This short two-pager explores how a simple and powerful meta-narrative puts words to what people already feel, and illustrates how we can use it to highlight the agency we all have in this moment.
What can the research tell us about how people come to accept new information as true? And what strategies can help communicators break through when truth itself is being challenged?
Explore our free US@250 Narrative Guide, created with Topos Partnership, for the full narrative framework and the research behind it.
What happens when we focus on the villain without fully reckoning with their villanous actions (villainy)? Think Big teamed up with the Topos Partnership to explore what social science reveals about the power of villains in advocacy storytelling — and what we miss when we fail to include their harmful actions.
Written by guest author Jennifer Messenger from the Metropolitan Group, this article explores how framing economic conversations through the lens of well-being can drive meaningful impact.
How do we present injustices and wrongs in a way that engages people and allows audiences to see that a just, equitable, and joyful future is possible? Check out our framing science brief on helping our audiences break out of the doom loop.
Over the last year, we traveled from coast to coast, from city to small town, to talk with people about American identity and take an honest look at the stories we tell about ourselves, who we are, and what we value.
This short video series features some of these voices and is based on the Topos/Bridge Project jointly-released report: Belonging in and To America.
Developed by the Metropolitan Group and RAND, this narrative guide offers some early thinking on a Wellbeing Narrative in the U.S. – a narrative shift from “economic growth at all costs” to “well-being for all people.” The report reviews and examines the implications for well-being approaches gaining traction globally, and offers initial insights and recommendations […]
This excellent interactive guide from Harmony Labs (in partnership with Earth Alliance) focuses on making climate culturally relevant. But the creative techniques they use to think about reaching audiences are useful to any issue area. Entering the next frontier of climate communications requires knowing which audiences haven’t been reached, where they gather, what drives them, […]
How do we get to a future America for all of us and for everyone, a nation in which belonging is co-created and power is authentically shared? Over the last year, Topos Partnership has worked in collaboration with the Bridge Project to conduct original research – including in-depth ethnographic interviews – building on the diagnosis of our fractured American […]
The Reparations Narrative Lab – launched by Liberation Ventures – focuses on narrative and culture change to build public support for reparations. Take a look at the extensive research and tools created during the first iteration of the Narrative Lab — including narrative briefs, webinars, and framing worksheets. Access the research and tools
Racism is built into places. It shapes who can live where, how resources are distributed, who gets a say over what happens in places, and more. Places in the United States reflect, perpetuate, and amplify the racism that structures US society. Creating a racially just society requires creating a spatially just society—a society that advances […]
We often define abundance as a contrast. Abundance is NOT scarcity, NOT austerity, NOT competition for resources. So, then, what IS abundance? What are some of the core elements behind the term and the idea in narrative? What do these elements look like in practice? What are some of the inherent tensions? What do we […]
A new report from The FrameWorks Institute (courtesy of The Annie E Casey Foundation and the Prevention Institute) has recommendations on Framing Community Safety (including the public health approach to community safety and social determinants of health and safety). A helpful resource if you’re engaging in public conversation on issues of safety. Check it out Here.
Check out Housing Narrative Lab’s updated Messaging Guide for Communicating about Homelessness. The guide highlights key findings from national narrative research identifying the current problematic narratives of “personal responsibility” and laying out promising messages that can shift perceptions.
This is a story of advocates and organizers taking a step back and working in coalition with a commitment to work toward a lasting culture shift. It’s a story of a new strategy that required years of intense research, new organizing and education approaches, and commitments to approaching advocacy differently. And like all true and honest […]
Progressive economic policies that focus on people’s wellbeing can hit a brick wall (or at least a sturdy parapet) constructed by the current cultural common sense – the pervasive, default perspectives that shape our thinking in deep, often unconscious ways – about the economy. The dominant model of the economy in this country (which successfully […]
“Imagine a future in which American identity is untethered from white supremacy — neither white supremacist nor centered around resisting white supremacy.” The Bridge Project – a collaborative narrative research project – is working to craft a story that aligns with who want to be in three decades time and is strategizing by building backward […]
In 2021, ORS Impact released a second iteration of their 2019 Measuring Narrative Change 1.0 report to dive more deeply into narrative change concepts and what these mean for measurement and evaluation. With practical insights and guiding questions for practitioners, funders, and others interested in measuring narrative change – the guide provides a common language […]