Recapitulation--The various steps in the study presented in
propositional form--The role of catastrophe direct and indirect. (a)
Directly prepares the ground-work for change by: (1) weakening social
immobility; (2) producing fluidity of custom; (3) enhancing environal
favorability for change--(b) Indirectly sets in motion factors
determining the nature of the change such as: (1) the release of spirit
and morale; (2) the play of imitation; (3) the stimulus of leaders and
lookers-on; (4) the socialization of institutions.
If the preceding narrative has been successful in setting forth the
facts as they were observed, the reader has now before him a fairly
accurate picture of a community as it reacts under the stimulus of
catastrophe and proceeds to adjust itself to the circumstantial pressure
of new conditions. It will be well, however, for the sake of clearness
in emphasizing our closing propositions to recapitulate one by one the
various steps in our study. These steps while primarily intended to
follow the natural order in point of time will also be seen to represent
a definite sociological process of development.
At first the shock of the catastrophe was seen to have been sufficiently
terrific to affect every inhabitant of the city. This fact gives
peculiar value to the investigation. The more a shock is limited in
extent the more its analysis grows in complexity. In such cases
consideration must necessarily be given to the frontiers of influence.
The chapter describing the shock also found the immediate reaction to
have been a fairly general disintegration of social institutions, and of
the usual methods of social control--in short, a dissolution of the
customary. This turmoil into which society was thrown is sometimes
called "fluidity," and, for lack of a better one, this term has been
retained. It would thus appear that if it were later observed that
essential social changes ensued, fluidity was one of the requisites of
change; and this is indeed in perfect tally with previous thought upon
the subject as set forth in our more theoretical introduction and
expressed in the proposition that fluidity is fundamental to social
change.
The more general and preliminary treatment over, individual and group
reactions were then examined in greater detail, and the phenomena of the
major sort were singled out and classified. These were found to be
either abnormal and handicapping such as emotional parturition; or
stimulative and promotive, as dynamogenic reaction. This constituted the
material of the second chapter. Put in propositional form it would be
that catastrophe is attended by phenomena of social psychology which may
either retard or promote social reorganization.
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