I don’t claim to totally understand Tom Atlee’s concept of Story Fields, but here’s his definition:
a particularly powerful field of influence generated by a story or, more often, by a coherent battery of mutually reinforcing stories – myths, news, soap operas, lives, memories, games – and story elements
– roles, plots, themes, metaphors, goals, images, events, archetypes – that co-habit and resonate within our individual and/or collective psyches.A story field ubiquitously frames what is real, acceptable, and possible, and directly shapes our lives and our world, often without our even being aware of its influence.
Atlee likens Story Fields to culture, and as such, they can be changed. As he writes, here, Atlee notes: “When social change movements arise from a truly positive vision, they stand in contrast to but not primarily in opposition to the status quo. Thus they do little to empower that status quo, while at the same time inviting those who are ready for change, into the new story field.”
He suggests a number of strategies for how to translate a social-change movement’s “positive visions into positive story fields capable of shaping a new culture.”
Perhaps the shorthand for this concept would be: Change the story, change the culture.