22736: “Safe Places”: Negotiating for Pockets of Hope as Asynchronous Institutional Work (session 26391)

Place is acknowledged by institutional scholars as a material location infused with meaning. Contemporary studies of place tend to focus on how actors engage in institutional and socio-symbolic work to manipulate or acquire existing place as a means of influencing prevailing institutions. Such literature neglects to provide a granular account of how place is created. This leaves unanswered questions regarding how institutional actors leverage distinct constitutive elements of place to create a specific type of place. Our study aids in the ongoing project of shifting attention away from place as a context or tool used to influence institutional change phenomena and seeks to unearth the work required to progressively create a contested place. To do so, we examine the asynchronous work enacted by HealthNet (Pseudonym), an indigenous non-governmental organization (NGO) tasked with creating psychologically safe platforms for vulnerable women to conduct taboo discussions. Our study highlights four tactics of a priori or in advance work required to create a contested place: negotiating access, dispelling detractors, securing a sanctuary and cultivating climate.

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