TF~OLK sociology, as its name implies, predicates its theory on the proposition that folkways and their derivatives are the definitive elements of life on the social plane and are, therefore, the key to the understanding of society. Folkways are the ingredients of culture, blended in the stream of history, and making it impossible effectively to consider any problem of without reference to its historical and spatial setting. The spatial setting achieves importance through the necessity of the folkways to consolidate in areal patterns and resolves itself into regionalism. The region is at bottom a geographic expression of differentiation and is most truly comprehensible in terms of the principles and logical processes of folk sociology. Folk sociology is oriented to the end of providing a tool for direction. The concept of societal and involves analyzing in terms of the forces, factors, processes, and conditions which make for imbalance, and the discovering of methods whereby potential imbalance can be detected, social upheaval forestalled, and maintained on an even keel. The region offers a ready-made framework upon which to mould the contours of a stable in the form of interand intraregional balance. Other sociological concepts which folk sociology finds useful are certain interpretations of culture and survival, the concepts of mores and institutions derived from Sumner, the concept of stateways from Giddings, and the concept of technicways from Odum. This group of concepts lends itself to the investigation of imbalance by providing the language and ideas needed for an interpretation and understanding of conflict, the vehicle of imbalance. These concepts are not, perhaps, the only ones that could be used for the explanation of disequilibrium, but for folk sociology are the critical ones in that they recognize the folk-regional conceit as basic and build directly upon it. They furnish an inclusive description of reduced to categories whose dividing lines follow lines of difference and conflict. They may approximate cultural but they avoid the fallacies of monistic determinism by recognizing the gestalt quality of culture. Because folk sociology assumes an essentially diploid constitution, it has appropriated the Spenglerian definitions of culture and civilization (similar to Tonnies' gemeinschaft and gesellschaft). Although it uses their concepts, the viewpoint of folk sociology is to be distinguished from the viewpoint of Spengler and Tonnies. Whereas the latter predicted dissolution and destruction through civilization, the former proposes a program of conscious synthesis of culture and civilization upon new levels of integrity. In folk sociology, the folk are the bearers of culture. Customs and social heritage, the constituents of culture, follow a line of development from folkways to mores to institutions, changing gradually and naturally in accordance with changing needs and conditions. In folk society, the wrenches and shocks of sudden or rapid change are absent, and maladjustment and social disorganization are at a minimum. Man and nature are synchronized in an indigenous syndrome which comprises the region. XVith the rise of the state and the spread of civilization, the stateways encroach upon the folk and disturb the old equilibrium. The achievements of technology and the inroads of industrialization tear the folk away from the symbiotic stability of the natural society and the resulting strain for adjustment between the old and the new threatens the equilibrium of as a whole. If the folk are shoved too far and too fast by the careless thrust of unbridled change, a sort of indigestion may bring on a collapse of the whole structure at great cost to life and peace of mind. In order to find the margin of balance which represents the shock-tolerance of the folk, folk sociology analyzes folk in terms of the regional disposition of traditional patterns of behavior and studies the impact of civilization
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Dec 31, 2009
Susanne Holmström + 2
Open Access