The frame approach to discourses emphasises the ability of actors to
become aware of their frames, to reflect, and to change them. This is
called re-framing (Schön and Rein, 1994: 38-40). The challenge of con-
flict management processes is to create ‘safe places’ (Innes and Booher,
1999) where parties feel respected and unthreatened enough to “cultivate
deliberative virtues of listening and reciprocity” (Saarikoski, 2006:
628). Through dialogue, new storylines can evolve that change actors'
perceptions of the conflict and of their interests and preferences and
move the conflict toward tractability (Putnam and Wondolleck, 2003;
Saarikoski, 2006: 618). Here frame theory is well in line with discursive
institutionalism which talks about the discursive abilities of individuals
that enable them to think, speak, and act also outside institutions even
as they are inside them, to deliberate about the institutional rules and to
change or maintain them (Schmidt, 2008: 314).