Commentary: It's All in a Word: The Strategic Use of Words and Storytelling

• Author: Henrik Vinther Olesen
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/puar.12699
• Published date: 01 January 2017
• Date: 01 January 2017

66 Public Administration Review • January | February 2017

It ’ s All in a Word:

The Strategic Use of Words and Storytelling

Henrik Vinther Olesen is chief

communications officer for the Department

of Children and Young People for the City

of Aarhus, Denmark. Previously, from 1998

to 2008, he was a journalist and head of

education a Danish daily newspaper.

E-mail: hvo@aarhus.dk

Commentary

T he Danish equivalent of the proverb “once

bitten, twice shy” refers to a child who gets

too close to the flames of a fire and ends up

getting burned. Who would want to burn themselves

again? At the same time, if you are frightened to get

close to the fire, how will you keep yourself warm in

the winter?

In 2013, our school sector was hit by an industrial

action: the Danish local authorities sent teachers

out of the classroom in a monthlong lockout. The

lockout only ended with the intervention of the

Danish parliament, a breach of the widely celebrated

Danish model, according to which the two sides in

an industrial dispute agree on wage and working

conditions themselves.

The intervention was also perceived by teachers as a

breach of their own extensive powers to organize where,

when, and how they work. In the public sphere and in

the media, this was referred to as a “normalization” of

teachers’ working conditions, suggesting that teachers

Henrik Vinther Olesen

City of Aarhus , Denmark