ABSTRACT

This article focuses on the UK Parliament’s recent efforts to engage citizens: specifically, the use of storytelling techniques to represent Parliament as a relevant and relatable institution. The use of these techniques is very recent within parliamentary engagement which, in its own right, is a relatively new addition to Parliament’s functions and activities. Building on theories of parliamentary engagement, representation, and narratology, we construct a new conceptual framework of ‘parliamentary storytelling’ through which these recent engagement efforts can be understood and examined. In demonstrating the utility of this framework, we analyse three contemporaneous case studies according to five key components (and the dynamic between them): storyteller, narrator, characters, plot, and audience. In facilitating this unprecedented depth of analysis, the ‘parliamentary storytelling’ framework is relevant beyond the UK Parliament, and applicable to any legislatures intending to enhance – and more comprehensively understand – their own public engagement practice.

摘要

本文重点介绍英国议会最近在吸引公民方面所做的努力：特别是使用讲故事的技巧来代表议会作为一个相关和相关的机构。这些技术的使用是最近在议会参与中使用的，这本身就是对议会职能和活动的相对较新的补充。基于议会参与、代表和叙述学的理论，我们构建了一个新的“议会讲故事”概念框架，通过该框架可以理解和检查这些最近的参与努力。在展示该框架的实用性时，我们根据五个关键组成部分（以及它们之间的动态）分析了三个同时期的案例研究：故事讲述者、叙述者、人物、情节和观众。