Once upon a time in Västmanland – the power of narratives or how the “truth” unfolds.

Paper in proceeding, 2016

In 2014 a small fire started in a forest in central Sweden. Within a few days it developed into the largest wildfire in Sweden in the last 50 years. As the scale of the fire increased, so did the need for direction and coordination of the resources engaged in the response operation. Both official investigators and the research community have studied the challenges and come up with recommendations for improvements of the Swedish crisis management system. All authors of this paper have been involved in such efforts. This paper is a result of us trying to formulate lessons learnt based on several written reports and official discussions. The development of the narratives constructed by individuals involved in the response, investigators and researchers is analyzed. We conclude that researchers need to pay attention to their own role in this development. Maybe there is a need for a game changer on the methodological side?