Lisa J. Scott

The Overton
Window OS

How Ideas Move from Unthinkable
to Inevitable—and Back Again

Coming soonView availability
About the book

About the book

The system beneath
public acceptability.

Lisa J. Scott expands the traditional Overton Window through three interacting domains and a nine-stage cycle.

The book traces how ideas acquire language, credibility, repetition, constituencies, and institutional power—and how consequences can move the window back.

Three interacting windows

Public Institutional Private

A nine-stage cycle

  1. Perceive
  2. Name
  3. Frame
  4. Normalize
  5. Legitimize
  6. Mobilize
  7. Institutionalize
  8. Defend
  9. Revise

This is not a guide to deciding what is true. It is a framework for understanding what can currently be said, heard, defended, and acted upon.

The Overton Window OS

Availability

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