Social Movement Framing Research Articles

Internationalized Framing in Social Movements against Mining in India and the Philippines

There are several documented cases of indigenous peoples’ conflicts with mining companies, often for the reason that the land planned for mining is sacred or culturally significant to them. This article presents a comparative analysis of two specific anti-mining social movements in India and the Philippines that combined an emphasis on environmental protection with an emphasis on indigenous cultural rights. We show how the emphasis on indigeneity in these social movements played itself out in relation to globalized frames, as well as the other frames within which the movements were also situated.

Sejarah Hukum Islam Nusantara Abad XIV–XIX M , by Ayang Utriza Yakin

Sejarah Hukum Islam Nusantara Abad XIV–XIX M , by Ayang Utriza Yakin

“Black Children Are an Endangered Species”: Examining Racial Framing in Social Movements

ABSTRACTThe “Endangered Species” anti-abortion billboard controversy in Atlanta in 2010 gained international attention and sparked lengthy discussion about the causes and consequences of black women’s abortion rates and abortion in general. While abortion is typically presented as gendered phenomenon, race and class dimensions influence the contours of support and opposition to the issue. This case provides a unique opportunity to consider black social movements as black people led both sides of the billboard controversy and engaged particular authentic discourses. This article builds on the research on race frames to illuminate the (micro) processes of racial framing, the social movement organizations’ implicit and explicit deployments of race in claims making. By examining how both sides engaged participants, opponents, and media, this article demonstrates how racial framing is an important tool for minority social movements with implications for other social movements and policy.

WHEN SAYING LESS IS SOMETHING NEW: SOCIAL MOVEMENTS AND FRAME-CONTRACTION PROCESSES*

The framing strategies of social movements are typically characterized by movement actors conceptually and rhetorically expanding frames. We contend that movement actors also contract frames by deliberately excluding frame elements. We add the concept of contraction to the frame-alignment construct and show how frame contraction allows for enhanced theorizing about the dialectical and dynamic nature of social movements. We describe three distinct frame contraction processes, frame removal, frame minimization, and frame restriction, which characterize common frame contraction strategies. We illustrate frame contraction by examining the framing approaches used by the United Auto Workers as they bargained with automakers across two rounds of negotiations in 1945–46 and 1949–1950. We show how frame contraction articulates undertheorized complexities in changes to social movement frames. We also illustrate potential blind spots, biases, or distortions that may arise absent the frame contraction construct.

Black Catholicism and Black Lives Matter: the process towards joining a movement

ABSTRACTThis ethnographic study examines how Black Catholics identify with and respond to the Black Lives Matter movement. The study follows several national Black Catholic gatherings since the death of Mike Brown. Using an adaptation of Scott Hunt, Robert D. Benford, and David Snow's social movement frame analysis, I explore how Black Catholics define and construct the ongoing political issues within the Black Lives Matter movement. I discuss the conditions which contribute to Black Catholic’s participation, or lack thereof, in this social movement through the processes of diagnostic framing, prognostic framing, and motivational framing. I position the larger Black Catholic belief system within frame analysis, examine the relevance of the frames with the Black Catholic community, and analyse the frames’ timing with the Black Lives Matter cycle of protest. This research has implications for intragroup meaning making as Black Catholics start the process towards identifying with the Black Lives Matter social movement.

Disrupting the Growth Machine: Evidence from Hawai‘i

For much of its modern history, growth machine dynamics in Hawai‘i prevailed on a regional scale. Strikingly, recent events suggest that the hegemony of Hawai‘i’s growth machine has been disrupted. This article offers an in-depth case study of a major luxury development project on the island of Hawai‘i where development interests were thwarted despite the support of growth interests and local government officials. I show how local protesters made use of state-level historic preservation law, Native Hawaiian burial protections, state-level agricultural boundaries, and frames and meanings of land promulgated by the Native Hawaiian movement. Viewing this stalled housing project as an extended case study reveals how regional institutions and flexible social movement frames can be leveraged to promote alternatives to growth machines. I also highlight how distinctive regional institutions—that have evolved over time through institutional layering—may be prompting growth machine disruption in Hawai‘i, an understudied tourism and real-estate dependent economy. Finally, the case study suggests specific ways that local mobilization interacts with global economic downturns to shape spatial outcomes.

Tracing Protest Motives: The Link Between Newspaper Coverage, Movement Messages, and Demonstrators’ Reasons to Protest

Within the social movement literature, it is mostly assumed that the reasons why people join a protest demonstration are in line with the collective action frames of the organizations staging the protest. Some recent studies suggest, however, that protesters’ motives are only partly aligned with the messages that are broadcasted by social movements. This study argues that activists’ motives are for an important part shaped by mass media coverage on the protest issue. It investigates the link between people's reasons to protest, the campaign messages of the protest organizers, and newspaper coverage prior to the demonstration. Data cover 14 anti‐austerity demonstrations in Belgium, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. Results show that social movements depend a lot on other political actors to gain media visibility for their messages. Furthermore, the relationship between social movement frames and protest participant motives is mediated by newspaper coverage. Protest organizers’ are able to reach demonstrators via their own communication channels to some extent, but for many of their messages, they also rely on journalists’ reporting about the protest issue.

A useful shift in our perspective: integrating social movement framing into social marketing

PurposeThe elaboration of framing in social movement theory offers a different perspective than is typically taken in social marketing. This paper explores how social marketing may benefit from this alternate lens.Design/methodology/approachThe construction, features and processes associated with collective action frames in social movements are examined and explored via two social causes: obesity and disaster preparation.FindingsA social movement perspective on framing highlights the need to better understand variations in how groups may perceive a problem and its solutions. It suggests a range of considerations and options in constructing and participating in the development of collective action frames, which are suggested to benefit social marketing initiatives and, thus, society.Research limitations/implicationsFurther research in societal well-being and the meso-level of social change should consider adopting a social movement framing perspective. A list of questions is provided to guide future research.Practical implicationsMobilising a group into action is often a necessary and effective step in realising social change. The questions raised in social movement framing will equip practitioners and researchers with greater understanding of the issue, the context and potential solutions, ultimately to encourage positive social movements and social benefit.Originality/valueWhile calls have been made for broader perspectives in social marketing, little attention has been given to social movements. This paper offers a way forward with respect to framing.

Measuring Resonance and Dissonance in Social Movement Frames With Affect Control Theory

We present a methodological innovation for analyzing archival data that involves the framing strategies from the failed 1980 Iowa Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). First, we conducted an archival analysis that suggested that pro-ERA groups used “frame resonance,” a strategy prominent in the social movement literature where activists align issues with ideologies. Meanwhile, anti-ERA groups used what we coin here as “frame dissonance” by depicting how passing the ERA clashed with ideologies. Next, we used affect control theory (ACT)’s Interact computer program to simulate how constituents likely responded to frames, given the distinct ideologies that existed during the time period. The simulations triangulated the archival analysis by (a) confirming our categorization of framing strategies as either resonance or dissonance and (b) identifying frame dissonance as potentially better for mobilizing than frame resonance. Our study demonstrates the value of Interact for triangulating archival analyses and adds a new framing strategy to the social movement literature.

Imagining another Europe: Building a pan-European counter-hegemonic bloc around an anti-austerity master frame

Going beyond the local and national scopes of anti-austerity mobilizations, we contribute to this special issue by focusing on counter-hegemonic protest at the pan-European level. In the context of the current austerity regimes, this emerging and precarious social formation enacts resistance against neoliberal hegemony and invokes the re-construction of European institutional arrangements and policy from below in explicit opposition to the dominance of austerity. We employ a neo-Gramscian approach complemented by framing theory to scrutinize the development of a pan-European counter-hegemonic bloc, focusing empirically on two key current pan-European initiatives: the Alter Summit platform and the Blockupy alliance. Our analysis unravels the process by which different progressive social movement frames become increasingly aligned through reference to an anti-austerity master frame with three key elements: (a) the rejection of austerity measures, (b) coordinated transnational solidarity, and (c) the defense of democracy and popular sovereignty. This master frame has the potential of supporting stronger pan-European counter-hegemonic mobilization and thereby facilitating a counter-hegemonic bloc opposing neoliberal hegemony. However, our analysis also reveals three challenges for our counter-hegemonic initiatives. First, concrete institutional alternatives are still weakly elaborated and articulated, which gives the force of rejection of the austerity master frame little direction and testifies to deeper structural disagreement within anti-austerity movements. Second, insofar as concrete institutional counter-proposals are made, they still remain entrenched in national frameworks. And, third, counter-hegemonic movements aspiring to be truly pan-European need to reconcile conflicting tendencies between those who want to re-found and those who want to exit from the European integration project.

Affective Framing and Dramaturgical Actions in Social Movements

With the increasing use of innovative and expressive dramaturgical actions in contemporary social movements, activists appeal to the public’s emotional and moral convictions so as to elicit action. This study aims to investigate how the affective framing process, composed of sensual–emotional dramaturgical actions, can unleash the mobilizing and consolidating forces in social movements. I seek to elaborate upon the cognitively confined framing perspective by expanding the theoretical discussion to include the affective dimension of framing. I explore these issues through the investigation of a resistance movement in Tsoi Yuen Village, a rural community in Hong Kong, in which people rallied against the demolition of their community to make way for a regional express railway connecting Hong Kong to China. Through this investigation, I argue that dramaturgical tactics employed in social movements enhance the affective mobilization and consolidation power of framing through the mediation of emotional and moral components.

Framing the Gun Control Debate: Press Releases and Framing Strategies of the National Rifle Association and the Brady Campaign*

ObjectiveHow can social movements increase their presence in the news? We argue that press releases can do so via social movement framing. Press releases from, and news coverage of, social movement organizations (SMOs) in the gun control debate serve as our case.MethodsA qualitative framing analysis is conducted to identify frames in press releases from the National Rifle Association and the Brady Campaign. Logistic regressions assess the effect of frames in press releases on New York Times coverage of the gun control debate.ResultsWe find that both organizations use systematic framing strategies in their press releases. Only the Brady Campaign has a significant association between specific frames in its press releases and coverage in the New York Times.ConclusionsPress releases are viable tactics for SMOs, but biases in news media have implications for how effective press releases might be for an SMO.

Paradoxes of European free movement in times of austerity

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide insight into the capacities of social movement actors (SMAs) and interest groups to negotiate responsibility, heighten issues of accountability and earn legitimacy from authorities and the wider public for the plight of dis-privileged Roma migrant berry pickers in the Swedish labour market. Design/methodology/approach – The objective is guided by a multi-sited ethnographical approach to data collection and analysis, which theoretically anchors in social movement frame analysis. Findings – The paper proposes that SMAs, in the face of incapacities of state and industry parties, generate the potentiality to leverage immediate humanitarian distress experienced by the workers and to accentuate their political and public visibility. Research limitations/implications – Delimited by the internal organisational structure of a berry industry, partly operating behind informal employment schemes, future studies should devote closer attention in localising/identifying possible “back-stage” data-gathering settings. Practical implications – Policy-makers and special-interest organisations concerned with internal EU labour migration, labour standards and living condition issues, may consider the social and humanitarian implications of persistent responsibility ambiguities. Social implications – The paper raises issues of informal work and forms of labour exploitation. Originality/value – The paper provides deeper insight into the societal nexus in which a “hard-to-reach group” of seasonal workers faces potential and actual exploitation.

Oracles of Peace: Topic Modeling, Cultural Opportunity, and the Nobel Peace Prize, 1902–2012*

Social movement frames are dynamic, shifting and embedded within an already existent cultural milieu—a milieu that affects mobilization opportunities. In this article, we invoke the concept of the “cultural clearinghouse” to tackle how broader cultural structures translate to frames or influence frame resonance. Our illustrative case, the Nobel Peace Prize, along with our use of topic modeling, a computational technique that identifies commonalities between texts, offer an important methodological advance for social movement scholars interested in culture, frame formation and resonance, and dynamic approaches to social movement discourse. Our findings show how peace discourse—as represented by Peace Prize acceptance speeches—increasingly has become embedded within broader cultural emphases on globalization and neoliberalism, versus earlier Christian and global institutional schemas. We conclude by discussing the usefulness of our conceptual and methodological advance for movement scholars with special attention to the coupling of new computational techniques and more traditional methods.

Sustainability of “Vetëvendosje” Movement in the Political Sphere

This paper aims to analyze how “Vetëvendosja” movement has preserved its legitimacy since its creation and its actions, firstly as a movement and now as a political representative within the political system. Based on the analytical model of Constructivist Theory, Social Movement Framing Theory, data gathering and elaboration from interviews done to Albin Kurti as the first leader of this movement, The Ahtisaari’s plan, the political program and different public discourses, this paper will create a clearer research picture on this topic. This movement, born to contradict categorically and systematically the Ahtisaari’s Plan that stressed out the judicial, military and political sovereignty under the international protectorate, developed more and gain strength thanks to the thesis of national union. It organized a number of protests that caused the murder of a number of supporters and the imprisonment of the leader from the international forces. These new conditions led to the creation and put into action a number of strategies and techniques that brought the institutionalization of the movement within the political system as a political and parliamentary representative. In contrast with other movements who lost their legitimacy in the moment they entered the political system, this paper analyses how the “Vetëvendosja” movement managed to preserve its legitimacy, in both positions, in and out the political system.

“Should I Trust the Bank or the Social Movement?” Motivated Reasoning and Debtors' Work to Accept Misinformation

How can people believe corporate and state misinformation even if a social movement organization in their community has been countering this misinformation for years? Why do people knowingly accept misinformation without even being upset about it? I address these questions by analyzing ethnographic data and interviews with 84 Chilean low‐income housing debtors, whom, like many Chileans, are victims of financial misinformation. While the state and banks had significant agency in inducing the unproblematic acceptance of misinformation, debtors also played an active role in the processes. First, debtors had to decide whom to trust, which was not only a cognitive problem about evidence but also a behavioral and practical problem involving risks. Second, debtors engaged in “motivated reasoning”—affect‐driven biased information processing—to dismiss the possibility of being misinformed, to downplay the significance of misinformation, and to direct blame away from misinforming institutions. The latter two practices reduced debtors' anger about being misinformed. The findings have implications for studies of social movement framing and counterinformation, for the cognitive psychology of misinformation, and for the sociology and social psychology of acquiescence.

Social capital and collective identity in the local food movement

Social movement actors are seeking alternatives to the highly industrialized, global food system through alternative agri-food initiatives to counter the conventional practices of the industrial food system. Many of these initiatives have proven successful. Social movement researchers have documented the importance of the roles and services social movement organizations provide for movement constituents to realize their success, emphasizing human and financial capital as key components for mobilizing collective action. Researchers have also documented the value of interorganizational networks, and the benefits of collaboration to expand the share of resources, and perhaps more importantly design social movement frames to direct collective action for social change. However, what local food movement research has yet to address are some of the potential barriers that minimize collaboration among organizational leaders as it relates to social capital and collective identity. This paper takes a cross-sectional network analysis of social movement organizations working to increase the sustainability of various areas within the local food system in Marin County, California, a historically agricultural region serving a number of urban communities. Findings from the mixed-methods research reveal evidence of collective identity and social capital as enhancing collaboration among particular types of organizations while reducing potential collaboration among and between other social movement organizations. By analysing the collective identity and dichotomous nature of social capital among social movement organizations, this research contributes a clearer understanding of the existing gaps for increasing the sustainability of a local food system.

Molduras do Protesto: desafios e perspectivas da abordagem do enquadramento interpretativo no estudo de movimentos sociais.

This bibliographic essay aims present the main characteristics, potentialities, limitations and research agendas of the framing perspective applied to the social movement studies, since the Brazilian studies on this area dedicate little attention to this framework. Following this intention, it is proposed an analysis of the paper selection edited by Hank Johnston and John A. Noakes, entitled “Frames of Protest”. This book gathers several studies that explore the contemporary reflections to which social movement framing scholars are dedicated. In this book, both potentialities and limitations of this framework are visible.

Mobilizing African Americans for immigrant rights: Framing strategies in two multi-racial coalitions

Social movement framing is a critical element in bringing together heterogeneous groups as allies in common political struggle. Immigrant rights organizations, like other social movement groups, must construct framing strategies to mobilize potential adherents, including African Americans and other non-immigrant groups. Drawing on interview data with leaders and members of two Los Angeles grassroots multi-racial coalitions, this article examines the framing strategies and negotiations each makes as they attempt to increase Black participation in the immigrant rights movement. Findings indicate that organizers relied on two prominent rhetorical strategies: the “immigrant worker” frame centered on an immigrant work ethic, and a more encompassing social and racial “injustice” frame. Although both carried some appeal, we argue that African Americans’ perceptions of labor market competition with immigrants posed significant challenges to building sustainable coalitions. We further demonstrate how inaction and avoidance by activists inhibited potential Black participation in the movement. We conclude with some implications of our findings for the role of social movement frames in fostering new and effective alliances between African Americans and immigrants.

Transnational Discursive Opportunities and Social Movement Risk Frames Opposing GMOs

Research on social movement frames has been cumulative. Recently, scholars started studying the structural incentives and constraints for claim-makers by relying on the concept of discursive opportunity structure (DOS) while bringing the public sphere and the media to the centre of analysis of political contention. This article draws on these literatures to investigate social movement campaigns against genetically modified (GM) crops and pesticides in Argentina, Brazil and Mexico. First, it argues that there is a transnational DOS that provides structural incentives and constraints to frame risks in symbolic struggles to define GM crops. Next, based on a content analysis of national newspapers, it describes the use of risk frames in national public discourses. Finally, it addresses the question of how this transnationalized DOS is framed by the media by looking at the discursive opportunities for social movements as well as other collective actors in their framing disputes. The study provides evidence of a transnationalization of public debates and offers explanations for national variations by resorting to other components of the DOS such as national policy discourse, timing of political agendas, media structure and culture. It concludes by recognizing the need to consider the various dimensions of opportunity structures for movement action, i.e. political, discursive, and economic, and their relative degree of transnationalization or autonomy over global forces.