Sociology in the Age of “Impact Storytelling”

• In Event: 1123 - Practice Symposium- Lightning Round on Tricks of the Trade: Building a Tool-Kit for Sociologists in Practice Settings

Abstract

Think tanks often spend significant amounts of money to communicate research findings to the broader public and policymakers. This is driven by a need to ensure research has a broader impact, and fuels a contemporary fixation on “impact communications” and “strategic storytelling.” Those who recommend storytelling as a way of communicating research often recommend that researchers apply the principles of effective storytelling--setting, plot, characters, tension, and resolution--to craft research-informed stories about complex topics. This emphasis on effective communications, however, presents a unique challenge for applied sociologists whose research often does not fit this “standard story” (Tilly, 2004) form. In other words, processes that sociologists study are often not linear, with discrete causes and effects, creating tension for applied sociologists who wish to (and are often required to) effectively disseminate their work and engage audiences, but who also intend to maintain fidelity to the complexity of their research findings. Drawing on experience as a sociologist working on a communications agenda within the American Institutes for Research (a DC-based research and evaluation firm), I examine the fixation on the need to communicate and disseminate research in these more "compelling" formats. I explore how sociologists can balance the tension between the need to present complex findings in simplified narrative formats (and, increasingly, multi-media formats) and how we can come closer to Charles Tilly's notion of a "superior story" when presenting our research to broader audiences that are impacted by our work.

Author

• Jamie McPike, Amerian Institutes for Research