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Reframing Work + Rebalancing Power
MAY 2016
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Old ways of thinking about work are holding us
back from the transformative change our economy needs. New framing strategies can help us shift these patterns.
What’s Not Working
Public thinking in the U.S. revolves around the idea of self-makingness (i.e.,
work hard, achieve success). This thinking obscures the role of systems and power and saps public will for change.
A New Framing Strategy
Drawing on three years of research—including interviews, focus groups, and large-scale
survey experiments—we’re sharing a new, proven approach for talking about work and jobs: not in a vacuum, but as part of a greater economic system shaped by power.
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In the landmark report,
Reframing Work, Rebalancing Power,
we talk through three specific strategies for executing this approach:
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Highlight how unfair systems channel people into different sectors:
Show how policies and invisible structures, like racism and sexism, channel people into different kinds of work.
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Name and explain exploitative forces:
Make visible how systems are designed to help the wealthy and powerful profit at the expense of working people.
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Call for collective worker action as a response to a rigged system:
Highlight how the 99% can come together to rebalance power and demand a fairer
economy.
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Check out the
complementary
toolkit, which offers examples, messaging dos and
don'ts, and practical tools for putting these strategies to work. For a detailed explanation of our research methods,
click
here.
What We Mean When We Say It “Works”
In our experiments, these strategies
helped move people away from “self-made” thinking and toward a deeper understanding of how the economy really works. Specifically, these frames:
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■ Galvanized
support for labor unions and strike action
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■ Increased
support for equitable labor policies—like raising wages, taxing wealth, regulating AI companies and transitioning to more green jobs
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■ Improved
understanding that the economy is a designed system, where profit-making exploits workers
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■ Built
understanding of how structural racism and sexism shape work
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■ Increased
the belief that we can collectively come together to make change
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Check out the research and
recommendations here.
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SPOTLIGHT ON CARE WORK + MANUFACTURING
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Care work and manufacturing are powerful focal points for exploring how deeply ingrained cultural assumptions, racism, and sexism
determine how society values work and particular groups of workers. We conducted additional research on these sectors and produced practical resources to help you navigate the distinct framing challenges faced by each sector.
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Toolkit
Reframing
Care Work: A WorkShift Toolkit
Featuring a Quick-Start Guide, Framing Checklist, and Dos and Don’ts, this toolkit helps communicators lead with values (like fairness)
to build support for the policy changes, public investment, and collective action needed to ensure better wages and protections for all care workers.
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WorkShift is a multi-year project designed to build public support for the restructuring of our labor systems needed to counter exploitation and create a just and sustainable
society. We thank our advisory board for their expert guidance, and the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, the Square One Foundation, the Kresge Foundation, and the Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation for their generous support.
For more on the WorkShift project,
click
here.
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Copyright (C) 2026, All rights reserved.
FrameWorks Institute
FrameWorks Institute 1319 F St NW, Suite 301 Washington, DC 20004 USA
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