ABSTRACT
In the previous chapters we have suggested some of the challenges and intricacies of narratives and the use of a narrative framework for cultural policy analysis. This chapter looks at four real-world examples and one invented fable of the intersection of narratives, discursive frameworks, and political decisions that not only have a strong cultural dimension, but also take place within a transnational or globalized environment. It is also, however, a little set of what might be called instructional tales—stories that reveal why policy is never merely a response to a set of precise data but most often an attempt to both work within, and influence, a particular unfolding of events. This is even more the case in the situation where two or more sovereign nations, either in a transnational or global context, are involved in such a way that the potential for a policy arena populated with multiple and often competing narratives increases. In such circumstances, the question arises as to not only whether the parties are telling mutually communicable stories but, more importantly, whether they have at least modestly overlapping frame discourses that permit them to grasp the significance of each storyline within a larger, globalized narrative, or whether they are incommensurable and incommunicable for reasons not only of culture, but also because they are discourses or genres that simply cannot mesh.
