Positive deviance: Encouraging Social Change Through Passive Resistance.

Deviance can be a powerful tool to encourage social change. Why does deviance encourage this change? I believe the answer is simple. Deviance sets in motion inside of everyone's head a thought process. People begin to think positively and negatively about what happened, especially when it is highly publicized deviance. Opinions are formed and about what has happened. People begin to debate with each other about who is MORE wrong. For instance, its 7:50am and …

…act of deviance can lead to more and more acts of deviance by people that strongly believe there is a just cause for more deviance, especially with the media to catalyst the process. At this point many institutions are forced to see these acts and what they mean. These institutions then have the opportunity to support or not support the changes proposed by the deviant group. This is one way deviance can encourage social change.