MULTIORGANIZATIONAL FIELDS AND SOCIAL-MOVEMENT ORGANIZATION FRAME CONTENT - THE RELIGIOUS PRO-CHOICE MOVEMENT

As an explanatory method in studies of social movements, analyses of c ollective action frames have generally focused on the variable efficac y of the frames of social movement organizations (SMOs)in the mobiliza tion of potential participants. However, this work has for practical r easons used the acknowledged analytic simplification that SMOs only ta rget potential participants-and not opponents, elite decision makers, or the media-when constructing their frames. To incorporate multiple t argets into future studies of SMO frame construction, this paper expan ds on the idea of a multi-organizational field. I propose that the cha racteristics of the targets in the field and the social structural and cognitive boundaries between them determine SMO frames;This perspecti ve is demonstrated by analyzing changes in the collective action frame s of SMOs in the religious pro-choice movement from 1967 to 1992. I ar gue that this perspective may explain findings where a frame fails to ''resonate'' with potential participants-the frame may nor have been c reated with them in mind.