The development revolution will not be nudged: The c2-frame approach as a proposal

World Development | June 2026

The intertwined dynamics of promoting development and preserving the environment has increasingly been affected by global structures and processes. It is not sufficient that communities engage in local collective action processes when global dynamics in economic and ecological systems are threatening them, even if they solve their local cooperation problems. The recent debate generated by the i-frame/s-frame controversy by Chater & Loewenstein (2023) is used here as a start to propose a framework for solving such divide and offer an approach where elements of the individual behavior (i-frame mechanisms) are brought together in the c2-frame community level, and trigger dynamics that bring change in the s-frame. A c2-frame dynamic involves the scaling up of local collective action processes achieving an s-frame transformation. Behavioral sciences can offer cues on how these processes reach transformational change.

02-06-2026