for responsible action” (p. 302).  For them “dialogic civility in the public arena is tied to the conviction that keeping the conversation going in a confused age is our best hope for finding ‘humble narratives’ that will guide us with care through the twenty-first century” (p. 286).

The purpose of the Images and Voices of Hope research program is to participate in this timely and exciting intellectual conversation amongst social linguists, communication scholars, and organizational scientists about the role of language, stories, and images in the construction of our communities, institutions, and society at large. Through our research program we want to explore the many ‘humble narratives’ that can ‘broaden our narrative horizons’ (Arnett & Anderson, 1999, p. 295). We want to learn about creating and holding the space for public conversations in which we can seek agreement on what narratives, images, and language can guide us. We seek to make our contributions through a unique approach to research – an inquiry that is constructionist, relational, appreciative, and generative in nature.

The Images and Voices of Hope initiative is based on the social constructionist premise that ‘words create worlds’. Rather than trying to change the world our focus is on changing the language, stories, and images that we use to construct that world, the words we choose to weave our social fabric. In line with the Images and Voices of Hope practice, our research will be constructionist in nature – it will focus on how language inspires our actions rather than on the actions itself. However, a reflection on actions that aim to impact the vocabularies, stories, and images that reside in our internal dialogue will be part of our research agenda.

Our inquiry aims to be relational in character. Inspired by the thinking of Martin Buber, our research focus is on what happens in the ‘in between’ – the conversational space between you and me, the place where we can meet in genuine dialogue. We see inquiry as conversation in which research outcomes (theories) can be seen as conversational devices – aiming to spark and enrich the ongoing social process of knowledge creation. A relational stance guides a collaborative approach to inquiry in the places where action and research meet. Our focus on stories is inspired by Gregory Bateson’s notion that stories are the royal road to the study of relationship, the patterns that connect. Stories come alive only in relationship, in the space between the teller and the listener. We are acutely aware of the fact that the relationship between A and B in a story, gives us a sense of what is possible between A and B in the larger world. Last but not least, a relational focus allows us to escape the limits of language – we acknowledge our “wordless participation, our perceptual immersion in the depths of an animate, expressive world” (Abram, 1996).

Our relational constructionist approach to research will be appreciative in nature. In a world where media are very capable to bring us depressing news about the drama and misery in this world, we want to develop a better understanding of the qualities of stories and images that are uplifting and bring us a sense of possibility. Moreover, we want to value that what is present, opening our eyes and ears and mind to the multiple stories, the many diverse voices, the ups and downs of the human condition in our times. An appreciative stance asks us to welcome and listen to ‘the other’ so that together we can engage in inquiry with and through our differences.

Finally, we aspire to do inquiry that is generative in character. We want to do research that keeps the conversation going. This means living with questions rather than rushing to untimely closure, and suspending judgment in favor of appreciation. We want to enlarge the small stories and humble images that so often go unnoticed in our hectic times. We want to give wings to the many stories that make people aware of the infinite possibilities that we have to create our world together. We are wary of limiting the freedom of others by dictating the stories by which they have to live. We take poetic license in our writings, so that a certain ambiguity invites novel and timely interpretations in the different public discourses that we reach.

Research Streams

In link with our research focus and philosophy as discussed above, we suggest the following four research streams for the Images and Voices of Hope Research Program:

1. Exploring the dynamics of societal internal dialogue

“But how can language have this kind of power – explanatory and cohesive, on the one hand; divisive and threatening on the other? How can something that is physically just puffs of air, a mere stand-in for reality, have the power to change us and our world” (Lakoff, 2000)? The overall focus of the proposed Images and Voices of Hope research program is what we call the “internal dialogue” of society, the perhaps abstract notion of the common space in which we breath the puffs of vocabularies, stories and images that have the power to shape our world. Where all our proposed research will address the notion of internal dialogue in some way or other, this first research stream takes the most explicit look at this intriguing phenomenon. Here we will address questions such as:

• What are the origins of generative language, stories, and images that give the foundations to see and speak about the world in a new and constructive light?
• When are communities, organizations, or societies most alive? What role does a positive internal dialogue play in creating, enhancing, and enabling healthy community? Are there “vivid utopias,” living examples of communities that are guided by bold and novel constructive images of possibility?
• What is the dynamic quality (e.g. the dominance of positive language over time) of the inner dialogue in communities that are experienced as healthiest and most alive from the perspective of the people making up that community or society?

2. Giving wings to generative stories:

“Stories have wings and they fly from mountain top to mountain top.” This Romanian proverb has inspired our thinking about the powerful potential of storytelling to impact change. Imagine that we can give wings to the stories that carry messages of hope so that they are heard and interpreted into constructive deeds by people around the globe. We are interested in what we now call ‘generative stories’ – stories that leave their listeners with a sense of possibility and efficacy. We want to know more about the images, stories, and vocabularies that open new avenues for action. Within this research stream we will address questions such as:

• What are emerging generative stories for the world?
• What are special qualities of the stories and images that we perceive as being generative? What are dynamics of ‘good news’ storytelling?
• When do stories do have wings? How can we give wings to the emerging stories?

3. Nurturing a living dialogue to affect social change:

“We are engaged in true dialogue whenever we are willing to have our thought interrupted by the other, to be changed by the other” (Srivastva & Barrett, 1988).

We believe in the power of conversation, of a living genuine dialogue to change the world. Perhaps the most important contribution that Images and Voices of Hope can make is to provide spaces for ongoing conversations about what stories and images we want to guide our lives. How can we keep these conversations going? We want to learn how to truly nurture such a living dialogue. And we want to better understand how conversations evoke change. Within this research stream we look at questions such as:

• What are welcoming spaces for appreciative conversations and how can we create and hold such spaces?
• How can we organize and give life to an ever growing network of public conversations?
• What is the impact of appreciative, generative conversations on the actions of those who participate?
• What processes of storytelling and image sharing support relational construction?
• What questions spark and open up conversations with the other?
• When do people feel invited and safe to engage in new forms of conversation and inquiry? When can we overcome the limits of language and embark on shared wanderings into the spiritual, artistic, and natural domains?

4. Developing novel and generative approaches to inquiry:

“In a sense, generative theorizing is a form of poetic activism. That is, it asks us to take a risk with words, shake up the conventions, generate new formations of intelligibility, new images, and sensitivities” (Gergen, 1999). In a sense, generative theories are examples of the stories and images of possibility that the Images and Voices of Hope initiative wants to promote. Therefore the proposed research program will include a continuous experimentation with novel approaches to inquiry and a reflection on such research practices through a generative lens. Within this third research stream we explore questions such as:

• How can we dig beneath the chaos of our daily existence into the streams and patterns that sustain life?
• How can we develop our appreciative eye and ‘storytelling muscle’ so that we can quiet down enough to listen and become perceptive to the small stories, the overpowered images and the silenced voices of hope and possibility?
• How can we perform research in the dynamics of a living dialogue? For instance, how can we “track” the dynamics of the internal dialogue (e.g. the ratio of positive self talk, the richness of narratives) of communities or societies in generative and empowering ways?
• What research practices are congruent with a relational constructionist stance – e.g. how can we join the language of the other?
• What does it take to engage in appreciative, collaborative inquiry at the meeting places of action and research?
• How can we communicate our theoretical insights in generative ways – keeping the conversation going, sparking a sense of the possible, and inspiring the co-creation of a better world?

In the last couple of years we started to address some of the research questions that are stated above, examples being: an exploration of the dynamics of good news storytelling, the development of a discourse categories code, and a study in generative theory exploring the metaphor of theory as art. We are excited about the potential of the Research Program proposed in this paper and confident that the envisioned research will make timely and generative contributions to the conversations about the internal dialogue of society. We look forward to collaborate with the participants in the Images and Voices of Hope initiative, our colleagues in the Weatherhead School and the larger community of Case Western Reserve University, as well as other current and future thinking partners.