First we should know what is deviance how it works and its purpose.
DEVIANCE – simply the fact or state of departing from usual or accepted standards, especially in social or sexual behavior. Its purpose affirms cultural values and norms. As quoted ” There can be no good without evil, and justice without crime”.
Now, the question is can we create a non-pathological culture, while embracing both deviance and tradition at the same time?
In my point of view, Yes we can create that kind of culture while we embrace both deviance and tradition at the same time.
WHY?
All of us is dealing with alterations in life having specific styles of living, “ways of thinking and perceiving, ways of experiencing emotions, with modes of of activity that are associated with various pathologies.
As we know deviant behaviors violates informal social norms or what we call formally enacted rules.
Therefore, we need one of the steps to build a non-pathological culture and that is to have a social control. For example, When a person violates social norms, what happens? A driver caught speeding can receive a speeding ticket. As of what I see societies practice social control, the regulation and enforcement of norms.
We know the means of enforcing rules are known as sanctions. Sanctions can be positive as well as negative. Positive sanctions are rewards given for conforming norms. Negative sanctions are punishments for violating norms.
We can both embrace deviance to tradition with the involvement of positive deviance.
In every community there are certain individuals or groups whose uncommon behaviors and strategies enable them to find better solutions to problem than their peers, while having access to the same resources and facing similar or worse challenges.
Positive deviance is a way more positive to solve or to adopt problems.
The process typically involves:
Recognition: Community members must first come together and recognize the issues that need to be addressed.
Definition: People who are adopting unusual behaviors which create positive outcomes are identified as the positive deviants.
Positive deviance inquiry: This stage involves observing the deviants with a focus on their behavior, actions and attitudes in dealing with the problem. Rather than turning the deviant into a local celebrity, the inquiry is intended to empower ordinary community members.
Acting into a new way of thinking: Having identified the strategies of the deviants, the community chooses an approach to the problem to adopt. This stage is not intended to merely teach best practices; it is supposed to foster a new mentality by ’acting into a new of thinking‘ through the use of the designed activities.
The outcome: The point here is to measure the progress made towards the previously outlined goals and to maintain the drive behind the activities.
PARTICIPANTS
Positive Deviance relies on a community-wide effort to tackle problems or at least those who are immediately involved with or affected by the issue.
COSTS
Varied
Positive Deviance is usually a community-led initiative and so can be done cheaply, but only with the dedication of a lot of people.
If local authorities, police or health services are leading the project then organizational and administrative costs need to be factored in.
SRENGHTS
- Highly participative
- Provides local solutions to local problems
- Solutions are achieved through existing resources (the positive deviants)
- Empowering
- Develops the skills and capacity of participants in dealing with common problems
ORIGIN
This method was then developed and published by Pascale Richard , Jerry Sternin and Monique Sternin. (2010) The power of Positive Deviance
I believe this is one of the methods that would help create non-pathological culture, while embracing deviancy and tradition at the same time.
We all possess certain patterns of dealing with the environment which are deeply embedded, persuasive and likely to continue.
There are steps that I come up in order to cope up with deviance within tradition at the same time.
Step 1. Defining the problem and necessary outcome.
Actions:
Be open, and share the findings in community forums.
Explore the issues and barriers associated with the problem.
Step 2. Determine common practices
Actions
Set up meetings to include different groups across the community.
Involve the community in identifying activities, learnings, and prioritization.
Step 3. Discover uncommon, successful behaviors
Actions
Identify who in the community faces the same challenges, with the same resources, yet tackles the problem successfully.
Identify the uncommon practices that lead to improved outcomes.
Share the lessons learned with the community.
Step 4. Design an initiative using the learnings
Actions
Connect people who were not previously connected.
Create opportunities for learning to take place.
Apply the learned positive deviance behaviors.
Not all the time deviance portrays negative effects, this is also creates unity within traditions and cultures in different kinds of group with different norms. Also promotes social change.
As of what Emile Durkheim stated, he believed that deviance is a necessary part of a successful society.
The most effective possible social control system would be one that prevents deviance from arising at all. It could prevent deviant acts from occurring in the first place it is called the primary prevention or if they have occurred in the past, prevent their reoccurrence called the secondary prevention.
Ways of Dealing Deviance to Create Non-Pathological Culture
There are variety of different ways of dealing with the individuals who choose to be deviant.
Deterrence, or more commonly known as punishment, is providing a negative consequence to a particular deviant action to discourage people from doing the deviant action.
Incapacitation, is best known in our society as placing people in jail or prison.
Lastly Rehabilitation, increasingly supported recently and can be broken down as a moral ethic school for criminals. When individuals commit crimes, they enter a program where their goal is to understand why their behavior is deviant.
Who are Society’s Deviants?
To some extent we all are. We break rules every day.
We can create non-pathological culture by applying rules and regulations and to consider some norms that would help lessen deviancy even while embracing it the same time as we embrace tradition.
In own understandings or my summary, as society evolves, the methods of dealing with criminal behavior evolve with it.
Crowd Culture 