Abstract
We investigate abandonment of certain public schools in areas of gentrification in Copenhagen and the processes meant to repair such community ruptures. Theoretically, the study builds on socio-cultural psychology and dialogism. The intervention conducted built on the premises of meaning-making, dialogue and collaboration in and across the community and its institutions and citizens. The deep interdependency between making a family and making a school stood out. While the schools struggled to survive, the families in question struggled tirelessly to form the kind of family they wanted to be. The analysis centres on processes of initiating and promoting sustainable collective processes of meaning-making in a community. ‘Sustainability’ refers in our case to the construction of practices that is meaningful to various groups of actors (e.g. children, families and professionals in institutions) given the local challenges and resources in their community. The study aims at shedding light on the dialogical processes and the construction of local community qualities.