This paper contributes to empirical knowledge of citizen participation as a communicative event, by analyzing discursive tensions in interviews between civil servants and citizen-parents, that are part of a participatory process on how to mitigate violence in a suburban area in Sweden. Citizen participation events are increasingly initiated by public institutions in Western societies. Research, however, shows that goals of participatory processes often conflict with formal decision-making structures and institutional boundaries. Yet, how such tensions play out on the level of interaction is little researched. This study therefore analyzes discursive practices deployed by civil servants and how these construct characteristic tensions for the interviews. Three practices are identified: (1) pursuing the initial question, (2) cueing an institutional frame, and (3) epistemic positioning of the parents. These practices, being guided by an institutional agenda, create tensions both to the parents’ lifeworld and for the ideals of the participatory method itself.

本文通过分析公务员和公民父母之间访谈中的话语紧张关系，有助于将公民参与作为交流事件的经验知识，这是关于如何减轻瑞典郊区暴力的参与过程的一部分。公民参与活动越来越多地由西方社会的公共机构发起。然而，研究表明，参与过程的目标往往与正式的决策结构和制度边界相冲突。然而，很少有人研究这种紧张局势在互动层面上的表现。因此，本研究分析了公务员部署的话语实践，以及这些实践如何构建访谈的特征张力。确定了三种做法：(1)追求最初的问题，（2）提示制度框架，以及（3）父母的认知定位。这些以制度议程为指导的做法，对父母的生活世界和参与式方法本身的理想造成了紧张。