I really don't understand why we keep having all these doom&gloom threads about folk music dying and who will keep it going etc. etc. etc.

Folk music is what people sing, and around me there's so much of it going on it makes your head spin. If you think it isn't where you are, maybe try looking a little harder in the places where folk music happens (in pubs, peoples' houses, churches and chapels, as well as in schools) instead of in clubs and concert halls where the activity depends on the whims of promoters or commercial interests.

If it REALLY isn't happening near you, perhaps you might think it worthwhile doing something yourself?

I could go to a different session every night of the week, should I choose to do so, as well as most Sunday lunchtimes. There are barn dances every week and sometimes 2 or 3 a week. All within half an hour's drive or less. And that's in Hertfordshire ... not normally though of as the capital of UK folk. The people are, as they always have been, an enormous mix of ages and types and it's them that will keep it going ... as they always have.

As for some kind of academic effort to keep folk music going ... POO.

;-)