Economic Sectors as Discursive Resources for Civil Society Collaboration

Abstract

This study explores the communication processes of civil society collaboration, with particular attention to the ways in which sectoral differences are managed communicatively and how sectoral differences among members are implicated in the processes of collaboration. Findings from a 10-month qualitative investigation of a civil society collaboration of social service providers indicate that sector differences are discursive resources that people draw upon to make sense of uncertainty and frame arguments. Findings also demonstrate how sector differences are managed communicatively through practices of recognition, resistance, translation, and mediation. This study builds on previous scholarship that conceptualizes civil society collaboration as a series of communicative processes and discursive practices (versus economic or structural characteristics), as well as research that advocates a processual approach to the study of organizational collaboration.