Theory, Method, and the Mechanism of Framing: Reflections on the Syrian Civil War and Palestinian Intifada

摘要

This article bridges two literatures: research on social movements, in which framing is widely recognized as an important causal mechanism; and research in civil wars and insurgencies, which tends to deemphasize cultural-interpretative factors such as framing. We argue that it is important that insights of framing be applied to insurgencies because there is a fundamental framing action that often occurs. We have in mind civil wars in which oppositional activists, who previously had pursued nonviolent tactics, apply a prognostic frame of 'what to do' that specifies armed conflict. Drawing on methodologies of subject-verb-object grammars used to analyze political texts, this article elaborates a comprehensive approach to framing that involves not only shifts in the , or specifications of 'what to do', but also shifts in a < subject > , or definitions of 'who we are', and in an