Visions of community for community OR

Systemic Intervention

“…Both the liberal and capitalist discourses have long histories in the West, and have come to be institutionalised throughout the economic and legal systems of our societies. While on the whole the two discourses are mutually supportive (Booth Fowler, 1991;Midgley and Ochoa-Arias, 1999), there are still significant tensions, and the phenomenon of unemployment points to one of them. The key to understanding the status of the unemployed is to realise that it is only possible to maintain the dual commitment to liberalism and capitalism if people who are unemployed are neither fully included nor excluded.…”

“…However, like many other authors (e.g., Brown and Smith, 1992), I have chosen to stick with Nirje's (1960) original terminology which is already widely known and, in the UK at least, is showing no sign of being replaced. analysis is essential (also see Midgley and Ochoa-Arias, 1999, for another argument in favour of politically aware systemic intervention).…”

“…For this reason, Midgley and Ochoa-Arias (1999) argue that Community OR practitioners should be explicit about the normative vision(s) of community they wish to promote, rather than hiding their political interests behind the rather more 'mundane' motivations surfaced in Wong and Mingers's (1994) survey. Midgley and Ochoa-Arias (1999) discuss eight different forms of community politics: two forms of liberalism; two variants 00 Marxism; and four kinds of communitarianism (see the original literature for definitions).…”

“…For this reason, Midgley and Ochoa-Arias (1999) argue that Community OR practitioners should be explicit about the normative vision(s) of community they wish to promote, rather than hiding their political interests behind the rather more 'mundane' motivations surfaced in Wong and Mingers's (1994) survey. Midgley and Ochoa-Arias (1999) discuss eight different forms of community politics: two forms of liberalism; two variants 00 Marxism; and four kinds of communitarianism (see the original literature for definitions). They argue that different forms of Community OR support different visions of community, and if practitioners fail to reflect m these then it is likely that they will slip uncritically into a form of Community OR that automatically supports the cultural nann (in most countries where Community OR is practised, this is welfare liberalism).…”

“…Ochoa-Arias (1999) makes some interesting comments about the Venezuelan government's rhetoric about finding a 'third way' between capitalism and socialism. This is precisely the same language used in the UK by many political commentators.…”