Establishing New Social Patterns
Summary
Establishing New Social Patterns is method 174 in Gene Sharp’s 198 Methods of Nonviolent Action, listed under Social Intervention — the constructive-programme sub-cluster of Nonviolent Intervention [source: commons-198-methods].
Body
Sharp listed establishing new social patterns as method 174, the opening item of his Social Intervention sub-cluster (methods 174-180) and the parent-cluster entry for the constructive-programme trio that ends with Alternative Social Institutions (179) and Alternative Communication System (180) [source: commons-198-methods]. The method names the practice of building cooperative institutions, mutual-aid networks, or alternative social practices as the constructive programme that runs alongside — or in the absence of — a direct confrontation with the target.
New social patterns differ from alternative-social-institutions in that they target behaviours, not organisations. Establishing a new pattern means a constituency has decided to do something differently — its weekly work meetings are run by consensus, its members use the Spanish-language buen vivir vocabulary in council, its mutual-aid network resolves disputes without calling the police. The institutions are the vehicles; the patterns are the cultural shifts in how the constituency relates to itself and to outsiders. The two pair naturally but are not the same: an institutional structure without new patterns produces an empty organisation; new patterns without an institution produce a movement that cannot scale or sustain.
Historical examples cluster in three settings. Counter-economic movements — the Mondragon cooperatives, the Catalan integrated-cooperative movement, the Cuban barrio solidarity networks — establish new patterns of production and exchange. Counter-cultural movements — Quaker and Catholic Worker traditions, Gandhi’s ashrams, Rojava’s neighbourhood councils — establish new patterns of authority, decision-making, and personal discipline. Movement-building traditions — the Eastern European dissident circles, the US civil-rights network’s organising discipline, the Latin American MST’s land-occupation assemblies — establish new patterns of mobilisation, training, and solidarity that survive the originating campaign.
The risks are real. New social patterns can become sectarian — the constituency’s standards of behaviour become a test of belonging rather than a strategic discipline, and outreach suffers. They can become austere — the discipline that produced the campaign’s coherence becomes its burden, and burned-out members leave. They can become co-opted — the institution grows comfortable and stops challenging the system it was built to change. The pattern that holds is the one that pairs new patterns with constructive-programme discipline: every external escalation paired with an internal development, every internal development paired with an external challenge.
See methods-of-nonviolent-action for the broader method library.
Use it for
Building cooperative institutions, mutual-aid networks, or alternative social practices as the constructive programme that runs alongside — or in the absence of — a direct confrontation with the target.
Worked examples
- barcelona-citizens-general-strike-for-democracy-and-economic — the strike’s factory committees established cooperative labour-management patterns that demonstrated a democratic alternative to existing capitalist structures.
- australian-campaign-case-study-stop-adani-2012-2022 — the movement built community-solar and energy-cooperative institutions, creating new collective practices for a renewable energy future.
- argentines-protest-uruguayan-paper-mills-2005-2008 — cross-border assemblies formed a transnational citizen-diplomacy pattern, establishing new social behaviours for resolving international disputes from below.
Learn more
- On Wikipedia: Social norm — CC BY-SA 4.0
FAQ
What is establishing new social patterns?
Establishing new social patterns is method 174 in Gene Sharp’s 198 Methods of Nonviolent Action, listed under Social Intervention in the constructive-programme sub-cluster of Nonviolent Intervention. It means building cooperative institutions, mutual-aid networks, or alternative social practices as a constructive programme alongside, or in the absence of, direct confrontation with the target [source: commons-198-methods].
What is the difference between new social patterns and alternative social institutions?
New social patterns target behaviours, not organisations. A constituency may run weekly work meetings by consensus, use the Spanish-language buen vivir vocabulary in council, or resolve disputes through mutual aid without calling the police. Institutions are the vehicles; patterns are cultural shifts. Without institutions patterns may not scale, while institutions without patterns produce an empty organisation.
What are the risks of establishing new social patterns?
New social patterns can become sectarian, turning standards of behaviour into a test of belonging and harming outreach; austere, making the discipline a burden that causes members to leave; or co-opted, making an institution comfortable enough to stop challenging the system. The page pairs new patterns with constructive-programme discipline: external escalation with internal development, and internal development with external challenge.
Related
Open Questions
- This page currently relies only on the Commons 198-methods pointer. A more grounded writeup drawing on Sharp’s The Politics of Nonviolent Action and the constructive-programme literature would help practitioners choose between the method’s variants.