Narrative Infrastructure™: A Working Paper on Story, Systems, and Inclusion
Abstract
Much of the world’s infrastructure is invisible. Clouds hold our data, cables pulse beneath our feet, and cities hum with signals we rarely see. For children, this invisibility can create distance, a sense that the systems shaping their lives are too complex, too hidden, or simply not for them.
Narrative Infrastructure™ offers another way. By using story as scaffolding, we can reveal hidden systems in ways that feel safe, imaginative, and inclusive. Stories give shape to the unseen, and provide children, especially neurodiverse and underrepresented learners, with a sense of belonging in the very systems that shape their futures.
This working paper introduces Narrative Infrastructure™ as a framework for learning and inclusion, setting the stage for further research, pilots, and collaborations that connect imagination with the real world.
Definition
Narrative Infrastructure™ is the deliberate use of story as a framework for making invisible systems, digital, physical, and social, visible, memorable, and inclusive.
Page 2 – Context and Early Examples
The Gap
Children grow up surrounded by systems they cannot see. Power flows through grids, signals travel through streets, water moves silently beneath pavements, and data threads across buildings and cities. The built environment is alive with structure and information, yet for most children these remain hidden. Education often focuses on literacy and numeracy, but rarely introduces the idea that the world itself has systems we can learn to read.
Narrative as Scaffolding
Story provides a natural bridge. Narratives help children connect what they already know with what they cannot yet see. When invisible systems are explained through story, they become less intimidating, more human, and easier to remember. Story is not a simplification, it is a framework that holds complexity in a form children can explore.
Early Examples from ThreadPoint
Children’s Books: Where the Internet Goes to Sleep introduces one hidden system - the data centre - through the character of Fluffbit, a gentle cloud who shows children that the internet has a home.
Learning Experiences: ThreadPoint is developing story-led ways to help children notice the hidden systems that make buildings and cities work.
Broader Story World: Fluffbit is only the beginning of a larger universe that reveals how the built environment is threaded with energy, data, and memory.
Together, these examples show how Narrative Infrastructure™ can turn hidden systems into stories children can hold, remember, and share.
Page 3 – Implications and Next Steps
Why It Matters
Narrative Infrastructure™ has implications that stretch across childhood learning, industry practice, and education systems.
For Children
Story-led approaches ensure that hidden systems in the built environment, from data centres to energy grids, from transport networks to the fabric of buildings, become visible and approachable. This nurtures curiosity, confidence, and a sense of belonging, especially for neurodiverse and underrepresented learners.For Industry
Story is not only an educational tool but also a bridge to communities. By translating technical complexity into narrative, industries can create pathways of understanding, foster trust, and show how their work connects to everyday life.For Education
Narrative Infrastructure™ expands the scope of learning. Beyond reading and numbers, it introduces systems thinking at an early stage, offering children a framework that can adapt with them as the world changes.
Next Steps
This working paper is the beginning of a larger conversation. ThreadPoint will continue to:
Develop stories and resources that reveal hidden systems in the built environment.
Explore inclusive approaches that meet children where they are, across different learning needs.
Build partnerships with educators, industry, and communities to bring these ideas into classrooms, libraries, and public spaces.
Invitation
We invite collaborators, funders, and partners to join us in shaping the first framework for Narrative Infrastructure™ — one where stories and systems meet to make the future visible, memorable, and inclusive.