The Impact of Social Media on the Freedom Movement in Indian held Kashmir

The contemporary phase of the youth-led freedom movement in Indian Held Kashmir (IHK) is not confined to the armed rebellion by the Kashmiri youth but is also coupled with a non-violent approach using social media against the atrocities and human rights violations such as systematic torture, rape, extrajudicial killing, and prisoner abuse, by the committed by the Indian armed forces. Victims' stories have been well-documented and 're-packaged for the world community through social media. The freedom movement went through various phases throughout history, and the most recent phase was introduced in 2016 after the brutal killings carried out by the Indian armed forces that included Burhan Muzaffar Wani, a youth-icon and a freedom fighter who used social media as a communication tool. The use of modern communication technologies like social media ensures that the narrative of the people of Kashmir regarding the freedom from the illegal occupation of Kashmir and suppression by Indian security forces would spread all around the world. This paper applies social movement framing analysis to this contemporary freedom movement in IHK to better understand the ways in which it is being re-defined by activists through exposure and affiliation to other transnational protest movements and re-framed in a manner that stresses the universal applications of contemporary human rights mobilizations.

From Culture to Claimsmaking

Conceptual approaches to claimsmaking often feature the overarching symbolic templates of political culture or else the strategic actor of the social movement framing approach. Both approaches have value, but neither shows adequately how cultural context influences claimsmaking in everyday situations. To better understand cultural context and situated claimsmaking together, we retheorize the concept of discursive field, showing how such a field is sustained through interaction. Claimsmakers craft claims from basic symbolic categories, in line with the appropriate style for a scene of interaction. Scene style induces external and internal boundaries to a discursive field, making some claims illegitimate and others inappropriate or else subordinate in a given scene. Conceptualizing how culture works in a discursive field helps us better understand what claimsmakers can say, how, and where. We illustrate the theoretical reconstruction with an ethnographic and archival study of different settings of a housing advocacy campaign.

Social Movement Framing Tasks and Contemporary Racisms: Diagnostic and Prognostic Forms

Increasingly, race scholars define racism as a structural and systemic phenomenon, rather than a matter of personal prejudice alone. Various theories of racism have been developed by asking “What causes racial inequality?” and defining as racist those mechanisms that reproduce it. In this essay, I ask a different question to expand the toolkit from which scholars can identify the racisms that characterize the contemporary era. Acknowledging that dramatic changes to systems of racial oppression are historically brought about by social movements, I ask, “What causes anti-racist movements to fail?” and define as racist those factors that prevent anti-racist movements from mobilizing supporters in the pursuit of change. I thus propose, define, and describe two forms of racism that connect theories of race and racism to theories of social movements. To enable success, social movements engage in (among other tasks) diagnostic and prognostic framing—that is, they identify conditions as problems and propose solutions. I thus propose the following forms of racism that manifest as sentiments that prevent anti-racist movements from successfully carrying out these tasks: diagnostic racism and prognostic racism. In conclusion, I explain how this conceptualization of racism complements and extends prevailing theories of race and racism and underscores the utility of bridging theories of race and racism and social movement theories in studies of race relations.

Under Construction: Frames, Culture, and American Labor’s Postwar Embrace of “Free Enterprise”

The empirical literature on social movement framing has largely neglected the processes by which frames are made. This paper addresses this lacuna through a study of the Congress of Industrial Organizations’ (CIO) embrace of “free enterprise” in its postwar program in the 1940s. Conventional accounts present the CIO’s use of consensual language in this period as a reflection of the labor federation’s rightward ideological drift, but a close examination of the processes involved in the construction of the “free enterprise” frames reveals a more complicated story. Drawing from archival research, I show that free enterprise was viewed with suspicion and antipathy within the organization, which is reflected in early drafts of the program literature. I also demonstrate that the decision to ultimately embrace “free enterprise” was rooted in a defensive strategy, one that was shaped in part by the leadership’s perception of American political culture at the time.

Frame Variation in Child Protectionist Frames: Constructing Gay Men and Transgender Women as Strangers

This research contributes to social movement framing theory about frame variation, along with the social problems literature on child protectionism. I extend the theorizing on frames by arguing that frame variation can be a response to new agendas and goals of countermovements and opponents. Specifically, for opponents to rights activism, frame variation can be reaction to the assertion of rights for new protagonists, specifically their entry into new spaces. This study analyzes frame variation of the most deleterious child protectionist claims about stranger danger, assertions that the presence of racial, gender, and sexual others in public spaces will harm children. This paper is a content analysis of political flyers and messages developed by Religious Right campaigns at the state and municipal level between 1974 and 2013; these campaigns framed gay men and transgender woman as threats to children in classrooms and bathrooms. For both gay men and transgender women these claims were most common at the start of rights advocacy. I argue that challengers make the most overt, deleterious arguments about harm to children when new groups initially advocate for legal rights and access to new spaces; as marginalized groups become more familiar and less “strange”, challengers make more covert claims about these groups, as stranger danger claims have waning cultural and political resonance.

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

Purpose The 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/approach The construction, features and processes associated with collective action frames in social movements are examined and explored via two social causes: obesity and disaster preparation. Findings A 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/implications Further 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 implications Mobilising 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/value While 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.

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.

The Emergence, Development, and Future of the Framing Perspective: 25+ Years Since "Frame Alignment"

It has been more than twenty-five years since publication of David Snow, Burke Rochford, Steven Worden, and Robert Benford's article, "Frame Alignment Processes, Micromobilization, and Movement Participation" in the American Sociological Review (1986). Here we consider the conceptual and empirical origins of the framing perspective, how its introduction fundamentally altered and continues to influence the study of social movements, and where scholarly research on social movement framing is still needed.