ABSTRACT
The story of Greystone Women’s Centre should have removed any lingering doubts that characterisations of non-hierarchical organisation as ‘spontaneous’ or ‘natural’ are in any way adequate depictions of what is involved. Instead we have seen how participants are engaged in a creative struggle to build a desired future through their actions in the present. This is done through a continual process of innovation, review and modification, in the course of which some participants become skilled organisers. The remaining three chapters will draw on this, and other, case material to explore the processes of organising and leadership in relation to specific and generalised accounts of non-hierarchy, to suggest how organisation theory can accommodate and use such insights, and finally to consider some implications for practice in terms of the particular situation of Women’s Centres.
