Market Rebels

Activists and Innovation

When you think of the computer, you probably think of the technological breakthroughs involved in creating it. They were essential, but it was the social network of “the personal computing movement” that took the computer beyond the interest of the few and made it accessible to the many. The same is true of the automobile. It was mocked when it was first introduced, and many didn’t see the point. Then, auto clubs held competitions and rallies, sharing the results and conferring a new legitimacy on cars.

Activists have also mobilized against technological innovation. The deaf community’s response to cochlear implants is a good example. The implants can enable many deaf children to hear – but protests by deaf community activists cast the invention as an attack on their group’s identity.

Finding the best strategy for changing group identity can be tough: Do you try first to change beliefs and hope behavior change will follow? Or do you try to change behavior and hope the changed behavior will lead to changed beliefs? Kurt Lewin and other theorists believe groups change in a “three-step process”:

1. “Unfreezing” the status...