Unbounded Governance

This is a study about the facilitation of Popular Development Organization (PDO), specified as process where firstly, grassroots actors become actively involved in self organization, and learn from it; secondly, the efforts of technical support personnel are directed by people’s organizations and other resources are harnessed to facilitate the organizing process; and thirdly, there is increasing support for or alignment with the initiative across society. The thesis analyses evidence about the use of the Moraisean Organization Workshop methodology in stimulating enterprise literacy in southern Africa and considers other ways in which the activity theory that underpins it can be applied. In considering the governance of development organizations, it points to the constraints they experience as a result of the narrow focus on accountability to the Board. It traces the antecedents of the bounded enterprise theory adopted by development initiatives to “small groups” social psychology, offers pointers towards an unbounded organization theory and suggests that PDO depends on dialogic engagement with a range of stakeholders across an unbounded realm.