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

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...

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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.

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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...

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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.

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Mixing It Up: Reframing Neighborhood Socioeconomic Diversity

This comprehensive MessageMemo synthesizes FrameWorks research about socioeconomic mixing.

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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.

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“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.

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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.

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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.

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Getting to “We”: Mapping the Gaps Between Expert and Public Understandings of Immigration and Immigration Reform

This report lays the groundwork for a larger effort to reframe the public debate on immigration and immigration reform.

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Stories Matter: Field Frame Analysis on Immigration Reform

This Field Frame Analysis maps the competing narratives used by influential organizations to frame the debate on immigration and immigration reform.

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The Proper Attitude: Challenges in Framing Higher Education Reform

This MessageMemo offers insights on how to frame higher education to boost support for broader, more equitable access and attainment.

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Planning for Our Future: The Contribution of Simplifying Models to Conceptualizing Budgets and Taxes

This report presents "Forward Exchange" as an explanatory metaphor that prompts people to think about public budgets and taxes in new ways.

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Every Picture Tells A Story: An Examination of Racialized Visuals and their Frame Effects

Is there a difference between images that explicitly depict Black children and visuals that more subtly cue the issue of race?

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Like Mars to Venus: The Separate and Sketchy Worlds of Budgets and Taxes

This report uses cognitive interviews to investigate Americans’ thinking about budgets and taxes- both as separate issues and as they relate to each other.