Professional roles in transmission through sharing rituals: A critical ethnographic study of Norwegian recovery colleges

Abstract Recovery colleges (RCs) represent innovation in mental health services. People with lived experience are brought together with professionals to design and deliver all aspects of the RC. This paper examines the transmission of roles when co-creating new mental health services. We conducted a critical ethnographic study and collected data from participatory observations in RCs at two locations and interviews with leaders with professional backgrounds and lived experiences. The analysis based on perspectives of communitas by Turner and social ties drawing on Barnes shows that co-creation practices imply the interplay between structure and anti-structure. In RCs, traditional service roles and normative structures in existing mental health services are dissolved or redefined. Some elements in this interplay are initiating sharing rituals, leaders' continuous assessments of what they share, and inviting participants to take on new roles and positions. Course leaders facilitate the co-creation of knowledge sharing and course content by initiating sharing rituals that promote equality and communitas. We can understand this dissolution of the normative social structure as a liminal state in which leaders gradually transmit into a new position with a less prominent professional façade. However, significant differences in social status and the daily lives of leaders and participants challenge communitas, indicating that the dissolution of roles can be temporary. We need more in-depth studies to discover the sustainability of roles in transmission in mental health services.