Community engagement and resistance: a discourse perspective

In this paper we adopt a critical discursive perspective, conceiving of both community engagement and resistance as communicative and relational acts that cross discourse boundaries. In rethinking engagement and resistance, we call into question the boundaries between internal and external publics, looking instead at the multiple, shifting subject positions or identities available within organizational discourses that individuals or groups may be located within (Davies and Harre 1990). In so doing, we aim to highlight the tensions between identity and interests that underpin discursive struggles. Our aim is to offer insights into organizational responses for engaging with creative resistors from a social innovation orientation.