![]() ![]() ![]() “We can never underestimate how much people are willing to struggle so their children can have a better life,” he says. Selbin notes that stories also can help sustain people during the challenging times of a revolution. In Haiti, for example, he says revolution is regarded negatively because that country witnessed one of the world’s greatest revolutions, but it failed. “Revolutions are more likely to occur in places where it is lauded as grand, glorious and noble than in places where it is seen as a bad idea and a cause of trouble,” he says. ![]() Selbin says this helps explain why revolutions have not occurred in places where the economy is bad, such as Haiti, Honduras and Somalia. “Stories…can obviate economic disadvantage, surmount socio-cultural mores and even triumph over military might.”Īnd if we can get a sense about what a population’s attitude is toward such stories, we have a better chance of predicting whether revolutions are more likely there. “If you have people who can animate a powerful and compelling story about revolution, then suddenly it becomes a possibility,” he says. Selbin says stories allow us to imagine the transformation of our lives and our world. “As I reflected more and more on this, I realized the stories matter just as much or more than what the economic situation was or whether the regime was strong or weak.” “I was taking stories and trying to reduce them to data instead of listening to their stories,” he says. In doing his research, Selbin says he was struck by how many times people told him stories. The book is based on more than 20 years of research in countries such as Nicaragua, Grenada, Mexico, Spain and France. That’s the theme of his latest book, Revolution, Rebellion, Resistance: The Power of Story. For example, virtually no one predicted the “color” revolutions that took place in Eastern European countries in the early 2000s.Įric Selbin, a political science professor and University Scholar at Southwestern University who studies revolutions, believes social scientists have been overlooking a key indicator: the power of cultural factors such as storytelling and the use of symbolism. However, such methods have not been very successful in predicting revolutions. Traditionally, social scientists have looked at factors such as a country’s economic situation or the strength of the government in power to predict where revolutions will happen and why. Why do revolutions occur in some countries but not others? ![]()
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