New research, which included a “first-of-its-kind survey”, reveals six “key findings about the state of British culture – and what this could mean for those of us working to change culture nationwide.” The findings in brief are: “1. Individualism is our default – but not when we get issue-specific; 2. Precarity is seen as our new normal – and people support bold action on extreme wealth; 3. More of us believe the economy is rigged; 4. We see health as a national resource; 5. Politicians are seen as ‘not like us’; 6. Some mindsets cluster together, with major implications for social change work.” The final finding suggests that coordinated effort by actors working on different issues to move one “lynchpin mindset” can maximise collective impact with a “positive spillover effect.”

The newly elected leader of the UK Greens ran an ad earlier this summer, which racked up 2m views on social media. Here we learn the “nerdy” strategy that went into it, with some lessons for comms elsewhere. ”Some things happen above the line: visible, graspable, immediate.⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Others happen below it: structural, symbolic, emotional – shaping what people feel before they know why.⁠⁠ ⁠⁠This film was built on both… The structure makes the metaphor land. That’s the diamond… It’s not just a call to action. It’s an invitation to ask: what kind of country are we? And what will we refuse to become?… The deeper thread: ecology → psychology → sociology. The crisis isn’t just ecological – it’s structural. And the Greens get that.” In what Clancy calls “the narrative war – over meaning, memory, and who gets to define reality,” this film “wasn’t just a political act – it was a strike in that deeper war.”

Echoing a finding above, new research suggests that “by far the most impactful” message, when attempting to persuade Reform voters away from Reform, was a ‘corporate interests’ message “highlighting the money that Reform has taken from different interest groups, oil and gas especially, to question Farage’s motivations.” This message “pushed down not just on favourability to Farage, it was the only message to significantly reduce willingness to vote for Reform. It decreased Farage’s numbers as best PM, increasing Starmer’s lead over him in the two-way version of this question.” Overall we are reminded that “Reform is strong when the conflicts in British politics are cultural. They are potentially weaker, and Labour stronger, when the conflicts are economic.” The recommendation? Go “centre on culture (safe and unspectacular), and left on economics…actively seeking conflict and attention on the latter to raise its salience – especially as it relates to voters’ cost of living concerns.”

Defining governance as “our ways of working and being together, and our ways of relating to one another,” Bangura explores efforts by groups such as Multitudes Co-op, who have been “experimenting with what it takes to activate healthier ways of being together in community,” and what “liberatory infrastructure” is required to support it. As outlined by the Transformational Governance Collective, this crucially includes “the informal structures, policies, practices, relationships and cultural expectations that determine how decisions are made, how roles and resources are allocated, and how collaborative activity happens…grounded in principles of shared power, collective decision-making, accountability, and transformative change…to dismantle oppressive systems and build more just communities.” Powering this work is the concept of ‘ustopia’, which Ruha Benjamin defines as “what we create together when we are wide awake.”

Following a retreat held last year on Digital Liberation, co-hosted by Weaving Liberation, Dalan Fund, Whose Knowledge? and Numun Fund, the authors reflect on what is required for resilient justice work, and outline the priorities of a new Solidarity Infrastructure Collective. The Collective imagines “a collectively owned and governed movement space – physical solidarity infrastructure – that transcends one-off grants” aiming to “mobilise our different resources to challenge the dependency cycles we all, at different levels, find ourselves in” with a key objective of working towards “the collective ownership of land in Europe and West Africa governed by local groups.” Accompanied by concrete examples, they suggest that sustainable long-term resourcing requires: “Enabling peer solidarity; Enabling income generation; and Supporting land justice,” recognising a shared “urgency in radically reimagining the role of philanthropy.”

Three insights about the “common beliefs and assumptions” people in the US hold about “democracy, authoritarianism, and the rule of law”, and how to make them “feel real and relevant to people’s everyday lives” to resist attacks on democratic institutions. We learn that people equate ‘government’ with (swappable) individuals, rather than durable institutions; that people think ‘democracy’ is “simply whatever the US does;” and that concepts like ‘democracy’ and ‘authoritarianism’ are too abstract for most people to relate to. We’re encouraged to “make explicit the connections between the rule of law and the experiences of arbitrariness and uncertainty… affirming and acknowledging people’s feelings and then tracing one of their root causes”, and put a name to it: “executive overreach, the erosion of the rule of law”, grounding the abstraction “in the very real, very felt experience of uncertainty that people are living through.”

A reflection on how mainstream news media has become so negative and unhelpful, and a suggestion for what to do now. Bornstein’s main recommendation, as a way to "make goodness as riveting as evil" is to engage people with curiosity. Because "we're wired to pay attention to threats, but we're also wired to love puzzles." So he suggests that we tell positive "How dunnit?" stories that present some positive event – a success in government or institutions, in the way that business is typically covered in the media, rather than just the failures – framed in a way that encourages people to be curious about how the success was achieved. For example: "how did this school actually increase the high school graduation rate when all the other schools with similar resources haven't been able to figure that one out?" They also explore a ‘Hippocratic Oath for Journalism’, which seeks to make media “radically helpful”.

A brief summary of four essays by the Tipping Point podcast host, delivered by a post-growth economist, which suggest that mainstream economics is neither socially nor economically sustainable. Wilkins suggest seven actions to get beyond this, some of which are particularly relevant for narrative change work: “4. Take back the narrative: economics is about wellbeing, resilience and regeneration; 6. Insist, as citizens, on political and business accountability and media focus on progress on wider indicators, including the genuine progress indicator, the human development index, wellbeing economy frameworks and planetary boundaries.” They suggest that “if you work in sustainability, these essays are essential reading. They’ll help you understand the system that’s been holding back your work – perhaps your life's work – and give you language to push back.”

“Our big systems are on their death beds…Our medical systems make us sick. Our food systems create malnutrition. Our educational systems are failing our kids. Our criminal justice system makes our communities less safe. Our democratic systems are run by a select few. Our economic systems continue to create poverty. And, of course, our ecological systems are collapsing all around us. I don’t believe we’re approaching the ‘end of the world.’ But I do believe we’re approaching the end of something, and it’s something big.” In the context of this collapse, Haga proposes a need to normalise death, and recognise the “incredible liberation in the work of accepting our own mortality.” Which means “accepting the grief that naturally comes with it,” because “if we bury grief, we don’t normalise death; we suppress it.” Haga ends by catching our inclination to find this overly negative: “becoming a death doula to dying empires means we’re giving birth to a new one. The work of accepting death isn’t about giving up on life. It’s about honouring the fullness of it.”

Reflections on “a field of post-colonial theory that looks at how the most marginalised people are silenced,” noticing that “we in social change also tend to speak for the subaltern: the ‘suffering subject’ of our stories, victim of injustice but lacking agency to confront it without our intervention.” We’re encouraged to “recognise the agency that exists in communities, which states cannot control” and work with “narrative as something we do together, not something we broadcast.” To do this, ask if you’re “open to being changed by the people you speak with? Or are you just looking to ‘get the message out’?” and notice that “narrative is not something we fixed that emerges from one round of research, but a fluid mosaic of conversations and stories that is constantly evolving.” To truly effect decolonisation, “articulate some sense how we will all live in the future we want to see happen,” but remember that “we cannot rely on ‘magic words’ to change the narratives. Instead, we have to be the narrative.”

“Carbon – the fourth most abundant element in the universe, and a fundamental building block of life – is being maligned in a way that distracts from the root causes of ecological destruction in favour of technological solutions that are not viable at scale, or international agreements that prioritise carbon accounting.” So says Paul Hawken in his new book. He also says that “community is the source of change, and what we have are obviously systems that are destroying community everywhere,” so “we have to be able to develop language about where we are, what’s happening, and where we wish to go… commensurate with that innate desire for us to connect, be families, love our children, be in wonder and awe, and be secure.” This means “we have to create a climate movement that is actually the human movement. And the human movement is humans that are not separate and distinct from nature… can we enter a different narrative for us, all of us, that actually allows us to listen, to connect, as opposed to know?”

Through a simple and accessible explanation of the history behind why “Labour are being forced to do Austerity 2.0,” Stevenson offers a suggestion for how best to talk about wealth inequality with ordinary British people: “The Squeeze Out of the working class, The Squeeze Out of the middle class, The Squeeze Out of the government by rich people.” ‘The Squeeze Out’, Stevenson suggests, “is a really powerful way to explain to ordinary people what’s happening and how it affects them.” Our typical language: ‘wealth inequality’, “can sound academic, idealistic, egalitarian, politics of envy” whereas ‘The Squeeze Out’ focuses on “the most damaging and dangerous effect for ordinary people:” as the rich outcompete other groups in society for assets, over time, everyone else has fewer assets and more debt. There are five stages to this process, and we’re not far off the fifth now: “the rich own everything, and the only way they can grow their wealth is by sending you to fight in their wars against each other.” To stop this ‘squeeze out’: “tax wealth, not work”.