‘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 hasshown how emotions may influence multi-stakeholder collaborations, the role of emotions in participatory policymakingis not sufficiently understood. This study focuses on the role of emotions during a series of citizen workshops that feed intourban 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 emo-tions. We identify a chain of mechanisms by which the expression of frames and associated emotions during interactionsled 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 emotionsand demonstrates how citizen workshops serve not only to gain citizens’ input into public policies, but also to cultivate theirframes through emotional reinforcement.