The Campaign Company specialises in social research and behaviour change. This is your guide to what we’ve been reading. Here’s what’s coming up this week:
Hello and welcome to the TCC Weekly – the Friday bulletin for people who know their Golden Rule from their Golden Law.
With new census figures about ethnicity and faith out this week, we look at how local decision-makers can engage around the census – in the face of hostile narratives about difference and change.
And of course, there’s Charlie’s Attic, where you can stop the world whenever you want to get off. This week’s Attic includes a fantastic ‘Musk or Mr Burns’ quiz.
Change and the Census
With key 2021 ONS census figures about race and faith dropping this week (see maps here and data here), a dialogue about the pace of change in Britain quickly opened up.
This was led from the right, with Nigel Farage complaining (mistakenly) of big cities having become majority white (there’s a good counter-thread by Sunder Katwala here), and with the Spectator’s Douglas Murray tweeting that “We never voted for this?” Right-wing culture warrior Calvin Robinson even posted an extraordinarily framed blog, entitled ‘why Enoch was right’ – which we won’t do you the disservice of linking to here!
This goes beyond social media. The ONS figures present a potential hook for those looking to stir up local tensions. They can feed into hostile narratives about change and difference, and can be used to undermine trust. This is particularly true in areas where the pace of change has been fastest, and/ or where feelings of economic precarity are most acute.
With this in mind, we wanted to circulate these three practical tips about narrative, developed by anti-far right charity Hope Not Hate:
Build a continuity narrative, where welcoming new groups is seen as part of the area’s history;
Where there is population growth, take the opportunity to promote a more positive local narrative (i.e. people are moving to the area as a story of success not failure);
Emphasise growth not change (i.e. an area with a strong centre of gravity), and contest strongly zero-sum ideas about ‘replacement’.
The tips are taken from a longer Hope Not Hate briefing, which contains a lot more texture and detail. This can be viewed here. (Note: the resource needs to be downloaded to be readable – we will circulate a better quality version next week if we can).
The key thing is to think seriously about how change is described, in ways which go beyond the ‘myth-busting’ instincts of many liberals. But it also needs to challenge at every point the scaremongering of those who claim that demographic changes represent a threat.
And finally, Charlie’s Attic, the change in your Weekly pocket:
Read this thread on the craziness of the 1930 World Cup.
