Examining value-based framing of agroecology by experts in training centers in Belgium, France, and Spain.

Despite their increasing political importance and role in frame construction and application, issue framing research has paid very little attention to domain experts – those who hold comprehensive knowledge in a specific field. This paper draws upon concepts from environmental psychology to examine how agroecology training centers in Belgium, France, and Spain construct and apply agroecology issue frames based on specific environmental values. I develop the argument that by highlighting a "community frame" based on the value of environmental altruism, domain experts can act as potentially powerful conduits through which informal institutions can develop and spread in the transition to agroecology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]