Tell My Story

Abstract

By the C21st the glue that bound moral communities is no longer necessarily a belief in a particular deity or the ritualistic practices that expressed that belief. While notions of the sacred and profane remain, these notions now deal with cultural ideology, economics and the politics of privilege. Moral communities, Tom Regan argues, continue today, to be founded on the pillars of exclusion. Each community is bound by a 'moral' code that accrues privilege to members and disfavor to non-members. These moral codes are entrenched in, and maintained through, forms of storytelling. Whose stories are told and who owns these stories are no longer matters of commerce and the market but are political matters. Tell My Story brings together stories made by in-field researchers who have collaborated with participants and become stakeholders in the lives of the researched. The stories told were not previously published, but silenced through the gatekeeping processes of mainstream media. This edition investigates not only the power of the story but raises questions as to ownership and the politic inherent in the dissemination of stories within the broader community.