Hairdressers, developers & slums — the future city?

noelito
noelito
Nov 4 · 1 min read

The theory of “positive deviance” has a strong resonance with people working in community development, and it’s something I’ve covered on the Arab spring, the workplace and it’s something I’ve explored in my chapter for Radical Future. but in what other areas could this approach work? They can trigger disruption, such as when developers go into residence (@codeforamerica) to disrupt the way local government approaches technology or when hairdressers are recommended to advise councils (@demos).

But what about more extreme positive deviance?

“The way we dealt with it (social problems) before is sweeping it under the carpet, if you try to do it within these informal settlements, they’ll take out the city”

This is just one of the stories from @paulmasonnews radio documentary on the slums which ranges from managing scarcity to alternative forms of democracy. You can listen to it on his podcast.

What can we learn from positive deviance in extreme poverty? Is this taking reverse innovation too far or are we are looking at the future of our cities in the face?

noelito

Written by

noelito

Head of Strategy (Communities) @camdencouncil #localgov Director @euroalter Co-founder of #systemschange & #servicedesign progs. inspired by @cescaalbanese

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