The adoption of culturally contentious innovations: The case of citizen oversight of police
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Date
2023-02-23
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Citation of Original Publication
Ali, M. U.. 2023. “ The adoption of culturally contentious innovations: The case of citizen oversight of police.” Policy Studies Journal, 00, 1– 24. https://doi.org/10.1111/psj.12499
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This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Ali, M. U.. 2023. “ The adoption of culturally contentious innovations: The case of citizen oversight of police.” Policy Studies Journal, 00, 1– 24. https://doi.org/10.1111/psj.12499, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/psj.12499. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions. This article may not be enhanced, enriched or otherwise transformed into a derivative work, without express permission from Wiley or by statutory rights under applicable legislation. Copyright notices must not be removed, obscured or modified. The article must be linked to Wiley’s version of record on Wiley Online Library and any embedding, framing or otherwise making available the article or pages thereof by third parties from platforms, services and websites other than Wiley Online Library must be prohibited.
Access to this item will begin on 02-23-2025
Access to this item will begin on 02-23-2025
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Abstract
Cultural contentiousness is defined as an attribute of innovation due to which it encounters resistance because of its incompatibility with hegemonic cultural assumptions. I argue that culturally contentious innovations are likely to be adopted when antecedents have productive symbolic force, i.e., they reveal contradictions between dominant cultural assumptions and the material outcomes of existing institutions or empower social actors to resolve such contradictions. On the other hand, antecedents with incapacitative symbolic force tend to obfuscate the above contradictions or decrease social actors' capacity to resolve them, encouraging the adoption of less contentious innovation. Applying these arguments to citizen oversight agencies (COAs) for the police, I examine the antecedents of contentious (investigative) as opposed to less contentious (non-investigative) COAs. In support of the above argument, I find that productive antecedents (e.g., a consent decree, an increase in civil rights nonprofits) are associated with adopting investigative COAs. In contrast, incapacitative antecedents (e.g., a Law Enforcement Officer Bill of Rights, an increase in the violent crime rate) are associated with adopting non-investigative COAs. The findings broadly demonstrate that policy adoption scholars ought to distinguish policies in terms of cultural contentiousness and account for the symbolic force of antecedents. Further theoretical contributions are discussed.