Howard W. Odum

Notes on the Technicways in Contemporary Society

I REMEMBER a few years ago one of our distinguished sociologists wrote me about the term social prepotency which I used as indicating something of the power of the folk in societal evolution. The folk, the common mass people, the folk capacity, I thought, might be postulated as a sort of historical constant in a world of cultural variables. And I thought that if we could somehow analyze and measure the elements of such folkpower, we might know more about the ongoings of society. My friend wrote me that this idea, and some of my other ideas, would appear to have something, perhaps something worth while in them, in so far as he could ever understand what I was trying to set forth. He then translated my own terms into such other jargon as I could in nowise understand. My present state of mind is that he was right and I was right and that the next steps were to be found in the clearer definition of our terms and better illustrations of our postulates. In the present discussion of the role of the technicways in modern society, I am faced with the same dilemma and more of it. For the essence of the present discussion is found in the term technicways and its implications as a composite concept as well as a specific form of the social process. The assumption is that in the technicways we have a phenomenon as important as the old folkways and mores and as subversive of them as some of the later developments of science and chemurgy were to some of the Malthusian population assumptions. The technicways, to use a figure from Professor von Beckerath, approximate perversion rather than subversion of the folkways. These assumptions, of course, imply an understanding of the basic factors of folk sociology through which the phenomenon of technicways can best be studied. The assumptions further are twofold-the one essentially theoretical and explanatory, the other practical and telic. Thus, the role of the technicways challenges boldly the application of sociological theory to realistic society.

Negro Children in the Public Schools of Philadelphia

That the problem of educating Negro children is not limited in its application to any community, or to the North or South, is now a well recognized fact. That it is of special importance in the study of American education; is closely related to many problems of public policy; and bears directly upon the theory and practice of efficiency in national life, as well as upon race improvement, is not always so well recognized. At the invitation and with the co8peration of Dr. Martin G. Brumbaugh, superintendent of the city public schools, this study was undertaken by the Philadelphia Bureau of Municipal Research with a view to assisting in the solution of a difficult problem of school administration and efficiency. The inquiry was pursued on the assumption that little could be done unless the subject was approached strictly from the objective viewpoint and prosecuted with as much thorough-

Notes on the Study of Regional and Folk Society

There is one possibility. It consists in logically developing the familiar discrimination long ago made in law and political theory, between the natural man and the legal person. The legal person is a purely artificial bundle of immunities and powers. The state makes it and can unmake it. The natural man is biological and psychological only. He has neither social status nor legal powers. It is theoretically possible, therefore, and presumably possible in fact, to put the unfit out of business as legal persons, by extinguishing their law made capacities and powers, and yet, at the same time, without harm to the body politic or to future generations, to seek and save the lost, as human sympathy prompts and Christian teaching enjoins, provided we save them only as natural individuals divested of social status and legal personality. Concretely and specifically this procedure would save human beings as such from preventable misery and premature death, even thought they be unfit to survive in any capacity. It would not save them in the status of authenticated members of society, to run amuck therein. It would not save them as potential voters, legislators, and executives in public office. Above all, it would not save them as unsegregated heads of families in unconditioned sex activities, lawfully to perpetuate their degenerate race. Obviously, the possibility here indicated can be converted into reality only through a far-seeing and courageous co6peration between folk society and states. Is it approaching?

Patrick Geddes' Heritage to “The Making of the Future”

build large and powerful movements. Those who wish to lead in influencing large numbers to change attitudes, to adopt policies, to further programs, should be sensitive to crisis situations, to unfulfilled needs, and thwarted human cravings, and present their programs in terms of the nature of these demands. It is possible to combine careful research and wide experimentation with the building of a movement for social change. Magnetic leadership, emotional appeal will draw certain types of people if and when they are in critical situations, but substantial movements may be built in the absence of such situations. In starting an effort to achieve a needed social reform, the resistances and the favorable aspects of the given culture must be considered. Mere logically demonstrated need of change is no guarantee that large groups will accept it. In this connection the use, by the educated person, of the language and symbols of the people whom he wishes to win is needed. Few of these movements illustrate the way in which a group may cooperatively further a desired objective, working together towards agreed-on ends, enlarging their influence by successful experiment and educational propaganda and modifying their objectives in view of their experience. The cooperative movement comes nearer to this ideally democratic process of social action than most of those studied. Some others approach such a procedure.

Regional Development and Governmental Policy

final conclusions may emerge. In the first place, the subject of regional development and governmental policy does not represent merely an abstraction or a metaphysical concept superimposed upon the working realities of modern government. On the contrary, these assumptions of governmental co-operation in regional development &dquo;grow out of the day’s work.&dquo; They represent living realities and next steps. They represent fundamentals. They represent tools and techniques, not only in government but in the multiple approaches to decentralization and re-

The “Scientific-Human” in Social Research

These courses are significant not primarily because of the value of their content, but because they represent a new attitude toward a problem as old as human nature itself. The new approach has been born of social necessity. The adolescent cannot be greatly helped by any program that confines itself to the college campus or the high school building. The newspaper, for example, is, in the right use of the term, an educating influence second to nothing, in the power it has to establish new ideas or buttress old ones. At present this powerful educating agency is far too often satisfied to exploit the universal interest in sex matters by opening its news columns to the most suggestive and stimulating of social occurrences, while at the same time refusing to lend its aid in establishing ational attitudes with reference to sex in its various expressions; it utilizes sex scandals and shuts out the scientific treatment of sex. The newspaper, however, is not the only sinner. Men *of authority along every line are trying to perpetuate the ostrich program in dealing with sex, and in so far as they are successful, are adding to the load that the youth of our time are forced to carry. In a period like ours, we may look longingly toward those of simple culture who have lighter adolescent burden, but the insight needed to construct an adequate program for our own problems must be gathered by a study of contemporary experiences and we need to recognize that adolescence as well as civilization has become complex.

Reading, Writing, and Leadership

The Story of the use of books and libraries as told in the January Journal of Social Forces by Louis R. Wilson presents a back? ground of realism wherein there appears little room for sesthetic form, artistic interpretation or creative imagination. It is essentially a story of fact, well told; a challenge to thinkers and work? ers; a questioning of the future. The folks do not read; libraries are not available; progress, while substantial, is slow. And yet one might well aspire to the task of writing that other story of some of the individuals and groups in that vast throng of youth, if only the opportunity to read adequate and good literature had been a part of their social inheritance. What would have been the difference in development of personality, character, ability, leadership on the part of individuals? What would have been the dif? ference in culture types and manifestations in social character, in judgment and emotional ex? pression, and in leadership of a state, or of a sec? tion?the South? As it is, the picture must be left to the imagination or to a future for which we hope and work, while in reality we chronicle the social tragedies of the youth of a strong peo? ple untrained in language and expression, in knowledge and grasp, in habits of persistency, and in processes conducive to intellectual de? velopment. They are tragedies?both for the in? dividuals and for the groups?of emptiness where information and vision might have been; of decayed processes where intellectual and spiritual life might have been more abundant.

Positions for Trained Social Workers in the Field of Public Welfare

the growing demand for trained workers in the field of public welfare may be gained from the study of the growth and development of modern cities. From the simple beginnings of executive, legislative, street, safety and a few other municipal services, with everywhere else private and voluntary efforts sufficing, our modern city has come to need scores of other activities and workers. Of these added