Contested Narratives

Contested Narratives

East Bay Stories: Unpacking Contested Narratives with Simple Analogies

Contested narratives are everywhere in the East Bay—neighborhood histories, development debates, cultural claims—and they often leave people feeling s...

Contested Narratives

How to Navigate Contested Narratives: Simple Analogies for East Bay Pros

In the East Bay, contested narratives are part of the daily rhythm. A developer presents a project as a boon for affordable housing; a neighborhood gr...

Contested Narratives

How Two Fishermen See One Bay: A Beginner’s Guide to Contested Narratives

Imagine two fishermen on the same bay at dawn. One sees a school of striped bass near the eastern shore and tells everyone the fishing is excellent. T...

Contested Narratives

The bridge that some call a gate and others call a wall: how contested place-names shape what we see on the east bay

We live in a world of names. Every street, hill, and shoreline on the east bay carries a label that someone chose, and someone else may fight. A bridg...

Contested Narratives

When two maps show the same bay differently: a beginner’s guide to contested narratives (and why a foggy chart matters)

Why do two maps of the same bay look so different?Imagine you and a friend each draw a map of the same bay from memory. You both stood on the same sho...