Hacking the Transition Narratives: Shaping Reality Together

This is the second part to the blog Rhizomatic Adventures on Narrative Hacking I wrote last year. If you haven't, take a look to better understand where this comes from. 

As you know, Transition Network international won a seat at the Rhizome Fellowship 2025. This allowed us to learn first-hand the Culture Hack Labs narrative hacking methodology, and resulted in a Narrative Hack applied to Transition and community-led climate action. It’s high time we share this with the world!

We’ll also provide a brief guide for Transitioners and one for funders by the end of the month – will add here. 

The Narrative Hack goal

We’ve been supporting pioneering regenerative, community-led transformation for over 20 years across ~70 countries. Today we see that dominant climate narratives still privilege tech-fixes and top-down solutions that perpetuate extractive systems, while community-led approaches we've already applied and proven get ignored or reinvented. Also, Transition groups and hubs have expressed their need for support with a narrative that feels compelling and engaging, in accordance with our realities. 

Therefore, we aim to demonstrate that community-led transformation is essential infrastructure, not just inspiring supplement — shifting how storytellers, funders, and institutions understand scale and authority in climate action.

To do this, we are engaging Regenerative Storytellers and Communicators across territories to connect our 20 years of proof to audiences ready for alternatives, making "communities as infrastructure" the new common sense.

Language shapes reality: How we talk about community-led climate action matters

The shift from "inspiring projects" to "essential infrastructure" isn't semantic, it's about power distribution, resources, and who gets to define what counts as serious climate response. The evidence is in, it's time institutions listened.

For 20 years, 1000+ Transition groups across 60+ countries have been implementing proven climate solutions. Yet media coverage has consistently framed this work as feel-good sidebars to the "real" stories about tech innovation or policy announcements. This framing isn't neutral, it shapes where attention, belief, and resources flow.

The problem is that our own language suggested we were small-scale and supplemental, when the truth is we're essential infrastructure operating at appropriate systems-scale.

We’re starting a deliberate linguistic transformation that makes visible what community-led networks actually are and positions the Transition movement to receive the resources proven solutions deserve.

Every story we tell either reinforces or challenges dominant frames about what counts as "serious" climate response. 

The Narrative Hack materials

The Case Study and the toolkits we’ve created give you the language, framing techniques, and story approaches to position community-led networks as the essential infrastructure they actually are — shifting how millions of people understand scale, authority, and what transformation looks like.

We’ll also provide a detailed guide for Transitioners and Committed funders by the end of the month – come back here. 

Does this feel helpful to your community and projects? We’d love to hear from you!

The invitation

For Transition Communities: Start using this language in your communications. You're not just a "nice local project" — you're part of essential infrastructure with 20 years of proof. Own that authority.

For Funders: Recognize that communities stewarding proven solutions aren't charity cases — they're the most strategic climate investment available. Redistribute accordingly.

For Partners: When you talk about our work, use language that reflects what we actually are — coordinated networks demonstrating transformation at appropriate scale — not what makes institutions comfortable (small, supplemental, inspiring).

Explore further: Learn the CHL narrative hacking methodology 

Want to learn the Culture Hack Labs methodology and be able to apply to your very own campaigns and communications? 

Then, here are some interesting options for you:

• Watch the narrative hacking workshop we delivered with CHL as part of the Day of Transition Practice in April:

• Watch Culture Hack Labs’ introductory videos and join the 5 Open Monthly Sessions (free), starting July 29. Scroll down this page until you find the following section:

Some TNi team members will also be joining. We’re contemplating hosting sessions for peer learning and going through our Narrative Hack in a bit more depth, together. Are you interested in this? Sign up for the sessions and let us know!

This might seem like a subtle shift in language, but if we all start using it, we’re envisioning a redefined panorama on a wider scale, where community-led action is taken seriously and gets the attention, validation and resources deserved. 

Please share your feedback with us, we’d love to hear from you.

Best, 

Esther