Putting Folklore to Use

By: Jones, Michael Owen

Book Overview

The first book of its kind, Putting Folklore to Use provides guidance to folklorists but also informs practitioners in other fields about how to use folklore studies to augment their own studies. How can acting like a folklore fieldworker help a teacher reduce inter-group stereotyping and increase student's self-esteem? How can adopting a folklore fieldworker's point of view when interviewing patients help practitioners render health care more effectively? How can using folklore research help rural communities survive and thrive? Thirteen folklorists provide answers to these and other questions and demonstrate the many ways folklore can be put to use. Their essays, commissioned for this volume and edited by Michael Owen Jones, apply the methods and insights of modern folklore research to thirteen different professions and areas of practical concern. The authors, all of whom have themselves put folklore to use in the fields they describe, consider applications in detail and explain how folkloristic concepts and techniques can enhance the work of various professions. They explore applications in such areas as museums, aiding the homeless, environmental planning, art therapy, designing public spaces, organization development, tourism, the public sector, aging, and creating an occupation's image. In an extensive introduction to the volume, Jones provides an overview of applied folkloristics that defines the field, surveys its history in the United States, and scrutinizes its basic issues and premises. Part I of the book shows how to promote learning, problem solving, and cultural conservation through folklore and its study. Part II deals with folklorists helping to improve the quality of life. Part III reveals folklore's role in enhancing identity and community.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0813108187
• ISBN13: 9780813108186
• Release Date: February 1994
• Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
• Length: 280 Pages
• Weight: 1.06 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.1" x 9.2"
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Excellent Resource for Educators and Social Service Workers

Containing a collection of essays and practical suggestions for applying ideas from folklore to everyday life, this book is an important contribution to those engaged in education as well as the delivery of social services. There are great ideas about using the everyday culture of various communities for intervention work in a variety of employment settings. Teachers will find useful ideas and a well-written bibliography on the use of folklore in the classroom. Park and recreation workers will find a good resource for developing projects and programs that use locally-based cultural resources for their programming. The book contains ample ideas that can be used by those in medical fields, prisons, libraries, refugee services, and other organizations that work to deliver services to the public. The book also contains a good introduction to the history and practice of studying folklore, and the excellent bibliographic references will provide readers with a variety of resources for further developing the approaches offered in this volume.