Framing, Counterframing, and Discursive Fields in the Mobilizations Against Criminal Violence in Mexico

In social movements literature, frame analyses have focused mainly on the strategic discourse of mobilized groups, a smaller proportion has discussed official frames, a minimal share has studied the dynamics of framing and counterframing, and barely a few studies have analyzed the development of discursive fields. This article broadens and deepens our understanding of discursive fields through a longitudinal analysis of four episodes of mobilization against criminal violence in Mexico. My main argument is that the discursive field of these movements has developed and transformed in a relational way from the framing and counterframing disputes between mobilized groups and governments, with observable changes in four dimensions: the central issue of the discussion, its participants, the diagnoses and proposed solutions, and the official responses to the protest. The article contributes to the literature by proposing an operationalization of the transformations in a discursive field that is useful for studying other social problems.