Exploring wealth inequality through storytelling

Researchers from the Wealth, Elites and Tax Justice research programme have collaborated in a Storytelling Lab, run by the AKO Storytelling Institute at University of the Arts London (UAL) and supported by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.

The Storytelling Lab brought together academic researchers in wealth inequality and creative professionals to explore how wealth narratives in cultural content shape the way we understand wealth and inequality, and how those narratives might be reimagined. Drawing on narrative framing research, it created space for writers, filmmakers, journalists and other storytellers to engage directly with research insights and test how they can be applied in creative practice.

The Lab highlighted some of the dominant narratives that help justify wealth accumulation, and the counter narratives that contest these. The project aims to empower creative content producers with academic knowledge about how narratives in stories can help change public perceptions, beliefs, and attitudes about wealth inequality.