Session 12: Storytelling for citizens' engagement

Storify the city: making hard stories tellable

Urban change is full of stories, but some of the most important ones are also the hardest to tell. Cities face complex challenges: climate action, social inclusion, democratic participation, health, heritage and long-term transformation. These processes are rarely linear, involving uncertainty, negotiation, trade-offs and slow, sometimes invisible change, realities that are difficult to communicate and often left out of official narratives. This interactive session asks: when a story is hard to tell, is it the story itself, or the format? In a live conversation, four URBACT networks (ARCHETHICS, Agents of Co-Existence, One Health 4 Cities, Cities for Sustainability Governance) share one challenging story each and explore with the audience how visual, written, audio and digital formats can make these hard stories more meaningful and engaging, positioning storytelling as a strategic tool for urban change.