Rural sociology
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Rural sociology is a field of sociology associated with the study of social life in non-metropolitan areas. It is the scientific study of social arrangements and behaviour amongst people distanced from points of concentrated population or economic activity. Like any sociological discipline, rural sociology involves the examination of statistical data, interviews, social theory, observation, survey research, and many other techniques.
Rural sociology focuses on any aspect of sociology, but does so in a rural context. In contrast to rural sociology, urban sociology is the study of urban social life.
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, rural cultures and identities, rural health care and educational policies.
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[edit] Definition of "rural"
Sociologists define "rural" as those areas which are not urban in nature. The line between urban and rural is quite arbitrary, although rural sociologists in America often use the U.S. Census Bureau's definition of rural as being an area of fewer than 1000 people per square mile.[1] The 2000 Census reported that rural America was home to nearly 21% of the U.S. population (59,274,000 people).[2] Recent research has examined the "rural" and the "urban" as linked parts of a dialectical discourse.[1]
[edit] History of rural sociology
Rural sociology was the first and for a time the largest branch of American Sociology. Histories of the field include Lowry Nelson's Rural Sociology: Its Origins and Growth in the United States[2] and Edmund deS Brunner's The Growth of a Science: A Half-Century of Rural Sociological Research in the United States.[3]
Rural sociology became prominent during the late industrial revolution in France, Ireland, Prussia, Scandinavia, and the US. As urban incomes and quality of life rose, a social gap appeared between urban and rural dwellers.
Early works of Max Weber in the late 19th century were concerned with rural sociology. The term was first coined in the USA.
[edit] Rural sociology associations
Scholarly associations in or closely related to the field of rural sociology include:
- European Society for Rural Sociology
- International Association for Society and Natural Resources
- International Rural Sociology Association
- Rural Sociological Society
[edit] Rural sociology journals
Several academic journals are published in the field of (or closely related to) rural sociology, including:
- Agriculture and Human Values
- Journal of Agrarian Change
- Journal of Peasant Studies
- Journal of Rural Studies
- Rural Sociology
- Society and Natural Resources
- Sociologia Ruralis
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
[edit] References
- ^ Griffiths, Michael. B., Flemming Christiansen, and Malcolm Chapman. (2010) 'Chinese Consumers: The Romantic Reappraisal’. Ethnography, Sept 2010, 11, 331-357.
- ^ Nelson, Lowry. 1969. Rural Sociology: Its Origins and Growth in the United States. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
- ^ Brunner, Edmund deS. 1957. The Growth of a Science: A Half-Century of Rural Sociological Research in the United States. New York: Harper & Brothers
