{"title":"Flipping the Diffusion of Innovations Paradigm: Embracing the Positive Deviance Approach to Social Change","authors":"A. Singhal, P. Svenkerud","doi":"10.1177/1326365X19857010","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"The classical diffusion of the innovations paradigm has faced criticism for reifying outside-in, expert-driven approaches to solving problems and for overlooking and rejecting local solutions. In this article, we argue that diffusion scholars should pay more attention to approaches such as positive deviance (PD) that enable communities to discover the wisdom they already have and then to act on it. PD is an asset-based approach that identifies what is going right in a community to amplify it, as opposed to focusing on what is going wrong in a community and fixing it with outside expertise. In the PD approach, the change is led by internal change agents who, with access to no special resources, present the social behavioural proof to their peers that problems can be solved. Given that the solutions are generated locally, they are more likely to sustain and be owned by potential adopters.","PeriodicalId":43557,"journal":{"name":"Asia Pacific Media Educator","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2019-07-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/1326365X19857010","citationCount":"9","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Asia Pacific Media Educator","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1326365X19857010","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"Social Sciences","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 9
Abstract
The classical diffusion of the innovations paradigm has faced criticism for reifying outside-in, expert-driven approaches to solving problems and for overlooking and rejecting local solutions. In this article, we argue that diffusion scholars should pay more attention to approaches such as positive deviance (PD) that enable communities to discover the wisdom they already have and then to act on it. PD is an asset-based approach that identifies what is going right in a community to amplify it, as opposed to focusing on what is going wrong in a community and fixing it with outside expertise. In the PD approach, the change is led by internal change agents who, with access to no special resources, present the social behavioural proof to their peers that problems can be solved. Given that the solutions are generated locally, they are more likely to sustain and be owned by potential adopters.
期刊介绍:
Asia Pacific Media Educator is an international refereed journal published twice a year by SAGE Publications (New Delhi) in collaboration with the School of the Arts, English and Media, Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts, University of Wollongong in Australia. The journal follows international norms and procedures of blind peer reviewing by scholars representing a wide range of multi-disciplinary areas. APME focuses on generating discussions and dialogues among media educators, researchers and journalists. Content ranges from critical commentaries and essays to research reports and papers that contribute to journalism theory development and offer innovative ideas in improving the standard and currency of media reportage, teaching and training specific to the Asia Pacific region. Papers that integrate media theories with applications to professional practice, media training and journalism education are usually selected for peer review. APME also carries a Q&A section with book authors. APME takes conventional book reviews to a more creative level where reviewers directly engage with authors to understand the process that authors take in researching and writing the book, clarify their assumptions and pose critical questions.