Lost in interpretation: how narratives are interpreted into data in participatory planning processes in a Swedish context

This paper is the continuation of two case studies of participation in municipal planning processes in a Swedish context, building on the idea that everyone needs to participate to achieve a sustainable future.
A perceived communicative gap has been found; The inhabitant perceives meetings with municipal representatives, both politicians and officials, as part of one on-going dialogue, while municipal representatives act from different roles, aims and time perspectives.
This text shows how material collected by the municipality or given by the public, in participatory processes, are narratives. The intention behind the study was to compare narrative answers to quantitative survey answers, but the discovery was that the inhabitants want to tell their whole story, even when only given the opportunity to answer a limited survey question. The stories are the same, whether they are told to a politician or a municipal planner. This also indicates that the inhabitants perceive that their participation in future development in a certain area starts already in political dialogue, thus much earlier than what is usually referred to as the early stages in planning theory. Further, different municipal actors, interpret these narratives, to be used in a political or planning decision-making process. This text aims to show what can be lost and/or gained in interpretation.