Organizer: York Centre for Asian Research (YCAR), York University
Type/Location: Hybrid / Toronto, ON
Description:
This study investigates how migration issues between Myanmar and Thailand are framed by policy actors and examines the role of emotions within this framing process. The main argument is that migration-related policies are partially framed by emotional meanings, aiming to respond to social emotions and build positive emotions no less than actual policy changes. Drawing on the policy framing concepts of Schön and Rein (1994) and subsequent elaborations by van Hulst and Yanow (2014), it explores framing as a sense-making process shaped by beliefs, perceptions, and intersubjective emotional meanings. Employing a qualitative case study approach, the research analyzes policy documents from government agencies, military institutions, political parties, civil society organizations, and international NGOs to trace how migration has been framed, whose emotional meanings are considered in this process, and how frames aim to generate positive emotional responses. By examining five key framing acts—sense-making (how policy actors construct the meanings of the problematic situation), selecting (how specific features of the problematic situation are selected), naming (how these selected features are communicated), categorizing (how things, acts, events, or people involved in the policy situation are identified), and narrating (how the problematic situation is binded together in a storyline)—the study aims to illustrate the significance of emotional meaning in interpretive policy analysis and provide insights into the emotional dimensions of policy-making in migration issues.
About the Speakers:
Tun Min Oo, Chiang Mai University
Respondent: Kai Ostwald, University of British Columbia
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