Community-led Development in Rural Areas in Sweden : Narratives Inquiry of Individuals’ Sensemaking Process and Motivations for Participation

Rural areas across Europe have suffered severe socio- economic consequences of the financial crisis. Community-led development is a promising way of organizing for social innovation in these areas, in collaboration and independently of public actors. In order to further the understanding of Community-led development organizations, this research studied the sensemaking process and motivations of individuals who decided to engage with Community-led organizations on the community-, municipal-, and European-level. Through semi-structured interviews conducted with ten individuals related to the case of a community-led organization in a village in the south of Sweden, we were able to conduct a narrative analysis. By investigating the narratives of these actors through the lens of the sensemaking properties, we were able to understand the motivations. Sensemaking theory and motivation were chosen in order to thoroughly understand the reasoning behind individuals' engagement. The main findings of this study include the cruciality and interconnectedness of the sensemaking properties ‘identity construction’ and ‘driven by plausibility rather than accuracy’. Furthermore, also the investigation of the motivations showed a strong reference to personal identities and perceptions thereof, based on strong ideological and value motivations among community members and instrumental motivations among representatives of the public sector