The Framing of Solidarity

The Framing of SolidarityAnalyzing the Semantic Structure of an Important Idea

This report was prepared by Joe Brewer, Director of Cognitive Policy Works

Cognitive Policy Works 1607 NE 70th Street Seattle, WA 98115 http://www.cognitivepolicyworks.com

http://www.cognitivepolicyworks.com


Scope of This Report

In this report we explore the conceptual structure of the Solidarity Frame to elevate

several strategic issues for discussion by the campaign team. The analysis that follows will

give priority emphasis to the various “prototype effects” and conceptual structures that

currently shape Western discourse on economics, politics, and social movements.

As we will see, the Solidarity Frame is structured in a manner that carries entailments from

mainstream economic discourse. We will then go on to explore a few problematic notions

of solidarity that have been used to create faulty divisions amongst the populace and paint

a static picture that conceals an unfolding dynamic tension that can be exploited in

campaign settings.

Let’s begin, shall we?

Analyzing the Solidarity Frame

Together we explored the basic elements of the Solidarity Frame in the report Revealing

the Strategy Landscape: Clarity of Language and Concepts for /The Rules Campaigns. In

this follow-up discussion we will see how the concept of solidarity is dynamically entangled

with other frames including the Middle Class Frame, the 99% Frame, and Global

South Frame.

We already noted that solidarity has a schematic structure with the following properties:

✦ The central concept of containment where one is either “in” solidarity or “out” of

solidarity;

✦ Some defining attribute (or attributes) that comprises the boundary condition for

determining whether an individual is contained by the solidarity category or not;

✦ A radial-prototype structure with “better examples” and “worse examples” of

category fitness;

✦ Psychological and cognitive processing biases that give preference to “good”

prototype members of the solidarity category.

In addition to these cognitive features of the Solidarity Frame are the various forms of

associated knowledge that tend to arise in the minds of people when they think about

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Revealing the Strategy Landscape - Clarity of Language and Concepts for /The Rules Campaigns

solidarity in a particular context. It is here that the dynamic nuances of frame semantics

become more obvious and actionable.

Let’s start with the notion of a middle class issue. It is commonplace for media

spokespeople to talk about the economy as it pertains to the “middle class”. What this

does cognitively is introduce a category structure for society based on income that is

presumed to look something like this:

The left side of the image depicts low-income earners with the majority of people in the

middle and a comparably small number of people in the high-income range to the right.

This conceptual arrangement becomes the prototype for making comparisons between

people earning different amounts of money -- even though it is completely false!

First off, it gives primacy to wage earnings and completely ignores financial holdings and

other assets. These other forms of wealth are excluded by the semantic structure of the

bell curve above and so they simply don’t arise in the minds of people as they think about

the middle class.

Secondly, this spatial image evokes a sense that most people are average when in reality

the distribution is strongly skewed. This “anchoring effect” of drawing comparisons relative

to an imaged hump-in-the-middle is what causes people to believe they are higher in the

distribution of income than they actually are (such as those survey results finding that 30%

of Americans believe they are in the top 10%).

The true distribution of wealth looks more like this:


3 Mapping the Conceptual Landscape - Strategic Recommendations for The Rules Campaign

This distribution is heavily skewed and is what mathematicians would call a “power law” --

meaning that the amount of money held by each bracket grows exponentially (e.g. raised

to the power of a number larger than one) as one moves from low-income to high-income

levels. The Middle Class Frame conceals this reality be evoking the prototype of a bell

curve that biases our reasoning toward a category structure with most people at or near

the average amount of wealth.

This is an example of a prototype effect that evokes a specific meaning for solidarity -- that

we are all in this economic boat together and share common ground. It conceals the

massive gap between the haves and have-nots by blurring the economic divisions

between us. In other words, the framing of solidarity makes us all look similar when in

truth we are not.

Now let’s consider a way of framing solidarity that divides people whom we may want to

bring together. The 99% Frame of the Occupy Movement was quite powerful at evoking

a strong sense of injustice when it first appeared in the discourse. This was due to the fact



that a grouping of 100 elements that moves 99 into one cluster and leaves out only 1 in

the other cluster is the maximal inequality that can be had. This structural division into a

state of maximal inequality activated the sympathetic emotions amongst millions of people

that led to a global shared sentiment of solidarity around this experience of social injustice.

What it also did inadvertently was to lump all individuals in the top 1% of earnings into a

state of moral rebuke. And so, as time went on, members of the 1% who sympathized

with Occupy became increasingly marginalized and defensive toward the growing

“mainstream” community of activists. In other words, the discourse evolved from a

condition of strong solidarity to a condition of weakened solidarity that was not intended

by those who designed the 99% Frame.

A similar unintended division arises for the similar frames of Global Rich and Global Poor

that lump large and diverse groups of people according to income, when they may actually

share values and worldview which are much more important qualifiers from a campaign

perspective (due to the fact that social values and identity shape behavior in powerful and

subtle ways).

These examples of frames about solidarity provide teachable moments for thinking about

the dynamics of semantic categories. What was at first a strong solidarity movement

became weak in particularly important ways (such as by cutting off activist groups from

potential large-sum individual donors) because of the way the solidarity in-group/out-group

boundary had been drawn. When we speak of memes or cultural evolution, it is dynamic

processes like this that we are referring to -- as cultural meanings blend and change with

time.

Based on this analysis the implications for the Global South Frame follow naturally:

1. It lumps together morally diverse categories of people -- both those we want to

side with and those we don’t -- by asserting that the North/South geographic

divide is the defining feature of moral difference.

2. This frame reinforces colonial notions of northern European powers and their

control over southern colonies -- a narrative that casts our allies in non-Western

countries in the position of usurpation and disempowerment.



3. It says nothing about the defining features of the burgeoning 21st Century global

tribe that expressed solidarity throughout the Occupy Movement, Arab Spring,

African Awakening, or any other new non-geographic movement that may explode

on the scene at any time.

Brief Comment on Human Group Formation

A massive body of research shows that humans have very strong tendencies to form

social groups. This is perhaps the single most important finding in all of anthropology. As

the analysis above clearly shows, once a conceptual category is introduced into a specific

discourse people will begin to align with one side of the distinction or another.

There are classic social psychology experiments where people who are divided into

different groups begin to alter their behaviors in profound ways. In one study, a classroom

filled with elementary students was told by their teacher that children with blue eyes have

higher IQ than those with brown or green eyes. As the day progressed, these blue eyed

children began to oppress and bully the “lessor” children. A more dramatic example can

be seen in the infamous Stanford Prison Experiment where college students were asked to

role play either as guards or prisoners. In a very short time, the students performing as

guards began to torture their fellow classmates and the experiment was canceled before

anyone was seriously hurt.

These examples are a reminder that the construction of social group identity is among the

most fundamental factors shaping human behavior. As you consider the elements of the

Solidarity Frame presented here, take special care to be sensitive about the power of

category design in shaping how you build movements around the world.

Discussion Questions1. What are some other ways that solidarity and division have been used to

advance or hinder a social cause?

2. How does this analysis cause you to think differently about solidarity in /

The Rules campaigns?

3. What issues or concerns arise for you that warrant further consideration?



About Cognitive Policy Works

Cognitive Policy Works is both an educational center that provides professional training to

people in politics and a research/consulting firm that analyzes the workings of the political

mind for non-profits and social businesses. We're a team of experts in political behavior

and social change with a powerful combination of skills ranging from psychology and

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The Framing of Solidarity