Nothing in this world ever completely stays constant. Change occurs for many reasons including but not limited to: conflict, development, and power. Top down driven change and bottom up driven change are just two strategies that can be used to classify how change occurs. Top down change is change that starts from a place of high authority and trickles down to the rest of the system. Bottom up change begins with people and things that are not seemingly influential and eventually spreads out to reach all aspects. A major part of Malcolm Gladwell’s, “The Power of Context”, is focused on change and how it occurred in regards to New York City. Gladwell focuses on how and why the crime rate dropped. He also gives other examples of
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They are the ones that have the expertise and experience to take on certain tasks. The Broken Windows Theory is a criminological theory that states that “crime is contagious”, it can start from something seemingly minor, and spread to an entire community. The New York Transit Authority hired a consultant to help rebuild the subway system (Gladwell 152). This led to the appointment of a new subway director, which in turn led to the hiring of a new head of the transit police, an action that started the “second stage of the reclamation of the subway system” ( Gladwell 152-153). The reformation of the subway system started from the top of the chain of command of the subway system and eventually trickled down to the people that used the subways. The reformation of the subway system could not be successfully driven from the bottom up. For a bottom up change to occur the citizens would have to take the first initiative for the safety and cleanliness of the subways. This process would have taken entirely too long because it would involve a realization from the people that they were the true source of the problem. It can not be expected that the same people who destroyed something, who made situations worse, would also be the same people to try to build it back …show more content…
However, It is often found that a combination of both aforementioned strategies is the most effective. Ideally, in order for change to be effective, it must be an action that comes from both those in power and the people they are responsible for. Although, independently, the subway reformation was an example of top down change, when looking at New York City as a whole, the subway system was only a small part of it all. “After the election of Rudolph Giuliani as mayor of New York in 1994, Bratton was appointed head of the New York City Police Department, and he applied the same strategies to the city at large” (Gladwell 154). The subway system reformation helped in the transformation of the city of New York City. If it were not for the minor details like the graffiti on subways and fare beating, the concepts behind the Broken Windows Theory would not have been applied to the entire city of New York City. When looked at on a much larger scale, Duke University, much like the subway system mentioned in The Power of Context, is only a small part of a whole. Duke University’s educational “experiment” did nothing to change the educational system of the country. Something as large as a national school system is extremely difficult to change. In order for change to occur on such a large scale it primarily needs to start from those who are in power. There is a tremendous
They are the ones that have the expertise and experience to take on certain tasks. The Broken Windows Theory is a criminological theory that states that “crime is contagious”, it can start from something seemingly minor, and spread to an entire community. The New York Transit Authority hired a consultant to help rebuild the subway system (Gladwell 152). This led to the appointment of a new subway director, which in turn led to the hiring of a new head of the transit police, an action that started the “second stage of the reclamation of the subway system” ( Gladwell 152-153). The reformation of the subway system started from the top of the chain of command of the subway system and eventually trickled down to the people that used the subways. The reformation of the subway system could not be successfully driven from the bottom up. For a bottom up change to occur the citizens would have to take the first initiative for the safety and cleanliness of the subways. This process would have taken entirely too long because it would involve a realization from the people that they were the true source of the problem. It can not be expected that the same people who destroyed something, who made situations worse, would also be the same people to try to build it back …show more content…
However, It is often found that a combination of both aforementioned strategies is the most effective. Ideally, in order for change to be effective, it must be an action that comes from both those in power and the people they are responsible for. Although, independently, the subway reformation was an example of top down change, when looking at New York City as a whole, the subway system was only a small part of it all. “After the election of Rudolph Giuliani as mayor of New York in 1994, Bratton was appointed head of the New York City Police Department, and he applied the same strategies to the city at large” (Gladwell 154). The subway system reformation helped in the transformation of the city of New York City. If it were not for the minor details like the graffiti on subways and fare beating, the concepts behind the Broken Windows Theory would not have been applied to the entire city of New York City. When looked at on a much larger scale, Duke University, much like the subway system mentioned in The Power of Context, is only a small part of a whole. Duke University’s educational “experiment” did nothing to change the educational system of the country. Something as large as a national school system is extremely difficult to change. In order for change to occur on such a large scale it primarily needs to start from those who are in power. There is a tremendous