Grannsamverkan 2.0? : Storytelling, partnerskapande och den fysiska platsens betydelse

Sammanfattning: The purpose of this study is to investigate the storytelling processes taking place in the network here called the Partnership, founded by three actors in Malmö, Sweden. The Partnership has its roots in WorldPride 2021 and aims to work with inclusion. The storytelling processes in question deal with the Partnership’s geographical position, history as well as attempts to form a common present and future. Our theoretical framework combines a new institutional approach towards organizations and their context with David M. Boje and Barbara Czarniawska’s theories on organizing through storytelling. The main theoretical concepts used in this study are Boje’s antenarrative and Tamaraland together with Czarniawska’s actor net. As for empirical approach, the study uses qualitative interviews to investigate the storytelling processes taking place in the Partnership as well as the organizational context around it. The results of the study show that the Partnership is actively working with storytelling as a legitimizing factor for the collaboration. However, the Partnership struggles with formulating antenarratives that will bring together their geographical position in the city, the lived stories of today and their aims for the future. The study’s results provide insights on the collective sensemaking dynamics that take place in network-based organization and how they can be used in city branding and urban governance contexts.