| Sumario: | The social application of autopoiesis remains a topic of interest and debate. In the 40 years since the theory of autopoiesis was published, Luhmann's work dominated its social application. Other suggestions of combining autopoiesis with social theory, such as Giddens' structuration theory, have gone largely unnoticed. In the present study, structuration theory is combined with autopoiesis concepts in a framework with which to assess the well-being and sustainability of social systems in a developing country. In particular, the framework is applied to evaluate the contribution of a development project to the community affected by it. The study demonstrates the practical applicability of a structuration-based conceptualisation of autopoiesis. In addition, it presents a novel way of looking at developmental impact, namely in terms of a project's influence on the self-producing ability of the community served. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
|
|---|