A framing analysis of the debate about waste imports in Albania

Abstract

The present paper focuses on a political and environmental debate about the imports of foreign waste in Albania for the years 2011 to 2017. The aim of the paper is to examine the frames that parties of this debate use to argue their standpoints and at the same time frame reality. Following the perspective of critical discourse analysis that “discourses are ideological and that there is no arbitrariness of signs” (Wodak, de Cillia, 2006, 713), we try to analyse the way language is used to frame specific standpoints. Language is not a mirror of reality, nor is a certain fragment of discourse, yet through the use of language the parties included in this not only seek to win an argument, but also try to convince broader audiences. Starting from these theoretical considerations, the paper draws on the methodological toolkit of framing strategies to analyse the discourse fragments of the imports of foreign waste in Albania and examine which are the most common frames employed in this debate.