Rural sociology

Rural sociology is a field of sociology traditionally associated with the study of social structure and conflict in rural areas although topical areas such as food and agriculture or natural resource access transcend traditional rural spatial boundaries (Sociology Guide 2011). It is an active field in much of the world, originating in the United States in the 1910s with close ties to the national Department of Agriculture and land-grant university colleges of agriculture.[1]

The sociology of food and agriculture is one focus of rural sociology, and much of the field is dedicated to the economics of farm production. Other areas of study include rural migration and other demographic patterns, environmental sociology, amenity-led development, public lands policies, so-called "boomtown" development, social disruption, the sociology of natural resources (including forests, mining, fishing and other areas), rural cultures, and identities, rural health care, and educational policies. Many rural sociologists work in the areas of development studies, community studies, community development, and environmental studies. Much of the research involves the Third World.

History

United States

Rural sociology was the first and for a time the largest branch of American sociology.

Histories of the field were popular in the 1950s and 1960s.[2][3]

Europe

Rural sociology in Europe developed not in the old established universities but in the new countries that emerged after 1919 and were strongly influenced by the political philosophy of Agrarianism, which promoted the farmer as the strength of society. Czechoslovakia opened three research centers, and others opened in Romania and Yugoslavia.[4]

Crisis

Smith (2011) says the field today is in poor shape:

"Rural sociology has fallen into a chronic state of crisis, distraught, in turns, by the discipline’s theoretical paucity, its institutional isolation, its estrangement from the more general discipline of sociology, and, at base, its seeming irrelevance to modern urban society."[5]

Mission statements

The mission statements of university departments of rural sociology have expanded to include more topics, such as sustainable development. For example at the University of Missouri the mission is:

"The Department of Rural Sociology at the University of Missouri employs the theoretical and methodological tools of rural sociology to address challenges of the 21st century – preserving our natural resources, providing safe and nutritious food for an expanding population, adapting to climate changes, and maintaining sustainable rural livelihoods."[6]

The University of Wisconsin set up one of the first departments of rural sociology. It has now dropped the term "rural" and changed its name to the "Department of Community and Environmental Sociology."[7] Similarly, the Rural Sociology Program at the University of Kentucky has evolved into the. "Department of Community and Leadership Development," while transferring the graduate program in rural sociology to the Sociology Department.[8] Cornell University's department of rural sociology has also changed its name to the department of Development Sociology.[9]

Associations

Scholarly associations in rural sociology include:

Journals

Several academic journals are published in the field of (or closely related to) rural sociology, including:

See also

References

  1. ↑ Nelson, 1969
  2. ↑ Lowry Nelson, Rural Sociology: Its Origins and Growth in the United States (1969)
  3. ↑ Edmund deS. Brunner, The Growth of a Science: A Half-Century of Rural Sociological Research in the United States (1957)
  4. ↑ Nicholas Mirkowich, "Beginnings of Rural Sociology in Yugoslavia," Rural Sociology (1940) 5#3 pp. 351-4 online
  5. ↑ Smith, Suzanne (2011). "The Institutional and Intellectual Origins of Rural Sociology" (PDF). Paper for 2011 Rural Sociology Assn. meeting. Retrieved 4 January 2015.
  6. ↑ See "About Rural Sociology and Sustainable Development"
  7. ↑ See "Who We Are"
  8. ↑ See "The Department of Community and Leadership Development"
  9. ↑ http://warrenhall.cals.cornell.edu/dev-soc.html
  10. ↑ See webpage
  11. ↑ See listing
  12. ↑ See homepage
  13. ↑ See homepage
  14. ↑ See homepage

Further reading

External links

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