ABSTRACT
Peer’s story provides a detailed case study of the processes through which a dissenter makes sense of his struggles to understand the actions, emotions, and strategic choices of the key actors, including himself. In this chapter, we suggest that whistleblowers’ sagas also are deeply personal processes of narratively constructing, enacting, and revising their individual identities as they interpret and strategically manage organizational and communicative situations. Identity-management processes in turn influence their interpretations of those situations and their choices of communication strategies. Like the actions of heroes in tragic fiction, Peer’s self-narrative links events and actions together via systems of meaning, providing both a chronicle of events and a set of connections that reveal their dramatic, thematic, and emotional significance. These processes help explain why whistleblowers continue their battles long after it is rational to do so. However, this book project should be viewed not only as a collection of insightful descriptive analyses of Peer’s story but also is part of his self-narrative—a chapter in an ongoing process of his telling and retelling his story.
