35 Jaar Oxfam-Wereldwinkels: over groei en organisatorische vernieuwing

At the end of the nineties the Flemish third world movement was having an identity crisis. While the movement was questioning its ideas, mission and place in society, NGOs in the field of solidarity were being critically described as development money-machines whose main concerns were self-preservation and consolidation. The history of Oxfam World Shops, the largest NGO in the Flemish third world movement, reveals a constant struggle with organisational problems resulting from institutionalisation, professionalisation, a hierarchical structure and commercialisation. All these developments have taken place in the tense area between preserving aims of the movement and the ambition to establish and maintain an efficient organisation, or, in other words, between participation and representation.