Beyond the Golden Rule: Emencipatory Practice and Change in Organisations

Conclusion

There are at least as many stories and metaphors about the question as there are people to tell them. Recognising the use of metaphors can lead to their undoing (Krippendorff 1995). Different descriptions and stories imply having a different way of relating “and (are) often what enables a person to say ‘now I can go on’-to understand in the Wittgensteinian sense” (Riikonen 1997 p. 103). Inquiring into stories and metaphors provides a way of considering what sorts of relationships they warrant. The stories told here, indicate that others are called for in order to make sense of how service users can be talked of in a way that includes them within the organisation. For example, a metaphor suggested by Riikonen and Maden Smith is that of a dance, which “includes the possibility of continuous responsiveness” (Riikonen p. 22) and cannot be evaluated “by studying the steps of (only) one of the dancers”, two entailments which seem to me to fit with the project of inclusion. One of the research activities will be inviting practitioners and managers in the voluntary agency to explore their own metaphors and stories, and generate new ones, for the involvement of children and young people with the organisation.