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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.

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Frame Testing Recommendations

How to Talk About Rural Issues

This Message Brief distills strategies for talking about rural health, rural economic development, and other rural issues.

Frame Testing Recommendations

Framing the Food System

This MessageMemo distills insights from a set of related studies. It recommends ways to communicate more effectively about the food system, obesity, and related issues.

Report

Promoting a Realistic Understanding of Rural America

This report identifies promising explanatory strategies that help Americans think more productively about rural parts of the country.

Frame Testing Recommendations

Talking Rural Issues

This MessageMemo distills insights from a set of inter-related studies about how people think about rural issues. It offers time-tested recommendations for communicating more effectively about...

Toolkit

Talking Transitional Work

This toolkit offers a collection of key documents from the FrameWorks Institute's research on how Minnesotans view transitional jobs programs, based on research conducted in that state in late...

Report

Making the Public Case for Transitional Jobs Programs in Minnesota

This Memo reports on findings from the FrameWorks Institute’s research on how Minnesotans think about transitional jobs programs, the problems they address and the constituencies they benefit.

Report

Communities that Work: An Analysis of Qualitative Research Exploring Perceptions of Lifetrack Programs and Policies

This is the second in a series of reports designed by the FrameWorks Institute to explore public understanding of, and support for, transitional work experience programs. This particular phase of...

Report

Barriers to Public Engagement with Transitional Work: Visibility, Worthiness, and Efficacy Findings from Cognitive Interviews

The analysis presented here is based on intensive one-on-one interviews conducted by Cultural Logic in the fall of 2004 with a diverse group of nineteen individuals in Minnesota.

Report

Perceptions & Misperceptions: An Analysis of Qualitative Research Exploring Views of Rural America

This report demonstrates that to the extent possible, rural problems should be discussed within a broader national system indicating causes and consequences.

Report

The Agrarian Myth Revisited: Findings from Cognitive Elicitations

This study helps advocates better understand how Americans think about rural issues - in order to make breakthroughs in raising public concern.