Shifting Narratives in Oregon for a More Economically Just Future

Challenge

The Economically Just Narrative Project defines an economically just vision for Oregon, and the U.S., as a future that nourishes belonging, respect, and dignity among and between communities and people. In this vision, everyone will live beyond the basics of safety and security, and have the freedom to actualize their dreams, while communities have the power to control their own financial and economic destinies. 

Unfortunately, many narratives that currently dominate our culture, and influence pervasive beliefs and mindsets, work against the policy and system changes we need to achieve that future. For example, the prevalent “bootstraps narrative” tells us that it is up to each individual person to “pull themselves up by their bootstraps” and overcome challenges to live a successful life.

Through a narrative landscape scan and audience interviews with Oregonians, Wonder learned that these narratives shape how many folks feel about the role of government and what it means to be a fair society — for example, prompting ideas like: 

• “If the government provides too much support, it will disincentivize having a job and lead to some people freeloading or taking advantage of the system.” 
• “A fair society means being fair to everyone, including working Oregonians but also the wealthy.” 
• “Racism is more in the past than it is today. Today, inclusivity/unity also means not excluding white folks.”
• “Our government is disengaged and is incapable of prioritizing people like us.” 

In the face of these strongly entrenched narrative headwinds and the mindsets they evoke, it is clear that we need long-term narrative change strategies to meet audiences who aren’t yet with us, and help bring them on a journey to fundamentally change how they think about the economy, racial justice, and wealth and well-being. 

Heartwired Insight & Strategy

The good news is that our audiences are already holding many of the seeds of these shifted narratives, even if they haven’t yet connected all of the dots. Through interviews and focus groups with Oregonians, we heard several themes that reveal promise and opportunity for new narratives to take hold: 

• Folks believe something needs to change, and that society does not currently provide equal opportunities for all, but it SHOULD. 
• They already show strong support for: shifting to a more collectivist mindset; cultural changes to give us back more time for meaningful pursuits; understanding “work” in a more expansive way (e.g., as including caregiving); and defining wealth as being more than just financial wealth. 
• And they respond positively to ideas of joy, abundance, inclusion, belonging, dignity, and respect for all Oregonians.

Although audiences held these promising mindsets, what they were missing was the connection to understanding how these ideals connect to economically just policies and narratives. That’s where our Economic Justice Narrative Bridge came in.

Results

Our Economic Justice Narrative Bridge is designed to help our audiences bridge the gap from the existing, harmful economic narratives that surround all of us, to being more supportive of economically just policies. The five parts of the bridge are:

• Establish connection through messengers with relatable identities and motivations, and by naming emotions and values—e.g., frustration with the rising cost of living; values of hard work and care for others—that resonate with audiences. 

• Nurture agency by centering and placing value on hard work and contributions made by Oregonians—including those doing unpaid care work—that make us all better off, and placing government intervention in a supporting rather than starring role. 

• Create belonging by using inclusive language rather than creating outgroups—for example, instead of framing taxes as a punitive measure on the wealthy, describing taxes as helping to ensure that everyone contributes fairly.

• Model change by sharing authentic stories of how and why other folks have shifted their mindsets on this topic. 

• Inspire hope: For example, by bringing people together to discuss shared concerns and solutions; and showing that when we work together, we have the power to make change that can improve our lives and communities today. 

Through audience interviews and focus groups, we tested messaging and story-based content that used the framework of the narrative bridge, and we saw that this approach successfully influenced positive change in our audiences. 

After seeing our messages and stories, audiences’ mindsets shifted to stronger agreement with ideas like “Opportunities are unequal based on race, wealth, zip code,” and “The U.S. has an ongoing history of racially exclusive policies.” 

Audiences also more strongly supported key policies including rebalancing the tax code, implementing a guaranteed income in Oregon, and reparations for Black and Indigenous communities. 

Narrative change isn’t easy, and it requires sustained long-term work, but we see that it is possible. 

In the words of one of our audience members, “[These messages, with new narratives] definitely allowed me to expand on my thinking… it makes me have hope in humanity.”

 To learn more about this project or our narrative change, please reach out to the Wonder team.