‘The Way Enthusiasm Builds’: Frame Amplification and Emotional Reinforcement in Participatory Policymaking

To create policies about complex environmental challenges, it is vital to involve multiple stakeholders. Whilst research has shown how emotions may influence multi-stakeholder collaborations, the role of emotions in participatory policymaking is not sufficiently understood. This study focuses on the role of emotions during a series of citizen workshops that feed into urban tree management policies. Specifically, we explore how emotions are related to the deliberation of citizens’ frames (i.e. sensemaking schemata). Our findings demonstrate inherent interconnections between participants’ frames and emotions. We identify a chain of mechanisms by which the expression of frames and associated emotions during interactions led to an intertwined amplification of citizens’ frames and reinforcement of their emotions. We also explain the cases of ‘separation’ where this did not occur. Our model extends prior insights into the relationship between frames and emotions and demonstrates how citizen workshops serve not only to gain citizens’ input into public policies, but also to cultivate their frames through emotional reinforcement.