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

霍莉·麦卡蒙考特尼博物馆范德比尔特大学这篇论文研究的问题是，具有潜在身份冲突的个人如何成功地参与到围绕这些不和谐身份建立的社会运动中。具体地说，社会运动组织有哪些框架或信息可供运动参与者利用，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研究过。为了了解组织如何影响其成员之间的身份冲突，联合PI将研究LCR，一个由同性恋保守派组成的组织--两个通常不相关的身份。对LCR网站和公开采访的初步内容分析显示，LCR分会至少使用了20种不同的框架来调和同性恋和共和主义。联合公社认为，这些框架使LCR成员能够克服在美国身为保守派和同性恋的困难，LCR框架努力对于分会为维持其选民而进行的身份管理至关重要。数据将通过对亚特兰大、芝加哥和纳什维尔的大约80名LCR分会成员的深入访谈来收集。这些访谈旨在获得关于选民之间身份冲突经历的信息，以及LCR框架努力是否/如何有助于减少这些冲突。本文将在组织框架和身份认同的讨论之间架起一座桥梁，为社会运动文学做出贡献。通过考察组织框架和框架发音者的特征，我们可以更准确地评估哪些运动团体可能获得支持。这项研究将提供证据，证明哪种类型的框架过程和框架特征最能有效地减少选民之间的身份冲突，并说明个人如何利用组织信息来克服潜在的身份冲突。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检查过的信息。该数据集将提供给其他学者，以便他们可以继续进行这一研究。这项研究还将为任何班级的本科生提供一个关于性别、性取向和/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.