Doctoral Disseration Research: Strategic Framing and Identity Management within Social Movement Organizations

冬青McCammonCourtney博物馆范德比尔特大学本论文研究解决的问题是如何与潜在的冲突身份的个人管理参与社会运动建立在这些不和谐的身份。 具体来说，社会运动组织可以利用什么框架或信息，以改善身份冲突的时刻，从而维持运动参与？ 到目前为止，这些关系还没有被社会运动学者或对运动身份感兴趣的社会心理学家明确地研究过。为了了解组织如何影响其成员之间的身份冲突，合作PI将研究小木屋共和党人（LCR），一个由同性恋保守派组成的组织-两个身份通常不相关。 对LCR网站和公开采访的初步内容分析显示，LCR章节使用至少20种不同的框架来调和同性恋和非同性恋。 共同PI认为，这些框架允许LCR成员克服在美国保守和同性恋的困难，LCR框架的努力是必不可少的身份管理所进行的章节，以维持他们的选区。 数据将通过对亚特兰大、芝加哥和纳什维尔约80名LCR分会成员的深入采访收集。 这些访谈的目的是引出有关选民之间的身份冲突的经验，以及是否/如何LCR框架的努力有助于减少这些冲突的信息。 本论文将有助于社会运动文学的桥梁组织框架和身份的讨论。 通过研究组织框架和框架衔接器的特征，我们可以更准确地评估哪些运动群体可能获得支持。 本研究将提供证据，什么类型的框架过程和框架特征最成功地减少了一个选区之间的身份冲突，以及说明个人如何利用组织的信息，以克服潜在的冲突身份。 除了理论上的贡献，这项研究还有更广泛的影响。 这项研究将产生一个独特的数据集，其中包括社会运动研究人员以前没有研究过的信息。 这一数据集将提供给其他学者，以便他们继续进行这方面的研究。 这项研究还将为任何班级的本科生提供一个关于性别、性和/或社会运动的新视角。

Holly McCammonCourtney MuseVanderbilt UniversityThis dissertation research addresses the question of how individuals with potentially conflicting identities manage to participate in a social movement built around those discordant identities. Specifically, what frames or messages do social movement organizations that can be utilized by movement participants in order to ameliorate moments of identity conflict and thus sustain movement participation? To date, these relationships have not been explicitly examined by scholars of social movements or by social psychologists interested in movement identities. In order to understand how organizations influence identity conflicts among their members, the co-PI will study the Log Cabin Republicans (LCR), an organization composed of gay conservatives -- two identities not typically associated. A preliminary content analysis of LCR websites and public interviews shows that LCR chapters are using at least 20 different frames to reconcile homosexuality and Republicanism. The co-PI argues that these frames allow LCR members to overcome the difficulties of being conservative and gay in America, and that LCR framing efforts are essential to the identity management undertaken by the chapters to maintain their constituencies. Data will be collected through in-depth interviews with approximately 80 LCR chapter members in Atlanta, Chicago, and Nashville. These interviews are designed to elicit information about experiences of identity conflicts among constituents and whether/how LCR framing efforts help to reduce those conflicts. This dissertation will contribute to the social movement literature by bridging the discussions of organizational framing and identity. By examining the characteristics of organizational frames and frame articulators, we can more accurately evaluate which movement groups are likely to garner support. This research will provide evidence of what type of framing processes and frame characteristics most successfully reduce identity conflicts among a constituency as well as illustrate how individuals utilize organizational messages to overcome potentially conflicting identities. In addition to the theoretical contributions, there are broader impacts of this research. The study will produce a unique data set that includes information not previously examined by social movement researchers. This data set will be available to other scholars so that they may continue in this vein of research. The research will also provide a new perspective for undergraduate students in any classes on gender, sexuality and/or social movements.