Ideology, Frame Resonance, and Participant Mobilization

Abstract

Framing is used here to conceptualize the political signification that social movements use - assigning meaning to events & conditions in ways intended to mobilize participants & gain support. Four sets of factors concerned with the conditions that affect framing efforts are considered here: (1) how diagnostic, prognostic, & motivational framing tasks are interconnected; (2) the internal constraints of the belief system; (3) the relevance of the framing effort to the phenomenological world of the participants; & (4) the cycle of protest in which the movement is embedded. The approach has the advantages of capturing the complexity of movement participation & of addressing those situations when structural conditions seem advantageous but mobilization is not successful. 42 References. A. Waters