image: jay pendergrass (via)

But this raises an interesting aspect of language and etymology, the history of terms and how their meaning changes. In the UK Folksy is tied up with folk music and ‘traditional’ cultural practices. Folksy in the US has far greater currency than in the UK and is used to denote an “earthy”, “of the people”, quality. This seems to be being used negatively in the campaign by the educated and political elite in the US where Folksy has been used as a rather derogatory term to mean “unsophisticated”. How do you see it? What does it mean to you?

Now, having dug around a bit I see that it has a pretty broad use, mainly signifying: informal; familiar; rural and of course to describe the Folk music and fashion ‘style’. For me it’s about people and celebrating everyday creativity in an age which often reduces us to Taylorist automatons in offices everywhere [and see Sir Ken Robinson's TED talk on YouTube on how we're killing creativity in the education process]. And if you’re interested it’s worth seeing what other people signify as folksy [and get a sense for how creativity in crafts is flourishing] and there’s no better place to do that than on flickr.