Reflexive Organizations

Organizations of any kind, social, educational, political, business, etc., tend to remain the same. They are all characterized by what Donald Schön called "dynamic conservatism". That is not a hundred per cent bad: it makes institutions and companies reliable. Nevertheless, at times of uncertainty and big changes, like today, the exageration of this tendency can be lethal.

Reflexive organizations, that means institutions able to understand and react in front of changing realities, is the solution. The "Knowledge Based Society" should be renamed as "Learning Based Society".

Maybe one of the best texts on reflexiveness and society is Schön's Beyond the Stable State, published in 1973.

A learning system… must be one in which dynamic conservatism operates at such a level and in such a way as to permit change of state without intolerable threat to the essential functions the system fulfils for the self. Our systems need to maintain their identity, and their ability to support the self-identity of those who belong to them, but they must at the same time be capable of transforming themselves. (Schon 1973: 57)

The link has a good and comprenhensive information on Schön's learning approach.