“For Everyone” Means “For No One:”: Membership Tensions in Community Collaboration

Abstract

Prior research suggests that tensions are particularly salient in nonprofit and interorganizational contexts but rarely considers the impacts of managing these tensions. This manuscript applies a constitutive view of tensions to a community collaboration. Applied tensional analysis suggests interrelated membership tensions identified by organizational partners (grassroots/grasstops and inclusion/exclusion). Partners respond in conscious and latent ways (branding/blaming) as they seek to include organizational and community members and ultimately rely on contradictory messages (affirmation/admonition) to retain members. Findings present theoretical and practical implications for tension management, as well as constitutive implications for nonprofits dependent on organizational and community involvement to enact social change.