Tyranny Of Structurelessness & The Tyranny Of Tyranny
Tyranny of Structurelessness by Jo Freeman is a famous essay, which I see cited frequently whenever a group is in some type of organization process, and someone wants to introduce more formal organization for some reason.
I appreciate the original essay, but I think it often gets offered as though it were the end of the conversation, and there weren't other opinions out there, and sometimes it gets used as a blanket justification for using formal rules and processes, without fully considering all the non-formal influences, negotiations and possibilities that can go into collectivity, and how different people, depending on their background, have different affinity for formal process.
Sometimes it even gets used as a justification for technocracy, which has a long history, ever since missionaries and "enlightened" folks started thinking they know what's best for everyone, and it is their moral obligation to manifest their vision onto the unenlightened world.
technocracy - "The government or control of society or industry by an elite of technical experts."
See this article for more on technocracy.
Here is some more writing and critique of the tyranny of structurelessness:
- Tyranny of Tyranny by Cathy Levine (maybe not as elegant writing as the original, but has some interesting points)
- A History Of Anarcha-Feminism by Julia Tannenbaum which talks about Tyranny Of Structurelessness and Tyranny of Tyranny
- The Utopia of Rules: On Technology, Stupidity, and the Secret Joys of Bureaucracy by David Graeber Chapter 3, "The Utopia of Rules, or Why We Really Love Bureaucracy After All” (the end of the chapter specifically critiques the tyranny of structurelessness)
- The statement from contract theory, that "all contracts are incomplete". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incomplete_contracts
- an are.na channel on collaboration processes
And here is the somewhat related (misguided) link about putting sexual consent on the blockchain (if we see some forms of crypto-maximalism as the full logical extreme position of formalizing life):
- Is Blockchain the Answer to Sexual Consent? https://finance.yahoo.com/news/blockchain-answer-sexual-consent-230544393.html