Die SOL-Saga

The author, participant as well as observer himself, describes the story of a Swiss self-help group of counsellors who gathered in 1999 under the name of ??self-organized learning?? (SOL) to realize their own further education. The aim of this case-study is to verify the exactitude of the three hypotheses made by Schattenhofer in1992 concerning the long-range changes of self-organized groups. The relation between stabilizing and destabilizing factors as well as other group dynamic parameters determines the condensed description of the seven years?? process. Schattenhofers?? theories are discussed and it is shown that none of his postulates is adopted in its entirety by SOL. Moreover, SOL keeps up a delicate balance between the ??fixed?? aspects of an organization and the ??looseness?? of the private character.