Creating and Stabilizing Societalization: Futurizing Through Framing Strategies and Organizing Forms

This paper explores how specific causes become and remain the target for societal problem-solving. Drawing on Dewey's framework of problem-solving (1938) and Mead's concept of "determining the condition of passage" (1932), as well as contemporary scholarship on imagined futures as catalysts for social action, the findings underscore the necessity of a dual-process approach. This involves (1) framing past and present events within an indeterminate situation and (2) leveraging ongoing inquiries and their related problematizations. By examining the English branch of Extinction Rebellion and the Danish KR Foundation, this study compares the failure and success of different organizing forms and strategies in creating and maintaining a cause needing societal solutions. It demonstrates that the identification, emergence, and institutionalization of a cause´s societal import require a combination of disruptive intrusions and advocacy to facilitate effective societal problem-solving. This conceptualization enhances our understanding of (1) why specific bundles of problems persist over time and (2) how entrenched solutions remain tied to those problems due to their characteristics as explanatory repertoires. Ultimately, this research emphasizes the importance of comprehending the constructs of explanas to identify which societal actions and actors can contribute to resolving contemporary grand challenges.