Work with Joseph Rowntree Foundation

What has worked (and what hasn’t) in anti-stigma activism?

A Joseph Rowntree Foundation “Stigma and Poverty Design Team” Literature Review by Imogen Tyler

How to cite this literature review: Imogen Tyler (2023). ‘What has worked (and what hasn’t) in anti-stigma activism?’, Joseph Rowntree Foundation, accessed from [add web address & download/access date].

Since November 2022, I have been working with the Joesph Rowntree Foundation as part of a “Exploring Stigma and Poverty” Design Team (Alana Avery; Nkechi Adeboye; Steve Arnott; Stef Benstead; Sarah Campbell; Heather Coady; China Mills; A; Hal Khanom; NasratTania; Patrick Toland; Sarah Whitehead). As part of the initial work of this team, I was asked to produce an initial literature review that was guided by the teams interests – to help us think together about what stigma is and what has worked and not-worked in anti-stigma activism. At the teams request, this review was a “deep dive” that went “big and wide” (so isn’t focused on poverty), and focused on “bottom-up” social movements and civil rights movements since the 1960s (and was largely limited to the UK and US). This literature review took the unusual format of a series of video lectures and powerpoint slides as the team expressed a majority preference for watching and listening (rather than reading), and it was made to be shared internally with the team. It has helped shape and guide our work, thinking about how we might “design stigma out” of anti-poverty activism. With the permission of the team, this literature review is now being made public on this website. Much of the underlying research for this review is from my book, (or research I undertook for my book), Stigma: the Machinery of Inequality – which you can purchase for about £10 here. It covers and references a very large body of work, and if you can’t find citations to some of the source materials and quoted works please let me know. The buffering in the recording when I am playing video clips is poor (the limits of panopto). To find out more about the work of the JRF ‘Stigma and Poverty Design Team” you can read some of the teams blogs, and follow our work as it progresses online. See for example, Nkechi’s blog ‘Exploring Stigma and Poverty: What’s in a Name’; Hal’s blog ‘Reflections on Stigma and Poverty in the Uk’; A’s blog ‘on ‘On the front-line of Poverty: How Public Services Reinforce Stigma”; Steve’s blog ‘Stigma Sucks: Addressing Stigma to Overcome Poverty’; China’s blog ‘Can Stigma Help to Eradicate Poverty?’ Patrick’s blog on art of ethical storytelling, and Sarah Campbell’s reflections on why JRF is investing in this work.