Changing the narrative on wealth inequality
Public perceptions of and attitudes towards wealth, the wealthy and wealth inequality are complex. Understanding what they are, and how they can be shifted by different ways of communicating is a democratic imperative.
This project arose out of a conversation with our project partner and funder, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF), who were interested in understanding the effect of narratives on people’s perceptions and attitudes towards wealth inequality. Our previous work on political discourse and inequality (like this article by Savage & Vaughan, Durability in Inequality Discourse in the UK Public Sphere, Vaughan & Kerr's Visual representations of wealth inequality in political communication and Kerr’s (2024) Wealth, Poverty and Inequality: Let’s Talk Wealtherty and Oppel’s (2023) Communication matters: Sensitivity in fairness evaluations across wealth inequality expressions and levels) allowed us to co-design a multi-stage project in dialogue with JRF, with a focus on outputs that social change actors could use in their work.
Highlights:
- Talking about wealth inequality: how to increase critical orientations and support for redistribution
A report with the Joseph Rowntree Foundation looking at perceptions of, and attitudes towards, wealth and wealth inequality — and how to increase public support for a fairer distribution.
This multi-stage project began in 2023 with a literature review on The effects of the Framing of Wealth Inequality: A Literature Review.We then wrote Changing the Narrative on Wealth Inequalityfollowing a series of social change sector workshops to explore what experts in campaigning, advocacy, media and the arts felt were the most pressing issues that needed addressing in communicating with the public about wealth. These two pieces of work helped us design focus groups to find out what the UK public thinks about wealth and wealth inequality, which we ran in Autumn 2024 with support from New Economy Organisers’ Network, Future Narratives Lab, and Fairness Foundation. The results from these focus groups and a subsequent survey experiment which tested the effects of different frames on public opinion are published by JRF in Talking about wealth inequality: how to increase critical orientations and support for redistribution.
- Dr Sarah Kerr, Visiting Fellow, International Inequalities Institute
- Dr Michael Vaughan, Leverhulme Early Career Fellow,
International Inequalities Institute - Dr Annalena Oppel, Leverhulme Early Career Fellow, International Inequalities Institute
- Professor Mike Savage, Professorial Research Fellow, International Inequalities Institute
Talking about wealth inequality: how to increase critical orientations and support for redistribution (Kerr, Vaughan and Oppel, 2025)
The Effects of the Framing of Wealth Inequality: A Literature Review. (Kerr & Vaughan 2024)
Changing the Narrative on Wealth Inequality (Kerr & Vaughan 2024)
Vaughan, M., & Kerr, S. (2024). Visual representations of wealth inequality in political communication. Visual Communication, 14703572241300886.
Kerr, S. (2024) Wealth, Poverty and Inequality: Let’s Talk Wealtherty. Policy Press.
JRF award for Radical Imaginings workshops (Kerr)
LSE KEI Award for Talking about Wealth Inequality report (Savage, Vaughan and Kerr)
Wealth, poverty and enduring inequality: let's talk wealtherty
19 February 2025
Speakers:
Dr Sarah Kerr, Research Fellow in Wealth, Elites and Tax Justice Research Programme, LSE III
Professor Armine Ishkanian, Executive Director, Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity and Professor, Department of Social Policy, LSE
Dr Rajiv Prabhakar, Senior Lecturer in Personal Finance at the Open University
Frank Soodeen, Director of Communications and Public Engagement, Joseph Rowntree Foundation
Chair:
Professor Mike Savage, Wealth, Elites and Tax Justice Research Programme Leader, LSE III and Martin White Professor of Sociology, Department of Sociology, LSE
Join us for the launch of Sarah Kerr's new book, in which she undertakes an experiment. Starting from the premise that continuing to centre poverty encourages researchers and policymakers alike to 'look down' she contributes to a strand of social policy and sociological literature that asks: what happens if we 'look up'?
How do we campaign around wealth inequality?
Co-hosted with the Joseph Rowntree Foundation
13 May 2024
Speakers:
Professor Mike Savage, Martin White Professor of Sociology, Department of Sociology, LSE; Faiza Shaheen, Visiting Professor in Practice, International Inequalities Institute; Shabna Begum, Interim CEO of the Runnymede Trust
In the shadow of a UK general election, this public event takes stock of the politics of wealth inequality and reflects on how to build political awareness and expand campaigning action. Mindful that divisive ‘culture war’ agendas are being used to fragment and distract campaigning which centres fundamental socio-economic inequality, panellists will consider how to shift political debate to more progressive directions.
Why wealth inequality matters: an expert roundtable
Workshop co-hosted with the Joseph Rowntree Foundation
13 May 2024
This closed roundtable event presents new and cutting-edge research from the LSE International Inequalities Institute demonstrating the systemic problems that wealth inequality is generating in the UK. The aim to equip policymakers, journalists and civil society groups with key insights that can be used for campaigning work and in spreading awareness so that the issues can inform campaigning in the run up to the General Election.