WHY TRADITIONAL RESPONSES TO BLAME GAMES FAIL: THE IMPORTANCE OF CONTEXT, RITUALS, AND SUB-BLAME GAMES IN THE FACE OF RAVES GONE WRONG.

Following crises and fiascos, a framing contest takes place in which actors have to account for their actions and might get blamed for what went wrong. An inadequate response to blame can lead to resignation or losing a re-election. Currently, the literature on blame games focuses mainly on the policy, agency, and - especially - presentational strategies one can use to respond to blame. Based on our analysis of the blame games following two festival disasters in Germany and the Netherlands, we show that our current understanding of blame games and blame responses needs to be broadened to include context, rituals, and sub-blame games. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]