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Narratives in policy-making: celebrating the latest edition of LSE Public Policy Review

Tuesday 24 February 2026
Narratives in policy-making expert panel discussion
Narratives in policy-making expert panel discussion

Narratives are at the core of all that we do, think, and feel and impact public policy at all levels and stages. In the latest edition of the LSE Public Policy Review (PPR) experts from a range of disciplines take a deep dive into the power of storytelling and investigate how much narratives matter to framing, designing, implementing, understanding, and evaluating policy.

In celebration of the launch of the latest edition of LSE PPR we were delighted to host a special expert panel event ‘Narratives in policy-making’ to discuss the power of storytelling on todays society.

Our expert speakers included:

  • Baroness Sharon White, Member of the House of Lords, Senior Managing Director and Head of Global Affairs at La Caisse, and a Visiting Professor in Practice at the LSE School of Public Policy.
  • Adam Brzezinski, British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at LSE.
  • Professor Sarah Dillon, Professor of Literature and the Public Humanities in the Faculty of English at the University of Cambridge.
  • Professor Paul Dolan, Professor of Behavioural Science in the Department of Psychological and Behavioural Science at LSE, and Director of the Executive MSc in Behavioural Science.
  • Professor Sonia Livingstone, Professor in the Department of Media and Communications at LSE.

Throughout the insightful discussion, key themes emerged about the impact of narratives on policy today, with Baroness White noting how narrative is now playing a larger role than ever before, by having the power to prevent good policy and evidence- based decision making in education and criminal justice systems.

Dr Brzezinski explored themes further by drawing on his research into political narratives, demonstrating how conflicting incentives create a tension for politicians; noting that the policy with the best narrative for re-election is not necessarily the best policy for people overall.

The event also explored Professor Dillon’s research and the concept of storytelling vs story listening, asking whether stories themselves should be viewed not merely as a vessel to communicate data, but should be viewed as valuable forms of evidence in their own right.

As always, we were delighted to welcome an engaged audience to the discussion, both in person and online, who contributed further insights and questions about how personal and social narratives fundamentally affect the ways we live and interact and play an important role at all levels of decision-making.