The democratic potential of inventive storytelling

Deliberative democrats value deliberation because of its potential to generate important democratic goods, notably inclusive decision-making. Yet in practice, deliberative processes - or participatory approaches, their corollary in international development practice - face substantial challenges related to inclusion and representativeness, agenda-setting and expertise, and tensions between power and formal equality. In this paper I set out how using inventive storytelling in deliberative processes can help to mitigate and move beyond these challenges, responding to deep-seated patterns of epistemic injustice that underpin them. While some deliberative democrats have suggested integrating personal storytelling or testimony in deliberation, they have paid much less attention to the inventive storytelling that engages the histories and cultural traditions of those participating in deliberative processes. I argue that integrating inventive storytelling in deliberation can generate three particularly helpful democratic goods: inclusion of widely shared discursive skills; depersonalisation of contentious issues; and enabling affirming negotiation, where participants can navigate the tension between their commitment to a given political community and their desire for that community to change. This can contribute to efforts to democratise democratic theorising, providing an accessible language and format that participants can use to develop understanding and normative proposals. I illustrate my proposal by drawing on insights from an interactive storytelling workshop in Uganda, where participants worked with a Ganda sovereignty myth to re-imagine the self, navigate risky conversations and negotiate the boundaries of belonging in political communities that straddle multiple epistemic worlds.