Observe
Researchers identify emerging narratives within their own communities.
Narrative Observatories
Understanding today's stories before they become tomorrow's history.
Narrative Observatories bring together researchers across the world to investigate how stories shape identity, belonging, exclusion and power as events unfold. Working collaboratively across borders, Observers document and analyse emerging narratives before they harden into accepted historical accounts.
A living research platform
Research that evolves alongside the contemporary world.
The Narrative Observatories bring together researchers from across the world to investigate how stories shape identity, belonging, exclusion and power in real time.
Observers work collaboratively across countries, cultures and lived experiences, tracking how narratives emerge, spread and influence societies during moments of crisis, transition and change.
Rather than studying history only after events have concluded, the Observatories capture voices while history is still unfolding, creating a shared global archive of contemporary experience.
Research Process
A shared framework for understanding narratives across borders.
Collect
Experiences and stories are documented through shared qualitative research methods.
Compare
Researchers analyse similarities and differences across countries and contexts.
Understand
Together the network builds a broader understanding of how narratives shape the contemporary world.
BUGSSS
Bottom-up, globally-scaled social science.
The Narrative Observatories form part of Global History Lab's experiment in BUGSSS—bottom-up, globally-scaled social science.
Instead of relying on a single institution or country, researchers collectively generate knowledge from many local perspectives. This creates a richer understanding of global challenges while ensuring that voices from different communities remain central to the research process.
Explore the research
Read the latest Observer pieces.
The Narrative Observatories continue to publish reflections and research from across the world. Explore the latest Observer pieces and discover how narratives are being documented as history unfolds.