MEDIDAS PREVENTIVAS Y DE MITIGACIÓN DE LOS IMPACTOS AMBIENTALES

The kinds of relationships present within folk singing events vary and contribute in myriad ways to the sense of community found within. Here I describe three relationship types commonly found within folk singing events. I begin with a discussion of how new relationships are formed in this context, and how the structure of the folk scene facilitates long term relationships.

This is followed by an examination of the role of family ties, both actual and imagined.

Francois Matarasso found that through community arts programmes: [M]ore than nine out of ten respondents made new friends

as a result of their involvement. This is such an ordinary outcome of participating in the arts that it can be

underestimated: making friends sounds so lightweight. But in urban, suburban and rural areas, poverty and isolation can make friendship hard to sustain: it is a vital asset, if possessed at all. This low key, informal

relationship-building is no less powerful an agent of social cohesion for being largely unseen. (1997:27)

Many participants in my study said they had made new friends through their engagement with folk singing (D~William). Participants said they liked having „like minded friends‟ (D~Pauline) or enjoyed „meeting like minded people‟ (D~Peter), who they felt were also attracted to folk singing events. This supports the observations that leisure groups are composed of

individuals with similar backgrounds, and that „if you play the right sport and go to the right places, you will meet people like yourself. And you will identify yourself as a member of a particular social group‟ (Argyle 1994:74). While I mentioned previously that autonomy is not assumed, it seems likely that people attracted to folk singing contexts would have more in common and be more likely to become friends than random pairings. Other factors, however, are also in place to facilitate relationship development.

The small numbers present at some events enable people to talk to everyone in attendance. This creates an environment where people can speak to others they do not previously know, negating the need for participants to attend with established friends and facilitating new relationships to develop within the group (D~Chas).

While general friendliness is still apparent at larger events, the organisers and other regulars of clubs make a point of talking to new

attendees to make them feel welcome (D~Carol; PC~Marjorie). One helper describes how her role involves an element of welcoming others as well as practical duties:

I‟m on the door at The Beehive and sell raffle tickets in the interval so I hope I give a friendly word to newcomers, and show interest in their reasons for coming. (PC~Pauline)

MCs often introduce singers by name and newcomer are usually asked their name and publicly introduced to the group before they perform (Tracks 10, 13). These direct personal introductions (both of the newcomer to the group and other group members names to the individual) speeds up relationship development on a group basis, rather than necessitating a series of

individual communications. This practice is not universal however, and a number of MCs do not always introduce singers by name. Jean finds this assumes that everyone present knows each singer directly and could appear exclusive to those who did not (FG~Jean).

For many people, folk singing environments are particularly conducive to making new friends, as, alongside similarities of values and interests, other important predictors of friendship have been identified, such as politeness, friendliness and being easy to talk to (Blieszner and Adams 1992:74). Perhaps due to this social structure, folk singing events were highlighted as a good place to develop intimate relationships. Along with a density of „likeminded people‟, the environment found within folk singing events enables individuals to mingle within a safe environment:

I found it wonderful hunting ground as a single female…it is a good meeting place for males and females to meet without actually having to shout over loud music or making it perfectly obvious that you are on the pull. (FG~Claire)

However, some of these practices can have unintended outcomes and I have seen instances where newcomers have felt intimidated by overtly friendly actions.

A young couple attended the club for the first time. They arrived as the MC was introducing the evening‟s singing and he waited for them to sit down before proceeding. He then directly addressed them, in front of a hushed room, and asked if they would like to sing. Although this

adhered to their welcoming policy and including everyone possible, the couple looked extremely nervous, declined to sing, and seemed like they would have preferred to blend into the background a little more. At the same club on another occasion, I remember a man experiencing the same procedure. He appeared completely at home with it, responding that he had not been to a folk club for 15 years, but happily joked with the MC and sang a song. (FN~28 April 2008)

I suggest that the practices used for socialisation into specific events work best once an individual has been socialised into general folk

behavioural patterns. Following the previous discussion on semi-private spaces and open seating patterns in Chapter 4, folk singing environments are closed spaces with little opportunity for gradual inclusion. Once a

newcomer has passed into the room they are included within the group, and they are expected to appropriately participate in the social interaction. For those with no previous experience of the group culture or behavioural norms this can be intimidating. A balance has to be achieved between allowing newcomers to integrate with the group on their own terms, at the risk of appearing to ignore them, and expecting them to immediately integrate into the societal norms through highly personalised interactions.

While folk singing contexts are valued for their facility to make new friendships, participants within my study also describe how important it is for them to maintain regular contact with established friends and how they enjoy catching up with people at the events they attended (D~Carol; D~Janet). Some also cite „just being back with the regulars‟ as an enjoyment of attending folk singing events (D~Chris).

The regularity of contact provided through the regular and long term nature of many folk singing events enables stable relationships to develop solely within the frame of the event. Long-term relationships are further facilitated through individuals‟ ability to have periods of frequent attendance and periods of sporadic attendance. Returning to an old club after a break was frequently cited, alongside feelings of reunion and pleasure at seeing old friends (D~Chris). The fluid nature of membership obligations facilitates this kind of long-term relationship in a way that more tightly governed leisure groups cannot.

Further to this, the network structure of events outlined in Section 4.3.2 enables participants to meet each other in a diversity of contexts. A number of participants wrote how they met people they knew from events they regularly attended, or used to attend, in other places (D~Kit; D~Philip). These interactions typically made participants feel comforted that they knew people there, or enjoyed meeting up with people with whom they had shared a location specific relationship. This demonstrates how meeting outside

usual contexts confirms existing relationships, and the power of the links made through the wider network of folk events.

While this discussion on relationships has so far described

occurrences confined to folk singing environments, wider social ties are also evident. A number of participants in the diary study wrote of how they enjoyed sharing their folk singing experiences with other members of their family (D~Philip; D~William), and I witnessed some family groupings leading songs in duet (Tracks 10, 18). It has been suggested that leisure is the single most important force developing cohesive, healthy relationships between husbands and wives and between parents and their children (Couchman cited in Zabriskie and McCormick 2001), however, a form of marital discomfort has been observed where there is an imbalance of enjoyment between couples who share leisure activities. Duane Crawford, Renate Houts et al. find that „women may be more likely to companionately pursue activities that they do not enjoy, a pattern that likely leads to feelings of displeasure and, over time, marital disenchantment‟ (2002:434).

Unlike a context such as a choir, where similar activity is undertaken by all present, the structure of folk singing events enables people to

participate on whatever level they wish. Within folk singing events, instances of couples where one partner sings and the other does not are frequently found. Assuming the non-singing partner benefits through enjoying the music, this context can provide a satisfying leisure experience for both parties.

The inclusion of members undertaking varying activities and abilities equally facilitates younger members taking part. Children of existing

participants are often welcomed at folk events, and many of the thirty- something generation currently involved in the Sheffield folk singing scene became involved in the music through the activities of their parents. Along with other associations with continuity and tradition (as discussed in Section 3.2), wider, and especially generational, family involvement is celebrated within this leisure form and one participant found that although his daughter- in-law actively participates in folk singing events, she felt like „a lesser citizen…because she doesn‟t come from a folkie family‟. For this particular

singer, socialisation practices have given her the ability to participate, but, she retains a sense of exclusion due to a lack of heredity lineage.

Despite a celebration of familial ties within the folk scene, many folk singers maintain distinctions between their folk singing activities and their wider lives. One regular folk attendee said his wife showed no interest in his singing activities and „seems to be embarrassed by unaccompanied amateur singing, especially mine!‟ (D~Bob), and Judy discusses how her folk life rarely intersects with her other life (FG~Judy), a phenomenon I have commonly witnessed in the field. Within a study of classical music participation, Stephanie Pitts provides an explanation for this in that „for some…the physical escape from work and family pressures was a motivation in itself‟ (Pitts 2005:144).

Dorothy Noyes discusses contexts in which people differentiate between different aspects of their lives, labelling the process as segrativity (1995:460). Although her discussion focuses around members of diaspora groups, I suggest this could be applied to members of folk singing

communities who maintain strong distinctions between their folk singing and other activities. This contributes to the previous discussion concerning how participants act out roles in contexts unrelated to their wider lives (section 5.1.2), but another reason I noted within this context was participants‟

embarrassment at enjoying a musical activity they felt was not understood by others. Participation in folk singing is often seen as a minority interest and some participants enjoy the exclusivity of keeping this activity private from colleagues and other acquaintances.

Approaching the discussion of family involvement from a different angle, a number of participants described their relationship with others within the events they attended as family-like. Bob describes his experience of the Raise the Roof events as „like an extended family get together, such as I remember from my infancy‟ (D~Bob). Jean expands the simile to the wider folk scene:

It‟s another family it really is, but what is even nicer is that you come to Whitby [Folk Week] and you find families that are even bigger because it‟s just like meeting all your relatives again. (FG~Jean)

Jenny has similar feelings towards her local folk club, suggesting it functions as a „substitute family‟ as many people attend who aren‟t of local origin and „if you‟re in trouble, you want something, you‟ve got people you can turn to‟ (FG~Jenny). This phenomenon is recognised in Gregory Barz‟s discussion on Tanzanian kwaya‟s:

Urbanization, the migration of people from remote villages and towns throughout Tanzania to larger cities such as Dar es Salaam, has compelled many kwayas to function as base communities, that is, kabila – like home

communities away from a distant regional home. (2006:26)

This demonstrates how strong social bonds can be formed within

contemporary society. The reduction of geographically based or family unit based communities in modern society has resulted in the need for individuals to find groups of people with which they can connect. The activity of folk singing provides a nucleus around which social relationships can develop:

It‟s likely that those of us who feel a kind of displacement or a desire to connect talk most about community. Treating it as a value, at times a felt reality, the kind of thing people sometimes experience when festivity,

celebration, euphoric music, or dance touches us, permits us to touch others, and, at least for a time, lets us feel connection. (Feintuch 2001:157)