Oral History as a Method of Community Research

The significance of oral history in sociology is not only that oral memory can be used to study the personal destiny in the grand narrative, but also it provides a social method to dig into people’s spiritual world, which can be called the problem of memory community which includes at least three dimensions: location, time and people. It takes personal oral narration as a starting point and is based on human life practice. It is rich in personal subjectivity and emotional characteristics, but it can outline an integrated one community with strong sociality and containing cultural significance. The culture in oral memory is a sense of culture realized through practice. The “sense of obligation” in the family is a typical form of it. It manifests as a way of social power and becomes an important mechanism for bonding the community. The memory community is essentially a mixture of people and things, and the community image is an organic system. Oral history can be used as a community research method, not only because it presents a unique memory community, but also points out the deep mechanism of social construction and local society governance. This is from the perspective of the human heart, revealing the community power where the people can live and work in peace and contentment. The concept of the memory community reminds us that the community culture and social heritage is a relatively stable mechanism for cohesive community that is worth exploring and making good use of.