COMMUNITY NARRATIVES AND THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF HUMAN EXPERIENCE

Abstract

Community narratives are crucial in defining people's and groups' understandings of identity, memory, belonging and social reality. The article explored how the shared stories, traditions, collective memories, and digital means of storytelling helped to shape human experience socially. Scholarship from the sociology, psychology, anthropology, cultural studies and media studies was synthesized using a qualitative narrative review. The results indicated that the community narratives facilitated the maintenance of cultural continuity, fostered a sense of community identity and enabled members to make sense of personal and historical events. They also found that dominant discourses may be able to normalise social norms, to marginalise other experiences, and to shape what is remembered in public discourse. Counter-narratives and participatory storytelling gave alternative perspectives to groups who had previously been excluded, offering them a chance to reclaim their identity, challenge the stereotype and redefine the meaning of the community. The digital platforms enabled the extension of narrative participation beyond geographical boundaries, but also led to misinformation, polarization and distortions of reality. The article ends by stating that community narratives "served as a device of social cohesion and they were also a place of contestation. The recognition, empathy and social participation of others could be enhanced by increased focus on inclusive narratives, multilingual traditions, voices of the margins and ethical approaches to digital practice, which could foster more balanced representations of collective experience.