Old Manuela, New Manuela: A Longitudinal Examination of Adaptive Framing Techniques

• In Event: 474 - Section on Collective Behavior and Social Movements Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 05. Framing Processes

Abstract

In order to remain relevant among and responsive to membership, social movement organizations (SMOs) must remain fluid and adapt to members’ evolving needs and demands. How can SMOs employ self-framing as a dynamic tool that allows an organization to acquire or abandon goals as members’ interests and life circumstances change? This work examines the case of one SMO’s framing over the course of 35 years. The Movimiento Manuela Ramos (MMR), one of Peru’s oldest surviving women’s organizations, emerged in 1979 and has remained in existence since then. Using content analysis, I compare early movement publications to more recent ones in order to better understand the organization’s response, through their framing tactics, to evolving international, national, and national contexts as well as the impacts of these responses on the organization’s membership base. MMR utilized an integrated approach when employing frame alignment tactics: new goals and programs were added (frame extension) while other objectives were gradually eliminated from the group’s agenda (frame transformation). These frame changes mirrored MMR’s evolving objectives: the movement began with a blended platform of practical and strategic goals, extended its frame to include more explicitly feminist aims, and finally transformed its frame to exclude practical, needs-based initiatives. This case illustrates that an SMO’s longevity hinges, at least in part, on its ability recognize and adapt to members’ changing lifestyles, needs, and demands and to demonstrate its receptiveness through adaptive framing techniques.

Author

• Jennifer Elise Triplett, University of Michigan