In: Frank Gadinger, Martina Kopf, Ayşem Mert, and Christopher Smith (eds.). Political Storytelling: From Fact to Fiction (Global Dialogues 12) This essay presents a summary of important perspectives concerning the distinction between what counts as truth or fiction. As a source of inspiration, it starts with two examples found in literature – the first a classical Spanish novel and the second a collection of stories written by the leader of a social movement in Mexico. These two examples of the conflictive relations between truth and fiction, authenticity and imagination serve as a source of inspiration for the rest of this article, which shows that this issue has been a subject of intense debate in philosophy and in the philosophy of science and still presents a challenge in the 21st century. The essay states that absolute, objective truth is a myth. It describes that what counts as ‘truth’ in a particular era, is, among other things, the result of power relations. It suggests productive ways to deal with this problem in modern society, through deliberative, emancipatory processes of reflexivity (Weick 1999), participatory research and dialogue, facilitating innovation and generation of new solutions.
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In January 2013, a group of 6 professionals associated with the HvA Research and development Centre for society and Law made a study trip to the USA. Under the name "Krachtwerk on tour" they traveled three weeks through the USA, covering about 7000 km from Boston to San Francisco and Berkeley, through New york, Chicago, Kansas and Los. They visited 25 projects, organizations and research groups and spoke with over 115 professionals. The study trip was inspired by reorganizations in the welfare state of the Netherlands. The Dutch model was moving towards a more American model of individual responsibility. By meeting the frontrunners in the field, the authors gathered experiences and ideas they could can use in their research, education, and practice. In their concluding chapter, they describe their general and personal impressions. Because peer run organizations have been applied in The States for many years, visiting these organizations was a source of inspiration for similar projects in the Netherlands. During their tour, the authors maintained a blog on http://krachtwerkontour.blogspot.nl/ with stories and videos.