Permaculture, Final Capstone Paper 5-26, Hope - Never Ending Food

2. Rare examples can be costly to identify in terms of both time and money. Common
examples do not stimulate new thinking
3. It is an inappropriate approach in settings where positive deviant behavior is not
possible; for example, when necessary resources are not available
4. Traditionally small sample size has led to criticism about the validity of
generalizations
5. Scale-up requires human resources, community mobilization, and capacity building in
the areas of participatory research and the concept of positive deviance.
Similarly, Karen Lapping (2003) of Save the Children USA writes that “statistical significance
and quantitative rigor is not the goal of positive deviance. Rather, it is a problem-solving tool
that can be widely applied to social and behavioral information of practical relevance to inform
programmatic realities” (p.13).
Perhaps the most useful aspect of Positive Deviance is the basic underlying assumption
that in every community and organization there are individuals whose deviant behavior results in
viable innovations and solutions to local problems. In his study of Kenyan agriculture, Ochieng
(2006) sees the potential of the PD framework in facilitating understanding both at the grassroots
and at the policy level. Ochieng postulates “the resources needed for development (financial and
intellectual) may already exist within African organizations and institutions” (p. 458). The
ability to recognize and then harness such PD solutions represents a significant paradigmatic
shift from contemporary development thought, but, argues Ochieng, such a shift has huge
implications for development policy and practice in Africa (p. 458).
2. Adoption of Agricultural Technologies and Practices
There is an abundance of literature available on theories of agricultural innovation and
technological change (Feder & Slade, 1984; Feder, Just, & Zilberman, 1984; Binswanger, 1986;
Goldman, 1993; Chirwa, 2005; Simtowe, 2007) most of which relates to the adoption of “new”,
“modern”, or (internationally) “conventional” methods of agriculture such as the introduction
17