Folklore Future: folkloric community practices as playful generative methods for critical interpretation, navigating complexity, and narrative resilience

In an era of information overload, rising misinformation, and interconnected crises, communities face mounting challenges in making sense of the world around them. Dominant narratives – shaping identity, truth, and the future – are increasingly politicised and emotionally alienating, limiting representation and eroding community agency. This project led by Dr Harriet Hunt (University of Exeter), investigates how folkloric practices can be harnessed as tools for interpretation and sensemaking, inviting participants to examine relationships to the past, imagine alternative futures, embrace uncertainty, and resist reductive or imposed framings.