Habit cannot explain contention’s pattern of unceasing small-scale innovation

Evidence

Why should that be? Why should contentious politics behave like loosely scripted theater? First we must rule out two tempting bad answers: dumb habit and technological determinism. Repetition of similar claim-making routines from one year to the next might seem to result from force of habit, which blinds people to other possibilities. No one who has looked closely at contentious politics, however, is likely to find that explanation credible. On the contrary, participants impress us with their unceasing small-scale innovation. — Charles Tilly, Regimes and Repertoires, 264

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s regime-capacity/repertoires project: ‘innovation within the script’ is the mechanism by which institutional absorption might channel rather than defuse politicization. — connects to: Rapid political change and tradition clashes weaken routine-embedded repertoires into innovation — Charles Tilly, Regimes and Repertoires, 263; Habit collapses the gap between ideal aim and its actual realization
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Charles Tilly, Regimes and Repertoires, 264

Broader Connections

• Habit collapses the gap between ideal aim and its actual realization #complicates (0.78)