Who are Detroit's Positive Deviants?

[Sharnelle]

Detroit is living proof that top-down efforts to bring about change rarely work and usually lead to deep cynicism. Real progress is more likely to happen when ordinary people do things that work and become contagious, like a positive infection.

In stressed places around the world, learning from what is known as "positive deviance" within the specific city or region has been used to turn near hopeless situations around.

This approach treats the city as a living thing that responds to the laws of nature and attraction, rather than trying to "fix" a big machine.

However, glossy media profiles of local entrepreneurs are not enough for this kind of contagious change to catch on in a big way. Instead, the ingredients for local success need to be well understood and replicated. Who are the Positive Deviants in Detroit that offer more insight and potential for causing change than the next big study or top-down theory?

In the immortal words of brizee on this forum, "...we have got to find to a way to unfuck ourselves."