Theory as Practice
The Concept and Methodology of Narrative Prefiguration
Abstract
This paper introduces narrative prefiguration as a distinctive methodology for addressing the complex challenges of our current moment. At a time when conventional approaches increasingly fail to engage with the polycrisis we face – climate disruption, democratic erosion, systemic inequality – this approach offers pathways for transformation that work with rather than against the fragmented conditions of contemporary life.
Narrative prefiguration integrates interpretive agency – the capacity to read existing narrative structures – with creative agency – the ability to reconfigure these structures to actualise latent possibilities. Unlike approaches that position change as distant goals requiring gradual progress, this methodology recognises that alternative configurations already exist prefiguratively within present circumstances, waiting to be recognised and actualised through strategic reconfiguration.
Drawing on insights from Paul Ricoeur while extending far beyond individual identity formation, the approach develops concrete methodologies for working with narrative fragments across ecological systems. Through the Democracy School's Narrative-based Action Learning and Narrative Coaching practices, it demonstrates how practitioners can strategically navigate between fragmentation and coherence, work across scales from individual to collective transformation, and overcome systemic resistance to fundamental change.
The methodology proves particularly relevant for practitioners working at the intersection of artistic and political domains, offering tools for ethical engagement that honour complexity while enabling meaningful contribution to urgent challenges. Rather than promising resolution, it reveals how transformation emerges through responsive engagement with what already exists in latent form – enabling practitioners to participate authentically in actualising possibilities that serve collective flourishing.
This paper articulates both theoretical foundations and practical applications, establishing narrative prefiguration as an approach uniquely suited to our moment of systemic breakdown and the need for fundamental reconfiguration of how we understand and engage with reality itself.
