Re-Framing

Framing describes a process of giving some ‘aspects of a perceived reality’ more prominence in a way that promotes a particular problem definition, cause, moral evaluation, and treatment (Entman, 1993)

Metaphor originates from the Greek word meta meaning ‘across’ and pherein meaning ‘to carry’. Metaphor allows us to bring forth or carry over a deeper context which words on face-value can lack.

What is included in a narrative, what is left out and the values it embodies are determined by what cognitive scientist and linguist George Lakoff refers to as ‘frames’. These cognitive structures are shaped by our personal and collective histories and allow us to conceptualize and organize what we see (and fail to see) and how we see it. The... See more

While all layers are always present and all are vital to understand any situation, Inayatullah (2003b, p.6) places a “higher” value on the mythic/metaphor layer because it informs all the other layers. Meadows (2008) similarly believes the most effective leverage point in a system is one that “transcends the paradigm”. For Meadows the “highest”... See more

Successful creative people don’t merely comply with externally imposed constraints, but transform them through reframing. They adopt constraints as personal challenges rather than external impositions.

The role of metaphor and narrative, as opposed to new theories or experiments, is too little recognised in discussions of the historian of science Thomas Kuhn’s paradigm shifts, supposed (and contested) moments of dramatic change in science. All scientists know how to go about scrutinising a theory: you use it to formulate some testable hypothesis,... See more