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Abstract

Drawing on an ethnographic and discourse-analytic study, this article examines the meaning and function of narrative in the civic engagement of volunteers who provided humanitarian aid to refugees during the migratory movements of 2015. I argue that a group of self-organized volunteers in a German town used different kinds of narrative during their engagement to advance their own views on the migratory movements and on voluntary work with refugees. A collective narrative in terms of a cognitive structure evolved during the event that shaped the relationship between the volunteers and authorities.

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