Historical aspects of developing the theory of frames in social sciences and humanities

Abstract

Researching the frame theory applied to the urgent practical issues in the modern society is a trend in the global science, attempting to research more deeply the key problems related to a person and the society development in general. The topicality of this issue is due to the researching of a complex of strategies facilitating the construction of a personality development paradigm, which would enable to answer the question of determining yet hidden meanings of human actions based on revealing a group of frames. Studying the theory of frames is a way of finding steady links in a chain of behavioral actions and reactions. The objective of the present research is to analyze the main approaches to studying frames in order to reflect their dynamics and to determine the key vectors of frames of a region. The leading approach to the research is the frame conception, which organizes and systematizes interdisciplinary links in forming the universal frame theory applied in further research. The theoretical-methodological basis of the research is the works by Western authors who engaged in conceptualization of the issue of frames and building the theory of frames. During the research, the authors applied a set of scientific methods. In particular, such methods were applied as dialectics, hermeneutics, comparativistics, and historism. The theoretical basis for the analysis of historical approaches to the theory of frames is the works by well-known European researchers (M. Minsky, G. Bateson, A. Schutz, E. Goffman, etc.). The article presents analysis of historical approaches to frame theory, systematizes the leading approaches in this sphere, in order to substantiate the interdisciplinary bases of the frame theory in formation of a frame conception of a region. The following approaches to researching frames were identified: 1) frames are structural data, the type of which is determined by the forms of conscious actions; 2) meta-communicational frames are a contextual structure by which information is grouped, the so-called pattern of representation; 3) a frame as a structural context of everyday interaction; 4) a frame as a form of prerequisite knowledge; 5) a frame as a cognitive formation; 6) a frame as a complex notion, representing a stable and relatively static structure, a cognitive formation. The research materials can be useful for the specialists attempting to draw their scientific research beyond the limits of a certain disciplinary sphere and to arrange an interdisciplinary dialogue in order to develop more comprehensive and flexible theories in the socialhumanitarian sphere as a whole.