Organizational critique and the design of a prefigurative social order: The case of an alternative organization positioning in integration work

Abstract

In a neighborhood house (named NOVOS hereafter), a critique of the usual way of organizing integration leads to an alternative organizational form that provides integration work. Grounded in structuration theory, our focus is on how a group of knowledgeable activists reflexively designs a prefigurative order informed by this organizational critique. They do so via specific practices and continuous efforts of organizational regulation. The social order at NOVOS is prefigurative, as it is designed to change integration work by providing a consequential alternative, and it is plural, as it is a combination of different types of social systems. We elaborate on the emergence and maintenance of this order as an attempt to address heterogeneous subpopulations and as an attempt at relational positioning via an organizational critique.