“With land we can” - a story that can break our passive, resigned relationship to land, from Future Narratives Lab and Shared Assets

We have covered the politics of land on A/UK with great attention over these last few years. We’re particularly focussed on the possibility of recovering a “commons” approach, and this informed by work being done on regenerative and bioregional systems. Control of land could be one of the most elemental parts of a revival of community power.

We know the stirring narrative of land reform in Scotland - but we’re interested in new stories that can attract people to consider their relation to the ground they stand on.

In combination with Shared Assets (another organisation we’ve covered here), the super-smart Future Narratives Lab, is launching a cultural reframe of the land issue for the whole of the UK, under the title “With Land We Can”. There are intended to be many potential answers to that question. And the opportunities for a rethink of basic assumptions after these Covid years are being fully grasped.

The video above is a charming and moving product of about a year of consultation and imagining from FNL, which they outline in this blog. They chart a shift between these two framings of our underlying thinking about land:

“The status quo narrative”

“The new narrative”

For those of us interested in how messages and media can help point to new alternatives, their explanation of their method in getting to “With Land We Can” is fascinating:

The effectiveness of the current narrative [first image] is such that discussion of ‘land’ in general can risk seeming abstract and irrelevant. There is a clear need before anything else to ground any public representation of the subject in questions and scenarios of widespread recognisable and practical familiarity i. e. – ‘where we call home’, ‘where we go, and where we are allowed to’.

If we want the fundamental nature and importance of land to be recognised, we must show a wide variety of visual representations of land, which is often assumed to be (and visually depicted as) primarily a rural issue, about nature and fields, or at best limited to green space such as parks.

Where possible, make it clear how land is an issue we should be focussing on here and now, by linking to a specific contemporary crisis or dilemma (in this case the pandemic). The current narrative tends to depict land as an issue either of the distant past or the far off, irrelevant future.

Finally, as a core principle of the current narrative is depicting the relationship between people and land as inherently destructive, it’s crucial to counteract that. This is most effectively done by showing examples of inspiring leaders and stories that represent hopeful, positive change, a positive relationship between people and land, as examples we should want to follow

More here. They go on to explain their three new frames:

The first frame is making more of what we have. Any insurgent narrative needs a critique, and when assessing the weaknesses of the current narrative, one element we looked for was the kind of problems caused by the current land system that are most widely resented. As set out in the Power In Place report – and evident in our film – we alighted on waste, neglect and irresponsibility, as particularly represented by empty homes, food waste and polluted public spaces. We believe this frame represents how the new narrative can most effectively critique the current system, while avoiding the ‘traps’ of the core frames of the current narrative, and appealing to a wide set of values.

Building on this, the second frame emphasises the crucial role of land in creating opportunity, for connection, improvement and social change – where we get better together. By acknowledging the role of land at the foundation of our most pressing social challenges, we can see it as a place of opportunity for tackling them – for redressing wrongs, overcoming divides and striving for social, racial and environmental justice.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the last core frame of our new narrative is a new horizon of possibilities. Fundamentally, the current narrative is all about the justification and sustenance of inertia, the avoidance of change – and so ours must be as stark a contrast with that as possible, instead foregrounding land as a subject of freedom, creativity, possibility and optimism – of hope.

The Lab point to their film as their first attempt at creating messaging with these new land frames. But they are looking for further input from practitioners and interested parties. How might this help generate stories, tales and metaphors that can give passion and connection to land activism. Contact them here with your thoughts.