A mise-en-sens process - Sensegiving and wind power development

Abstract

This article intends to contribute to the conceptualising of organisational sensegiving. Based upon a qualitative analysis of how Swedish wind farm developers manage the permit application process for their projects, we describe in a first order analysis how they contextualise and ontologise their projects and defend them against criticisms. To emphasise the precarious conditions of agency that govern the activity of sensegivers, we introduce in a second order analysis the notion of mise-en-sens, a neologism that borrows both from the performing art notion of mise-en-scene and the fact that ‘sens’ can in French mean both meaning and direction. Mise-en-sens underscores that stage-setting and direction providing are key activities of wind farm developers. In our concluding remarks we even suggest that mise-en-sens could serve to describe the activity of others involved in sensegiving, for example project managers or entrepreneurs.