Regional Aspects of Contemporary Culture

Abstract

C ULTURAL and social differentiation is characteristic of our society. That modern communication and transportation have not produced a homogeneous culture throughout the United States is an accepted fact. Social scientists recognize social, psychological, and economic, as well as physical differences between and within such divisions as North-South, East-West, Mountain-Plain, and Rural-Urban. Recognizing the existence of cultural differentiation in spatial terms, sociologists are concerning themselves more and more with the regional aspects of the materials with which they deal. Several books and numerous articles by sociologists have appeared on this subject, and there is developing what very properly may become a recognized field of regional sociology. It is no accident that sociological regionalism is assuming increasing importance today. The subject is closely allied with practical endeavors in the field of social and economic planning. Continued participation by the Federal government in mass relief, social security, public works, agricultural adjustment, housing, rural electrification, public health, and other programs is to be expected. Planning programs all involve, directly or indirectly, human problems. Most of them impinge upon human nature and human institutions and therefore are of interest to the sociologist. If such welfare programs are to be planned with a minimum of waste and inefficiency, they must be based on a solid factual foundation of careful preliminary research. One of the first requisites of planning is a thorough knowledge of the problems involved, including a knowledge of the area over which those problems extend in their varying aspects and intensity. When the Federal Emergency Relief Administration began to function in I933, it was found that the intensity of distress varied greatly in different parts of the country, thus showing a decided regional aspect. As records of the numbers of families receiving public assistance became available on a nationwide scale, it was found that most of the sections with exceptionally and persistently high relief rates were rural' regions in which the majority of families lived in the open country or in villages and small towns. Study of county relief intensity rates for several consecutive months in I933 and I934 revealed definable areas in which many localities reported 20 to 30 percent or more of their population on relief. Six such regions were identified for special study.2 They were designated as the Lake States Cut-