The notion of anecdotalization (Michael, 2012) suggest that anecdotes can be performative. They are not merely curious vessels of information or observations, but through the act of telling of them they can also do. Using examples from a city planning project in Malmö, Sweden, where methods for citizen engagement have been developed and tested I will discuss how anecdotalization can be collaborative (and how this potentially can lead to multiple understandings/worlds).

The project saw a meeting between the participant’s practices, worldviews, and priorities - which did not always align. Finding ways of cultivating a mutual understanding between the various actors has been imperative, while at the same time disagreements and ruptures into the work were welcomed as a natural part of any democratic process. But welcoming agonism is not the same as being able to handle it, or knowing how to move forward. Anecdotalization, a chain of re-tellings of an anecdote, afforded the group to collaboratively build an understanding of a rupture that encapsulated more than one perspective. Collaborative anecdotalization is a shared, relational practice of performing many-world worlds (Law, 2015).