Abstract
This paper explores the interplay between framing and social-symbolic work, specifically emotion and identity work, in shaping meaning within the Black Travel Movement (BTM) on social media. Drawing from archival data and 16 semi-structured interviews with key figures in the movement over an eleven-year period, we apply a qualitative processual approach to analyse the bottom-up social construction of the BTM on Instagram. The BTM, an online-based social movement, aims to propagate a counter narrative of the underrepresentation of black travellers within the travel industry and promote authentic travel experiences.
Our findings reveal three main phases in the development of the BTM collective action frame over social media: framing of the BTM as a social-symbolic object, followed by fostering emotional resonance, and resolving identity tensions within the BTM. We also observe a combination of social symbolic work practices, including purposefully constructed emotion work practices, targeted at generating emotional energy among Black travellers and remedial identity work aimed at addressing emergent identity threats occasioned by varying grievance interpretations, demographic characteristics and imaginations of the future.
This study contributes to framing literature by applying a meaning-making approach and theorizing how framing combined with emotion and identity work on social media, shapes meaning within a specific cultural context. It extends the understanding of emotion and identity work into broader social-symbolic contexts. Insights from the BTM study shed light on different social-symbolic work practices. Aligned with the BAM’s conference track on organisational studies, this research underscores the agency of actors leveraging social media, to effect transformational change in race relations within the travel industry.