Frame disputes in environmental controversies

The case of wetland regulations in Louisiana

Dados Bibliográficos

ID2155308
AutoresNaomi Krogman (0000-0002-6930-9538, Southwestern University, autor correspondente), Naomi T Krogman
Ano1996
Volume16
Fascículo4
Páginas371-400
Data de publicação1996-10-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoSociological Spectrum (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0273-2173 • E-ISSN: 1521-0707
EditoraInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/02732173.1996.9982142
OpenAlexW1964779588
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas29
Referências citadas47

Stakeholder groups’ arguments for or against regulations represent frames, or versions of reality and visions of solutions. Frame effectiveness, or the ability of a group convincingly to convey its grievances, increases its opportunities to gain valuable resources such as legitimacy, money, facilities, and labor to apply to its agenda for change. This paper uses the constructionist perspective to describe the basic frames advanced by each major group in a contemporary environmental controversy: the role of government in regulating wetland use in Louisiana. Using 91 semis‐tructured interviews as the main data, this paper discusses stakeholder frames from regulatory, regulated, and environmentalist positions and the rhetorical strategies hidden within each group's frames. This paper suggests that the regulated community has greater interpretive dominance in the wetlands controversy than regulators and environmentalists/concerned citizens because the community advances a more diverse set of frames, more effectively “piggybacks” its frames on other central contemporary government criticisms, and is more adept at using “diversionary reframing,” whereby it disregards the costs of wetland loss and shifts the discussion to tangible costs to landowners. Future work on framing in social movements, especially in natural resource disputes, should refine the concept of frame effectiveness and identify recurring strategies that attract public support within disputes

Cognitive reframing · Economics · Environmental ethics · Environmental resource management · Frame analysis · Legitimacy · Political science · Politics · Public relations · Rhetorical question · Sociology · Stakeholder · Strict constructionism · Vision · Engineering · Law · Political Influence and Corporate Strategies · Psychology · Rhetoric and Communication Studies · Risk Perception and Management · Social Psychology