21 Issue Identification and Issue Framing

As noted, community organizing arises from shared grievances or interests that have not been addressed, so it makes sense that issue clarification and framing would be one of the first steps. This needs to be done WITH the community and not FOR the community. Clarifying and framing the issue needs to be done with community stakeholders and supporters since the issue being worked on is directly impacting them.  Their voice and perspective is critical. As a reminder, there are three categories of people who you could interact with in different ways, given their passion, degree of support, capacity, and skills. This is also included in the Mobilizing Stakeholders and Advancing Support chapter.

• The core leadership group is the primary group of about 5-15 people who are committed to this community change effort to the extent that they are willing to show up regularly and engage. This is the group that would initiate a meeting or process for identifying the shared grievances or interests.
• Accomplices are people who are not only invested in the community issue or impacted by it but who are willing to engage in advocacy and take some level of risk (political, economic, social, etc.). These are likely people who are impacted by the issue, not interested or able to attend regular meetings, but can be counted on to take action.
• Supporters/allies are people who support your community issue or cause and would be interested in taking some less risky level of action, but likely not action that involves risk.

Gather as many of these stakeholders or community members (prioritizing the core leadership group and accomplices) together to review the primary and secondary data you compiled to answer a series of questions that will help you to identify the issues that are the most pressing and urgent:

• What are the issues that are shared by the community?
• How are your lives impacted by the issue(s)?
• What are the most urgent issues to be addressed?
  • Define the issues and provide as detailed a description as possible.

Even if people who would identify as supporters or allies don’t attend a meeting or process, it is very important that they are still invited so that they are aware of the work you are doing. They are likely a group that will become important as you identify community change tactics.

Framing the Issues

People in community change work are great at listing facts and assuming that this will get people’s attention and inspire them to participate or support change, but that often is not what happens. Lakoff ^[2]helps us to understand why that is not the case.

A frame is a “mental structure that shapes how we see the world.” ^[3] As a cognitive psychologist, Lakoff explains that frames exist in the cognitive unconscious and are not actually still cognitively accessible, but they influence how we relate and respond to information all the time. If you communicate with someone and negate their frame, that still activates their cognitive unconscious and will counter your intentions.

Lakoff’s famous example is telling someone to not think of an elephant and then the first thing someone does is think of an elephant. The cognitive unconscious frame is accessed just through the word “elephant.”

Therefore, framing an issue as a way to gain attention or influence must be done with your own language and not the language of someone whose opinion you are trying to change.

In the book, How to Be an Activist, Holburn describes the critical step of framing an issue as a way to bring it to other people’s attention. They list the types of information used in framing an issue, including facts, statistics, data, and opinions. I suggest adding personal stories or examples and perhaps photographs to the list.

Lakoff explains that facts matter, but they will only be heard if they are framed in terms of moral importance and reflect held values. These values may include security, freedom, opportunity, kindness, integrity, loyalty, etc. Lakoff encourages the use of rhetorical questions to begin the framing, such as “Wouldn’t it be better…” This then naturally initiates an answer or response, even if one is not verbalized.

So, you need facts, statistics, data, opinions, and examples, all framed in a way that is likely to resonate and be heard by others. Once the framing of an issue is accepted by the receiver, it changes the conversation after that point. Everything else you say becomes common sense.