There's a really interesting chapter of Charles Duhigg's The Power of Habit (Why We Do What We Do, and How to Change) analysing the habits of societies and how social movements happen. Duhigg uses the example of the Montgomery Bus Boycott in the mid 1950s which was sparked by Rosa Parks being arrested after refusing to give up her seat on a bus to a white man.
There were of-course many factors surrounding and leading up to the incident which contributed to it becoming a spark for the much wider movement that became the Montgomery Bus Boycott and an early catalyst for the civil rights movement. But Duhigg makes the point that similar incidents had happened before but it was only this one that became a catalyst for a something much bigger. This, he believes, is because it completed three stages that are critical to a social movement. Societal movements, he says, "rely on social patterns that begin as the habits of friendship, grow through the habits of communities, and are sustained by new habits that change participants' sense of self". In other words, it helped that Rosa Parks was connected and well respected in both the black and white communities and her action triggered a series of social habits amongst these 'strong ties'. The movement then grew through the 'weak ties' between the members of the community, herding and peer pressure. And it endured because the Reverend Martin Luther King lead the boycott (bringing him into the national spotlight at the time) and he preached new habits that fed the desire for belief in the possibility of change, a feeling of new identity and ownership, and resulted in new patterns of behaviour.
Fascinating, and lots to take from that I think.
Leave a Reply