The Myth Gap

What Happens When Evidence and Arguments Aren’t Enough

Alex Evans

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Hardback

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English

Eden Project Books
15 February 2017

Geopolitics

FOREWORD BY TIM SMIT. A brilliant analysis of how it is stories, rather than facts and pie-charts, that have the power to animate us and bring us together to tackle the major issues of our time- climate change, mass migration, inequality and resource scarcity.

Why, with absolutely no idea what Brexit actually meant, did the UK vote for Brexit? Why, rather than vote for the best-qualified

candidate ever to stand as US President, did voters opt for a reality TV star with no political experience? In both cases, the winning side promised change and offered hope. They told a story voters longed to hear. And in the absence of greater, more unifying narratives, then true or not, voters plumped for the best story available. Once upon a time our society was rich in stories. They brought us together and helped us to understand the world and ourselves. We called them myths. Today, we have a myth gap - a vacuum that Alex Evans argues powerfully and persuasively is both dangerous and an opportunity.

In this time of global crisis and transition-

mass migration, inequality, resource scarcity, and climate change -

It is stories, rather than facts and pie-charts,that will animate us and bring us together.

It is by finding new myths, those that speak to us of renewal and restoration, that we will navigate our way to a better future.

Drawing on his first-hand experience as a political adviser within British government and at the United Nations, and examining the history of climate change campaigning and recent contests such as Brexit and the US presidential election, Alex Evans explores-
*how tomorrow's activists are using narratives for change,
* how modern stories have been used and abused,
* where we might find the right myths that will take us forward

By: Alex Evans
Imprint: Eden Project Books
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 184mm, Width: 135mm, Spine: 20mm
Weight: 232g
ISBN: 9781909513112
ISBN 10: 1909513113
Pages: 176
Publication Date: 15 February 2017
Audience: General/trade , Professional and scholarly , ELT Advanced , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Alex Evans is a Senior Fellow at New York University's Center on International Cooperation (CIC), with nearly twenty years' experience in climate and development policy. He is currently on secondment to the Business Commission on Sustainable Development as its Research Director. Alex has worked as Special Adviser to two UK Secretaries of State for International Development (Hilary Benn and Valerie Amos), as an expert on climate change in the UN Secretary-General's office, and with think tanks including Chatham House and the Brookings Institution. He has also worked as a consultant on futures and foreign policy for organizations from Oxfam to the US National Intelligence Council. Alex lives in North Yorkshire and is married with two children.

Reviews for The Myth Gap: What Happens When Evidence and Arguments Aren’t Enough

Very short, very sharp -- Bruce Clark Economist Pertinent... Evans is an attractive and persuasive writer ... his book will strike many chords' -- Allan Massie Scotsman Everyone should read this. Tim Smit The Myth Gap is a beautiful synthesis of wisdom for the times we're in. Alex Evans melds deep insights from both scholarship and the front lines of social change to provide a perspective that may be essential to human survival. It's a must read for anyone considering how to save the world. Ricken Patel, President & CEO, AVAAZ Alex Evans gives us a glimpse of what campaigning could deliver if we focussed on binding people together based on shared ideas. It couldn't be a more urgent task and we couldn't have a clearer or more necessary handbook. Kirsty McNeill, director of policy and campaigns, Save the Children