Collective identity and the role of emotions in discourse framing by social movement organisations : the Taranto case study

Sammanfattning: Social movements and the drive for social justice have been on the rise for decades. Social movement studies are accustomed to separate rationality from emotion, and relegate feelings in a subordinate position. The frame alignment approach, theorised by Robert Benford, David Snow and associates, has gained a prominent place in the sociological study of social movements. However, a new approach to social movement studies wants to subvert this dichotomy, and use emotions as a proper analytical tool to better understand a social movement. An exponent of the emotional approach is James Jasper, who believes it is impossible to study social movement without considering the emotions, the collective identity and the culture that come with it. This study thus examines the social movement of Taranto, a town in South of Italy strongly affected by the environmental and health issues of a steel manufacturing plant, the Ilva factory. To illustrate how the movement is composed, takes collective action and engages the bystanders, I will combine frame alignment approach and emotional approach to analyse in-depth interviews conducted on the field, and media content such as slogans and billboards, used during the protest. The paper aims at investigating the collective identity of the Taranto social movement through emotions and to use feelings as an analytical tool to understand the framing process.