Dialectic between active minorities and majorities: A study of social influence in the community

This article presents a theoretical explanation of the dialectic between active minorities and majorities within a community based on our experience of psychosocial community practice. When assessing needs it is usual to detect contradictions between perceptions of problems by community members and the feelings they express about them. This gap establishes the differences between community needs as estimated by experts and those felt by the people. It also has a delaying and paralyzing effect for the participants. It is contended that the processes of naturalization and habituation are responsible for this phenomenon, their ideological nature leading to accept what is problematic as the “way things are.” Consciousness-raising and problematization are a way to overcome these contradictions, and through them, community organizations may become active minorities. However, contrary to what the study of social influence argues, this does not mean that the active minority always will move the majority, or vice versa; but there is a dialectic between them, in which power, understood as a relationship, plays a basic role. The notions of psychologization, denial, and conversion are analyzed to explain the tension produced and how it affects the perception of needs and the community's reaction to them. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.