Tina Rosenberg in her well researched book titled ” Join the Club – How Peer Pressure can transform the world ” [ Icon Books – ISBN :978-184831-300-2 ] gives numerous real life case studies where Peer Groups have achieved spectacular social cure in finding solutions for serious problems like smoking , AIDS , Rural Health Projects , politics ,education and the like. A common thread runs through all these case studies and it is how a peer group could leverage its nuclear community feeling and a sense of inclusion to achieve significant social cure.
The peer group as a nuclear community has great bonding and comradeship especially among young people . The members trust each other when there is no hierarchy and any pecking order. A problem facing such groups and needing an acceptable and lasting solution can be thrown open for discussion, alignment and adoption using carefully selected leaders who play the role of facilitators . The process should also facilitate intense discussion and introspection without any sermonizing or ” talking down ” approach . Once the group owns the problem , creative solutions come up automatically and these become the new norms of behavior .
Some of the social issues facing the young people like drunken driving , road rage , social rebellion , drug addiction etc can be tackled effectively through such interventions with the nuclear communities . Frank discussions , experiential learning and clever mentoring by members of the peer group can achieve great results without affecting the sensibilities of the members. Tina Rosenberg has many such success stories in her book for others to emulate .