Dis/agreement in participatory organisations: low theory and democratic governance in cybernetics.

This thesis explores the relationship between organisational cybernetics and participatory democracy, considering their tensions, resonances, challenges, and futures. Based on the lessons drawn from five case studies, the project emerges out of the synthesis of multimodular forms of data, drawing on interviews, texts, personal experience, and observations. The research draws on the experiences and interpretations of both practitioners and academics and is both participatory and iterative in its methodology. Both cybernetics and democracy are approached as wide-ranging discourses, the meanings of which shift depending on the contexts in which they are applied. In the case of the former this involves approaching the subject as extra-scientific, rendering cybernetics more conducive to democratic environments. The project draws on Stafford Beer’s work on cybernetics while also introducing forms of analysis which have remained absent from cybernetics’ application to democratic organisations, particularly the work of Jack Halberstam and Jacque Rancière. Many original concepts emerge from the project, the two most notable of which concern the contextually relevant articulation of cybernetics in democratic spaces, which I call low cybernetics, and the facilitation of dissensus within cybernetically governed organisations, which I call spaces of dissent. This dissensual notion of democracy requires a shift in the approach taken to applying cybernetics, requiring a spatial rather than process-based approach to design and governance. The thesis contributes to the development of a non-managerial interpretation of cybernetics, with a focus on using the skills, knowledge, and intelligence of entire groups of organisers, rather than leaving major decisions to a small group of managers. Such a shift is likely to lead not only to more inclusive and democratic ways of organising, but also to improved decision-making which draws on the experience of all those with relevant knowledge.