[peacock prose] [citation needed] While it addresses a number of discrete theoretical and empirical problems, it has the common goal of creating general conceptual tools to comprehend the dynamics of everyday social interaction.
Perhaps Snow’s single greatest scholarly achievement is the creation of the “framing perspective” on social movements, which focuses on the negotiable and emergent meanings of social-movement issues, tactics, and participants.
From this vantage point, mobilizing grievances are seen neither as naturally occurring sentiments nor as arising automatically from specifiable material conditions, but as the result of interactively-based interpretation or signifying work.
In his best-known work in this area, Down on Their Luck (University of California Press 1993, Portuguese translation 1998), Snow and co-author (and former student) Leon Anderson examine the everyday challenges faced by homeless men and women, using data from hundreds of hours of interviews, participant observation, and social service agencies.
At UC Irvine, Snow has been the co-director for the Center for Citizen Peace Building, which supports research and community-based activities aimed at discouraging conflict and violence.