The cases of Germany, Italy, and Spain

Based on three national reports presenting the findings on innovative strategies against exclusionary narratives developed by civil society organisations or NGOs in Germany, Italy and Spain, respectively, this comparative report brings together key findings from the national contexts, compares crucial insights, and draws conclusions that, ultimately, also feed into recommendations and guidelines for future civil society campaigns in the form of a toolkit.

This Working Paper focuses on analysing the factors leading the success of the narratives promoted by the analysed initiatives. A key finding is that mobilising, combining or bundling forces can be a decisive factor in success and even open up political stalemates or highly polarised debates. Similarly, bottom-up organisation and mobilisation can be an effective way to communicate directly and successfully with intended audiences. Third, windows of opportunity as well as perseverance or resilience are crucial to narrative success. The findings moreover show that these civil society initiatives are not typically professional narrative makers and do not see building alternative narratives or counter-narratives as central to their operations. Fifth, findings suggest that pluralist societies and their public discourses benefit from the diversification of narratives in the form of alternatives and challenges to hegemonic discourse.