Madness and Organization: Informed Management and Empowerment

Empowerment has become a popular and alluring concept associated with ideas of emancipation, participation, and the delegation of decision making. It is seen as a way of enabling individuals, organizations, or even nations to exert a greater degree of control over their destinies. In addition, information technology (IT) is seen as an enabling medium through which empowerment can be realized. Yet, in some cases technology is also viewed as the source of oppression and control, while empowerment is regarded as a myth. This paper addresses the relationship between IT and empowerment in the context of recent developments within the management and delivery of care in mental health services. Drawing upon research in an NHS psychiatry department, it examines the process by which individuals (both mental health service professionals and patients) are constituted as empowered through specific discursive practices centered on information and information management.

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