Introduction to the Narrative Policy Framework (NPF) and the research project. Policy Narratives in Moscow - first seminar of the group

This event was a first meeting of the group. Prof. Schlaufer started the work with general introduction into the Narrative Policy Framework (NPF) - what are the roots of this theory and what are the components of policy narrative.

At the first seminar we had the presentation of prof. Schlaufer about the NPF and general discussion on schedule of the project; preliminary tasks for the students; groups composition and plans for further seminars.

The NPF is a developing theory which was mostly used to analyze cases in conditions of western democracies. This framework assumes that narratives have generalizable structural elements, which may be empirically analyzed. These narrative elements are the key variables of an NPF study. The narrative elements are: the setting of a narrative; characters: namely victims, villains and heroes; the plot of the narrative and the moral of the story which is usually equivalent to the policy solution. The NPF has defined a policy narrative as needing two main features: a policy narrative must have at least one character and some reference to the policy in question.These structural elements of narratives are used in the NPF to measure the content of a specific narrative, as well as the strategies employed by the actors involved in the policy debate such as the devil shift, i.e. portraying the opponent as evil and powerful or story of control.

Our discussion ended with the process of selection of a group, students and leaders of the groups (namely Dr. Albert and Artem Uldanov) decided whom of the students can join which group: case of renovation policy in Moscow, transport policy and waste management.

Presentation - 

Introduction to the NPF (PDF, 710 Кб)