이 논문은 사회운동 연구에서 문화적 접근법으로 사용되고 있는 의미틀(frame) 이론을 한국의 노동운동의 사례에 발전적으로 적용하였고, 특히 의미틀 형성의 과정과 그 구조적 환경 사이의 관계에 초점을 맞추었다. 이 글은 의미틀의 변화를 시계열적 자료를 통하여 자세히 관찰하고, 사회운동의 의미틀 전략이 정치?경제적 환경의 변화에 조응하여 어떻게 진화되는지를 분석하였다. 또한 1980년대 민주화운동 주기의 변화에 따른 주의미틀(master frame)의 변화 역시 추적하였다. 분석대상이 된 자료는 1980년부터 2001년 사이에 발행된 노동운동 관련 성명서들이다. 성명서에서 사용된 의미틀을 정치적, 경제적, 문화적 차원으로 분류하고, 이를 진단적(diagnostic) 의미틀과 처방적(prognostic) 의미틀로 세분하였다. 그리고 키워드 검색을 통하여 주의미틀의 통시적 변화를 관찰?분석하였다. 분석 결과, 한국의 노동운동은 80년대 초반까지 노조설립 문제와 기본권 확보문제에 천착하였으나, 유화조치 이후 민주화 운동이 발달하고 운동부문간의 연대가 급속히 활성화되자 정치?경제적 구조의 중요성을 강조하는 의미틀을 받아들이면서 노동운동의 의미틀을 보다 확장하였다. 그러나 1987년 이후 절차적 민주화가 진전되면서 사회운동의 분화와 전문화가 진행되었고, 노동운동의 독립성이 강화되면서 노동운동의 의미틀은 노동조건과 임금 등에 관한 노동 본연의 요구들로 축소되는 경향을 보였다. 그리고 외환위기 이후에는 고용불안이 심화됨에 따라 고용과 실업, 인권에 관련된 의미틀이 중요한 부분을 차지하였다.
In the political process model, the framing approach has been established as a cultural theory of understanding mobilization processes. Since the traditional focus of framing theory has been on how effective a collective action frame is in terms of mobilizing participants, the question of how frames are shaped by a movement’s structural conditions has been relatively under-explored. In order to answer this research question, this article applies framing theory to the case of labor movements in Korea in an attempt to explain the relationship between the process of frame transformation, protest cycle and external environmental changes. In particular, I not only highlight the impacts of macro-political and economic shifts on framing strategies, but also underscore the importance of broader pro-democracy movement cycle in the labor movements’ framing efforts. The data I analyze is a collection of 718 statements released by laborrelated movement organizations between 1980 and 2001. I content- analyzed the statements. I identified political, economic, and cultural frames used in the statements, and categorized them into diagnostic and prognostic frames. Moreover, I searched for several key words including dictatorship, democracy, people(minjung), alliance, and human rights, in order to find out which master frames were adopted by the labor sector. My results indicate that dominant frames in labor movements in Korea were on basic rights and unionization until the early 1980s. However, after the liberalization policy in 1983, labor movements were strongly influenced by the broader pro-democracy cycle, as pro-democracy protests became revitalized and inter-movement alliances increased over time. Labor movements gradually appropriated the master frames of democratization, antidictatorship, and people(minjung) from other social movement organizations, especially student organizations. This opportunity for frame extension enabled labor activists to criticize the structural problems of Korea’s politics and economy and to seek fundamental solutions for labor problems. After 1987, however, the process of democratization drastically changed the social movement sector as it facilitated specialization and professionalization of social movement organizations. Accordingly, labor movements became much more independent, but their framing strategies tended to be narrowly confined to labor-specific issues such as working conditions and income. Furthermore, after the East Asian financial crisis in the late 1990s, the restructuring of the labor market and ever-increasing unemployment made labor movements focus on employment issues and workers’ rights rather than incorporating broader socio-political goals. Therefore, in this article, I show that framing strategies are importantly conditioned by the changes in the external environment and that frame transformation occurs in accordance with the broader cycle of protests. Also my findings reveal that an increase in alliance activities between different movement fields helps social movement organizations broaden their perspectives and extend their framing efforts to new issues.