Unity, not uniformity, must be our aim. - MPF

2011 Conference

Mary Parker Follett

International Gathering:

The Boston Conversations

October 20-21, 2011

Boston, Massachusetts

Northeastern University

Mary Parker Follett (1868-1933) has lately been rediscovered, although today her contributions to political science, management and other fields seem quite obvious. She has renewed the vision of democracy and enlivened the fundamentals of management.

[…] “She was the prophet of management. Management and society in general should welcome her return.” (Peter Drucker in Mary P. Follett: Prophet of Management, 1995, Pauline Graham)

A few years ago, a network of researchers, consultants, practitioners of democracy, management, sociology or psychology, from different regions in the world, formed, gathering people who wanted to share knowledge, ideas or practices of Follett’s principles. The electronic forum of this network, here on this ning site, shows the rich diversity of subjects that Follett’s ideas have evoked in her readers.

“The deeper truth, perhaps the deepest, is that the will to will the common will is the core, the germinating centre of that larger, still larger, ever larger life, which we are coming to call the true democracy.” (Follett, 1918, The New State).

“To sum up this point of hierarchy. There is no above and below. We cannot schematize men as space objects. The study of community as process will bring us, I believe, not to the over-individual mind, but to the inter-individual mind, an entirely different conception. (Follett, 1919, Community is a Process)

2011 Gathering in Boston

Members of the Network are organizing a two day meeting to share Follett’s thinking, and its continual relevance in today’s world. This meeting is a way to deepen conversations begun on the MPF Network’s electronic forum and to build upon the conference organized by the Mary Parker Follett Foundation in 2002.

As a dialogue on Mary Parker Follett’s thought, the Boston Conversation needs its participants’ expectations and possible contributions. So, interested participants are invited to fill-out and return their responses to the electronic questionnaire.

Everyone’s feedback will then be considered in the overall design of our meeting.

Schedule

Thursday October 20, 2011

Introductory evening with supper.

5:00 pm to 9:00 pm

Egan Building 206