Dominant Storylines Research Articles

Storylines and Positions Theory As a Tool to Identify How Young People Conceptualise Their Positions of Living with ADHD

ABSTRACT The present study explores the dominant storylines of 10 young adults’ descriptions of growing up with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The aim of this study was to gain a deeper understanding of the processes that generate, maintain and transform certain positions and conditions. The findings suggested that limited positions, particularly those arising from experiences of positions such as ‘not as expected’ and ‘not good enough’, are uniquely formed and upheld, with schools standing out as a key environment where these positions are notably evident. However, findings argues that these positions do not inherently possess stability. By gaining insights, employing improved strategies, and becoming more familiar with alternative perspectives – some of which may be hidden from the individual – these positions can undergo transformation into positions that appear more suitable for mental wellbeing. We argue that exploring individuals` storylines might give insight into the forces that can support practice to increase the possibility of joint efforts around the individual and equip itself to engage with the complex movements in the salient transition from childhood into young adulthood.

Storylines for Global Hydrologic Drought Within CMIP6

AbstractFuture global increases in the duration and severity of hydrologic drought present an emerging challenge for water resource management. However, projected changes to drought within global climate models are often complex, including potentially co‐occurring changes to the timing, duration, and severity of drought. Here, we apply a storyline approach for interpreting projections of future hydrologic drought to identify coherent narratives that include runoff trends, shifts in the seasonal drought timing, increases in multi‐year drought frequency, and increased drought severity within the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6. We develop a framework to classify future drought storylines (2015–2100) and quantify model consensus to determine the most‐likely “dominant” storyline under four emission scenarios Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs) 1–2.6, 2–4.5, 3–7.0, and 5–8.5. Under a low‐emission scenario (SSPs 1–2.6) approximately one third of the land‐area is projected to be impacted by a dominant storyline of minimally detectable runoff trend paired with increased frequency of multi‐year drought. However, under the highest‐emission scenarios (SSPs 5–8.5), the most likely storyline shifts to an increase in multi‐year drought frequency, increased severity of drought, and negative long‐term runoff trends for 62% of the area in those same regions. Shifts in the seasonal timing of drought are a component of dominant storylines for the northern latitudes across all emission scenarios. These results provide an alternative mode of interpretation of co‐occurring changes to the features of future drought, framed in a way to support regional adaptation strategies to mitigate future drought impacts.

Emerging Storylines in the Context of the Pandemic for the Mainstreaming of Bicycles in the Transport System

Using Metropolitan Manila in the Philippines as a case study, we investigate how the Covid pandemic has opened up a window of opportunity for the de-legitimization of dominant storylines marginalizing cycling and the legitimization of alternative storylines favoring the mainstreaming of bicycles in urban transport systems. Storylines are condensed summaries of complex narratives deployed as convenient shorthand in discussions. Through a content analysis of posts from ten Facebook groups by cycling advocates, we identify six pairs of contending storylines and their key narratives. Furthermore, through semi-formal interviews and an online survey, we determine the level of agreement and the consensus around agreement with the content of the storylines among a limited sample of respondents representing various backgrounds. Our results suggest that pre-pandemic, delegitimizing storylines resonate more strongly among the respondents. Peri-pandemic, a positive shift has occurred in the social representation of bicycles in Metropolitan Manila, as indicated by the emergence of legitimizing storylines. This does not mean, however, that this positive shift is complete and not challenged anymore. Though a rapid legitimization of pro-cycling storylines has been observed, there is an ongoing contestation against such legitimization. Whether the peri-pandemic cycling gains can be sustained post-pandemic is an open question.

The Populist Divide in Far-Right Political Discourse in Sweden: Anti-Immigration Claims in the Swedish Socially Conservative Online Newspaper Samtiden from 2016 to 2022

In this article, I aim to show how populism can be used as an analytical category to make sense of how anti-immigration claims are articulated in far-right political discourse. I will do this by giving examples of and drawing attention to how the anti-immigration claims are articulated via the populist divide, namely anti-elitism and people-centrism, and delve into the issue of which people are mobilised against which elite in articulatory practice. I use narrative analysis to link individual newspaper texts to dominant storylines of the nation (master narratives) in the continuous construction of national identity. The material is based on 169 articles published in the socially conservative online newspaper Samtiden between 2016 and 2022 on national identity. The results from the narrative analysis indicate that far-right populist discourse conveys nostalgia for a golden age and a cohesive and homogenous collective national identity, combining ideals of cultural conformism and socio-economic fairness against the fragmentary political agenda of different elites, spelling out a message that everything was better before.

The Heroic Savior, the Jungle Guide and the Beacon Amidst a Fog of Uncertainty: Agency of Fathers in Prolonged Postdivorce Conflicts and Their Positioning of Children

ABSTRACT This qualitative study aims to explore how fathers in prolonged post-divorce conflict construct their parenting agency and position their child in relation to their view of conflict-related threats. Eight divorced fathers were interviewed, with experience of, on average, seven years of high conflict after separation. A reflective thematic design supplemented with positioning theory was used to analyze the fathers’ responses. Drawing on positioning theory, the fathers’ agency emerged in the analyses from three dominant storylines or world manifestations of post-divorce dangers. Fathers either acted as (1) heroic saviors in a polluted realm storyline where they positioned their children as victims that need to be saved from the dangers of impurity, (2) jungle guides in the wild nature storyline where they positioned their children as trainees of survival skills to deal with intrusive events and ever present post-divorce dangers, or (3) beacons in a foggy moor storyline where they re-positioned their own behavior to follow a self-clarifying routine so that their children would experience life in a less ambivalent, foggy and insecure manner. We argue that researchers and therapists would benefit from knowledge that captures the moral underpinnings of fathers’ agency.

Storylines of Geoengineering in the Australian Media: An Analysis of Online Coverage 2006–2018

ABSTRACT In the light of inadequate global emissions mitigation, geoengineering – solar radiation management and carbon dioxide removal – is increasingly being positioned and problematized by some researchers, policymakers, and advocates as a partial solution for avoiding catastrophic levels of warming. However, there are concerns that geoengineering may serve as a rhetorical tactic for delaying emissions reduction. As the news media field is an important space in which storylines surrounding geoengineering are created and circulated, the manner in which media actors discuss these topics is an important factor that can legitimate some policy pathways and close off others. In this paper, we analyze patterns in news media coverage of geoengineering in Australia to identify four dominant storylines: “a symptom of systems failure”, “silver buckshot”, “the Faustian bargain”, and “time for plan B”. We consider the implication of these storylines for the role that geoengineering may play in the Australian climate policy regime. We identify a risk geoengineering may be positioned as a rhetorical tactic for delaying emissions reduction. However, we note that the storylines in the public sphere provide a basis for public debate that engages critically with geoengineering, engaging with risks and differentiating solar radiation management from carbon dioxide removal.

Energy Politics and Justice: An Ecofeminist Ethical Analysis of the Swedish Parliamentarian Debate

ABSTRACT We contribute to the scientific debate by studying the storylines, discourses and related normative judgments in parliamentary motions by private members of the Swedish parliament from the time period 2010–2019. The paper makes use of an ecofeminist theoretical framework to problematize these storylines, discourses and normative judgments. We conclude that the focus in the material is on economic and technical issues, while issues of justice play a marginal role. None of the important dimensions of energy justice are adequately considered and many of the dominant storylines and discourses are based on the implicit assumption that issues of justice are insignificant.

Energy transition and dialectics: tracing discursive resistance to coal through discourse coalition in India

ABSTRACT The hegemonic narrative linking coal to national sovereignty and energy security promoted by state and private actors, translates into policies promoting coal expansionism. The study is based on the proposition that the counter-discourse offered by non-state actors, mainly environmental civil society organization, represents a potential challenge against such narrative. The dialectical discursive dynamics around energy transition are explored within India’s print media by employing the method of Discourse Network Analysis to trace the dominant storylines and discourse coalitions. The findings reveal two opposed storylines, one pro-coal the other anti-coal, underpinning the two ideologically cohesive discourse coalitions dominated by state and non-state actors, respectively. It uncovers the ideological fault lines between the two sets of actors, with the possibilities for synthesis and policy co-learning. The paper concludes by deriving implications regarding post pandemic challenges and possibilities emerging for both the sets of actors.

Историзм мышления и концепция эпохи в романе З. Толгурова «Голубой типчак»

The article focuses on a comprehensive, conceptual analysis of the novel Z. Tolgurov’s “Blue Tip-chak”, a holistic presentation of various semiotic levels of the work. The work determines condi-tionality of the epic beginning and the principles of implementing the author’s plan by the histori-cism of the writer’s thinking. Important in interpreting semantic perspectives of a literary text is the category of time. The dominant storylines are considered through the correlation of the desti-nies of the main characters with the dramatic nature of the depicted era of the 40-50s of the last century. The study emphasizes the multi-aspect nature of the problematic of the work (ideologi-cal, moral, psychological). In conjunction with the designated thematic blocks, the article explores the potential of the symbolic imagery of the novel. The idea of how the ideological situation can influence the fate of a person, cause internal transformations in him, followed by complete deper-sonalization, separation from ethnic roots (the image of the boy of the Crimea is indicative in this regard) acts as a nodal content line. The narrative space of the epic canvas contributes to the dis-closure of a powerful mythological layer, realized through parallels with the animal world (for example, the images of the stallion Alakez and the wolf Gazhai). The ambiguous interpretation of the Soviet era is guessed in the meanings of the symbol displayed in the title of the work. The blue tipchak in the writer's interpretation personifies the deceptive appearance of communist ideology, implying the danger hidden in it. In the research's course, the multilevel nature of the novel con-text is revealed, because of the historical approach to understanding reality.

“I Drew Myself Right There”: third grade girls restorying for visual justice

PurposeThis paper aims to present three girls’ visual annotations and digital responses that restory a scene in the picturebook I’m New Here. The authors focus on how children use multimodal tools to reflect their critical knowledge of the world by illuminating how this group of girls responded to and incorporated broader social issues.Design/methodology/approachThis study takes place in a third-grade classroom. Using qualitative methods that build on critical multimodal literacy, the authors documented and analyzed children’s visual and digital interpretations. Data were generated from classroom sessions that incorporated interactive readalouds, as well as students’ annotated visual images, sketches, video and digital responses. The collaborative analytic process involved multiple passes to interpret visual, textual and multimodal elements.FindingsThe analyses revealed how Aliyah, Tiana and Carissa used multimodal tools to engage in the process of restorying. Through their multimodal composition, they designed images that illuminated their solidarity with the young female character wearing the hijab; their desire to disrupt xenophobic bullying; and their hope for a respectful and inclusive climate in their own classroom.Originality/valueIn this paper, the authors examine how three girls in a third-grade classroom restory using critical multimodal literacy methods. These girls’ multimodal responses reflected how they disrupted dominant storylines of exclusionary practices. Their authentic acts of visual advocacy give us hope for the future.

Towards a bioenergy transition in Italy? Exploring regional stakeholder perspectives towards the Gela and Porto Marghera biorefineries

This paper investigates two transition initiatives at the local level – namely the reconversion of the Porto Marghera and Gela refineries into biorefineries for second-generation biofuels. The study aimed at assessing the extent to which the narrative pressures exerted by local actors influenced the perspectives of key stakeholders involved in these transition processes. To this end, a blended methodology was employed, combining discourse analysis with stakeholder analysis and semi-structured interviews. First, stakeholders were grouped into four categories according to the source (national/global) and channel (formal/informal) of pressure. National/informal actors emerged as the most influential group. The discourse analysis identified three dominant storylines representing complementary trajectories defined by national actors operating through informal channels. Finally, semi-structured interviews with key local actors involved in the Porto Marghera and Gela reconversions were used to assess the impact of these storylines in the reconversion processes. Comparison of the two cases revealed fundamental specificities related to their respective cultural, political and socio-economic contexts. While the Porto Marghera reconversion was presented as a consolidated success story (albeit with a number of drawbacks related to the fact that it was still mainly powered by first-generation feedstocks), the Gela case was viewed as a complex and challenging ongoing process with an uncertain outcome.

Storytelling as a political act: towards a politics of complexity and counter-hegemonic narratives

Making accessible research findings through forms of storytelling is a useful method for activist and public scholarship. This article explores these possibilities through a project on migration and gender in the city of Durban, in South Africa. The research project collected oral histories of migrant women’s experiences in the city, and, in collaboration with artists, wove these narratives into a theatre performance titled The Last Country. The Last Country used an anti-essentialist politics to complicate, disrupt and make messy exclusionary hegemonic narratives on migration and gender that circulated within the contemporary social fabric. Storytelling as a political act is made visible through a reflection on the storytelling processes in the project. Building a chorus of voices, not just in the stories performed but in the design, data collection and analysis stage of a research project, is a productive and critical method for developing storytelling as an intentional political act. Public storytelling, such as The Last Country, used counter-hegemonic narratives to disrupt, disarticulate and expand dominant storylines, so that we may reimagine anew alternative ways of seeing and being in the city.

Constructing low-carbon futures? Competing storylines in the Estonian energy sector's translation of EU energy goals

This study examines how the European Union (EU) energy policy goals are translated in Estonia, a country heavily reliant on fossil fuel oil shale and having one of the most energy-intensive economies in the EU. Drawing on Hajer's approach to discourse and different qualitative methods, we analyse the production of different low-carbon storylines. Our findings show that state and industrial actors accommodate environmentally damaging oil shale production in low-carbon energy transformation, despite good conditions for expanding renewable energy. Additionally, they limit their ambition to transform mere technological modifications to the minimum requirements of the EU GHG emission reduction target. The socio-economic conditions of workers and people living near oil shale mining areas, primarily Estonian Russians, are a critical factor in upholding oil shale as a necessity. Despite being at the centre of dominant storylines, these people are portrayed as a category that needs to be kept at ease, rather than actively engaged in constructing acceptable sustainable routes to low-carbon futures. We conclude that in order to accelerate the decarbonisation in Estonia and beyond, and unleashing the transformative potential of EU energy policy, it is vital to make marginalised voices heard and engaged in energy policy decision-making.

Repositioning: New Storylines for Preschool Teachers and Children With Developmental Delays

In Australia, the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) was rolled out in pilot sites in 2013. This article reports a formative study conducted with qualified preschool teachers in one site in a context of change. The NDIS has been hailed in the media as a bold move to deliver more choice of services to people with disabilities and incorporates the delivery of early intervention (EI) services into its portfolio. As established EI agencies became providers for the scheme, local referral networks changed substantially. Children needed to establish eligibility for the scheme prior to families’ entry. Fourteen preschool teachers responded to an online survey, and four opted in for this study, which used positioning theory and a constructivist approach. Online surveys and interviews were conducted in 2 months at the end of the 3-year pilot phase. Findings suggest that teachers detecting developmental delays (DDs) in 4-year-old children needed to reposition themselves away from the rights and duties of the developmental expert to develop timely collaborative relationships with parents if the dominant storylines of early detection, medical confirmation, and the benefits of EI for families were to remain in the foreground.

Oil Sands in European Media: Representations of the Canadian Oil Sands in European Newspapers, 2008–2013

This article examines how leading European newspapers reported on oil-sands production in Canada between 2008 and 2013. Based on content and critical discourse analysis of news reports published in major daily newspapers in the United Kingdom, Germany, and France, it compares the interpretative frames and dominant storylines. The data analysis suggests that overall, European coverage adopted a critical perspective based on the environmental impacts of oil-sands development, with very particular differences in environmental frame building among the national media analyzed. The British coverage focused mainly on narratives based on a combination of factors such as cultural ties between the two countries and social and cultural practices of reporting on annual shareholders’ meetings. In contrast, the later German and French environmental frame building was embedded mostly in the European debate over the Fuel Quality Directive or in discussions of the Keystone XL pipeline project. This article aims to provide a broader picture of how a prominent Canadian public policy issue is reflected in Europe and to contribute to the assessment of Stephen Harper’s goal of fostering the international image of Canada as an energy superpower. The results of the empirical analysis suggest that Canada’s position in the oil market did not allow it to actively lead the international energy discourse and instead fractured its ability to efficiently influence this aspect of its international image. As a result, oil-sands production had important destabilizing effects on Canada’s international image in European media.

Selling stories of techno-optimism? The role of narratives on discursive construction of carbon capture and storage in the Japanese media

Great expectations have been expressed for carbon capture and storage (CCS) as a key climate change mitigation option, primarily because CCS possesses the political capital to reconcile continued use of fossil fuels with greenhouse gas emissions reduction. However, technological innovation of CCS has recently stagnated, and therefore, CCS still exists largely as a technological imaginary, is shaped more by narrative than by physical reality. This study examines how narratives or imaginaries of CCS technology were constructed in four major Japanese newspapers from 2006 to 2013. Based on a discourse analytic approach, we identify three dominant storylines of CCS: (1) the promise of large CO2 storage capacity; (2) the compatibility with the fossil energy regime; and (3) the forefront of high-tech innovation. The results show that all three storylines are strongly in favor of CCS, inflating blind optimism in the technical prospects of CCS while ignoring the many risks and uncertainties around it. Given the complexities of CCS as a socio-technical system, however, the role of media narratives is to enhance broader social learning about CCS. The paper argues that more plural, balanced, and critical narratives are required to sustain a sound balance between uncertainty and optimism over CCS.

Pakistan in 2016

Tensions with India and a fraught civil–military imbalance were the dominant storylines in Pakistan in 2016. These crises overshadowed promising developments in the areas of counterterrorism, the economy, and the law.

Integrating Narrative Therapy Within Rehabilitative Programming for Incarcerated Adolescents

The authors implemented a small‐series (N = 8), single‐case research design to assess the effectiveness of a 10‐session narrative therapy intervention with adolescents enrolled in a juvenile boot camp facility. Analysis of participants’ scores on the Brief Symptom Inventory using the percentage of data points exceeding the median procedure (Ma, ) yielded treatment effects indicating that a narrative therapy intervention may be effective for reducing mental health symptoms. It is recommended that this body of research continue for other educational, work, and health settings.

Promoting critical thinking within the drama: Using theory to guide practice

Abstract This article uses case stories from drama workshops conducted within primary and secondary classrooms to illustrate the ways in which post-structuralist theory can inform pedagogical design when using drama to engage in critical inquiry. It draws on research theory to illustrate the need for critique of the types of knowledge that are created in the drama and builds on the work of Deleuzian researcher Elizabeth St Pierre, relating her use of metaphor and figurations in research writing to the use of anti-naturalistic conventions in dramatic play. The article discusses the way in which some conventions invite replication of dominant storylines and subject positions while others more readily open up the play space for critical inquiry and the creation of new possibilities. It then proposes the need for new metaphors to enrich the use of drama as a method for critical inquiry.

The trap of history. The States Party and the Revolt of the Netherlands, 1650-1660

Historians of the First Stadholderless Period (1650-1672) have shown that supporters of the house of Orange evoked memories of Prince William i of Orange's role in the Revolt of the Netherlands in support of their political agendas. Jill Stern has recently argued that the supporters of True Freedom therefore needed to develop an alternative interpretation of the Revolt. Since she focuses on Orangist rhetoric, she has not asked why authors who sympathized with the States Party related their political ideology to the existing popular historical narratives about the conflict. These were, after all, tainted by Orangist associations. This article will argue that the past was a rich source of inspiration for politicians in the seventeenth-century 'present' but that the use of historical references was limited by the existing dominant storylines.