Permanenting ephemerality – upholding an everlasting crisis

Purpose This article seeks to understand attempts to formalize informality and keep the urgency of crisis in public sector. Design/methodology/approach To understand this societal problem, the study used qualitative methods of observations of meetings, text analysis and interviews with members of a central management group, as well as their Coordination group for receiving and integrating newly arrived migrants in a major city of Sweden. Findings The analysis shows how public organizations in response to the 2015 refugee situation initially adopted an ephemeral mode of action characterized by urgency, improvisation and short-term coordination. This break from their usual logic of stability and long-term planning enabled rapid mobilization but was not confined to the moment of crisis. Instead, actors within these organizations worked strategically to sustain the sense of urgency beyond the immediate situation. Through these actions, the ephemeral response was transformed into a durable mode of governance. The temporary was not only extended but used as a foundation for building strategic attention and mandate around integration. In doing so, public actors aimed to redefine integration work as both urgent and necessary. Practical implications The study provides insights into how public servants can actively shape and sustain political attention for complex social issues, such as integration, beyond the immediate moment of crisis. It highlights the importance of strategic use of mandates, organizational framing and internal mobilization within public administration. The findings caution against overreliance on prolonged crisis narratives as a tool for institutional change. While such strategies may offer short-term momentum, they may obscure other pressing concerns and reduce the legitimacy of future crisis responses. Public organizations need to develop governance strategies that balance responsiveness with long-term planning and enable institutional flexibility without defaulting to a state of permanent exception. Social implications This article is societally relevant as it highlights how public servants work to maintain momentum around certain issues. This can be understood as leading to other issues being overshadowed or deprioritized. and that public servants within governmental organizations cannot rely solely on bureaucratic structures and predefined mandates to address and manage pressing and evolving concerns. The ambition to sustain a sense of urgency around societal challenges may be appealing, but it becomes problematic when new and unforeseen crises emerge. There is a risk of creating a “crying wolf” effect where the continued invocation of crisis diminishes its impact and undermines responsiveness to genuinely acute issues. In doing so, the article exposes some of the future dilemmas faced by public organizations operating within a society characterized by polycrisis. Originality/value The article contributes to understanding how actors within public organizations strategically draw on past events to sustain a sense of urgency and build mandate for long-term strategic work. Although these organizations are typically associated with stability, they initially responded in an ephemeral, crisis-like manner. Over time, actors worked to prolong this mode of engagement, using the crisis narrative to legitimize continued focus on integration as a pressing and strategic concern.