Skip to content
FrameWorks UK

Economic Justice

People know the economy isn’t working, but not how it should work, or what we need to do to get there. Effective framing can turn passive unease into active support for economic justice.

In the 1980s, the conservative case for lower taxes was framed with a memorable metaphor: “trickle-down” economics. Four decades later, this frame is still with us.

The frames that are in play influence not just how people understand the economy, but the kinds of economic policies they support. If the economy is a pie, we have to slice it up. The topic quickly turns to who gets how much and who loses out. If it’s an invisible hand, best to leave it alone. But, FrameWorks research has found, if it’s a software program—we can see why and how we might reprogram it.

Language and ideas matter for major economic sectors, like housing, or contributors to economic wellbeing, like good neighborhoods and healthy, affordable food.

Explore how to frame a range of economic issues.

Featured Work

Two young girls with face paint

Where We Thrive

Neighborhood revitalization is essential to ensuring families of all backgrounds and zip codes can thrive. Too often, however, this work is invisible, devalued, or just misunderstood. It’s time...
Report

Navigating Cultural Mindsets of Race and Place in the United States

The places where we live shape our lives. Structural racism has shaped and continues to shape where and how Americans live.
Report

Framing the Economy

These are times of great danger but also of great possibility. For the first time in decades, there is a sense that the economic consensus is fracturing, that a change must and will come. A space...

Showing 25 – 36 of 52

Report

Framing the Economy

These are times of great danger but also of great possibility. For the first time in decades, there is a sense that the economic consensus is fracturing, that a change must and will come. A space...
Announcements

A New Story About Homelessness In The United Kingdom

Homelessness can affect a range of people, with disadvantaged groups at greater risk. Yet most people think it is the inevitable result of poor life choices.
Report

Reframing Homelessness in the United Kingdom

This report lays out an overarching framing strategy to help advocates in the U.K. expand public understanding of homelessness.
Report

How to Talk about Poverty in the United Kingdom

This MessageMemo provides campaigners the evidence and tools needed to make a more powerful case for change.
Report

Reframing Affordable Housing: Findings from Peer Discourse Sessions

FrameWorks researchers observed small-group discussions (peer discourse sessions) to explore how people think about affordable housing - and learn which frames can change minds.
Report

Finding a Better Frame: How to Create More Effective Messages on Homelessness in the United Kingdom

This report explores public thinking about homelessness in the United Kingdom and documents how the issue is framed in advocacy and media materials.
Report

Talking about Poverty: How Experts and the Public Understand Poverty in the United Kingdom

This Map the Gaps report compares expert and public views of the causes and consequences of poverty in the United Kingdom and solutions to it.
Report

Mixing It Up: Reframing Neighborhood Socioeconomic Diversity

This comprehensive MessageMemo synthesizes FrameWorks research about socioeconomic mixing.
Report

Not Telling the Whole Story: Media and Organizational Discourse about Affordable Housing

The stories Americans hear about affordable housing can create opportunities for change or impede progress in the policy arena.
Report

“A House, a Tent, a Box”: Mapping the Gaps Between Expert and Public Understandings of Healthy Housing

This study compares public and expert understandings of housing.
Report

Talking Human Services: A FrameWorks MessageMemo

This study details an investigation into how communicators can reframe human services to fundamentally reshape public understanding of the sector’s work.
Report

How to Talk About Early Childhood Development to an International Audience

It can be hard to make a case for early learning with stakeholders from the international development sector. Talking about the "multiplier effect" helps.