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A systematic theory of the nature of suburban social structure within an organizational frame of reference is subjected to an empirical test. Major hypotheses derived from the general theory were supported by the analysis. A methodological contribution was achieved by combining analysis of census data with analysis of sample survey data. A chain of relationships between social structure and politics has been demonstrated through interposition of organizational theory between the regularities of mass data at the census tract level and of individual data at the sample survey level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A theoretical framework is provided to understand a cultural group's definition of and relationship with nature and the environment. The framework draws on a social constructionist perspective that includes aspects of phenomenology and symbolic interactionism to define "land- scape" as the symbolic environment created by a human act of conferring meaning on nature and the environment. This landscape reflects the self- definitions of the people within a particular cultural context. Attention is directed to transformation of the physical environment into landscapes that reflect people's definitions of themselves and on how these landscapes are reconstructed in response to people's changing definitions of' themselves. Case studies from sociology and anthropology illustrate the social construction of nature and the environment. A discussion of the applied implications of the theoretical framework in social impact assess- went and the global implications in the shifting power struggle over competing landscapes concludes the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research methods used in empirical research reported in Rural Sociology from 1936 to 1985 are examined. Trends in research procedures are reviewed for each of the five decades of the journal's existence. One major trend identified is the movement away from descriptive analyses of social phenomena toward more complex quantitative models. This movement has been accompanied by increased methodological homogeneity in sources of data, data collection techniques, and a focus on the individual as the unit of analysis to the neglect of social structures and social processes. Measurement, sampling, and analysis continue to be problematic areas, although new approaches to measurement and analysis appear promising. Implications of the trends for the development of substantive knowledge in the field are drawn. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents names of several books received by the 1972 issue of the journal "Rural Sociology." Names of the books include "The Human Arena: An Introduction to the Social Sciences," edited by Gilbert Abcarian and Monte Palmer, "The Netsilik Eskimo," by Asen Balikci, "Institutions in Agricultural Development," edited by Melvin G. Blase, "Cities Under Siege: An Anatomy of the Ghetto Riots, 1964-1968," edited by David Boesel and Peter H. Rossi, "Juvenile Delinquency," by Robert G. Caldwell and James A. Black, "The American Population Debate," edited by Daniel Callahan, "Reading in Evaluation Research," edited by Francis G. Caro, "The Cultural Context of Learning and Thinking: An Exploration in Experimental Anthropology," by Michael Cole, John Gay, Joseph A. Glick and Donald W. Sharp, "Resources for Social Change: Race in the United States," by James S. Coleman, "Radical Sociology," edited by J. David Colfax and Jack L. Roach, "Kinship and Class: A Midwestern Study," by Bernard Farber, and "Relations in Public: Microstudies of the Public Order," by Erving Goffman.

The article presents news updates and announcements from the field of rural sociology. Thomas R. Ford has joined the staff of the Department of Sociology at the University of Alabama and Anthropology replacing W.H. Roney. Kurt B. Mayer, formerly of Rutgers University and the New School for Social Research, is Assistant Professor of Sociology under a new appointment at the Brown University. Sidney B. Denman has joined the staff of the Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology as Assistant Rural Sociologist, at the Clemson Agricultural College.

The article discusses some recent developments in the field of sociology in different universities and colleges of the United States. Professor John Useem of Columbia University, New York, New York recently returned from the South Pacific where he served as a member of U.S. Admiral Chester William Nimitz's staff and later as military governor of Palau. Since his release from the Navy he has been a visiting lecturer here in sociology. He spent three years in the Navy and participated in several invasions of the former Japanese mandates. Professor Joseph B. Gittler has joined the staff of Iowa State College as Associate Professor of Sociology. He will teach theory and develop the sociology of technology. Professor Solon Kimball recently joined the staff of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology and the Michigan State College Experiment Station, as Associate Professor. He will devote half time to teaching and half time to research; hence, is the first anthropologist to be employed by a land-grant college under this arrangement.

This article focuses on the differential rapid growth within social classes in social organization. The differential natural increase of the social classes which is more rapid in the lower classes and slower in the upper classes constitutes a basic phenomenon of social organization. The differential natural increase depends upon a lower birth-rate among the upper classes which is not fully compensated for by their lower death-rate. It is necessary to ascertain the causes of both of these phenomena in order to account for exceptions to the rule. Such phenomena can, in turn, be reduced to social or external factors and to biological or internal factors. The social factors depend upon the advantages of celibacy, or of a restricted family, accruing to the individual in the society. The biological factors depend upon the fact that the stocks from which the population results present evolution through internal forces. The theory of evolution through internal forces thus leads one to expect that the upper classes should become more robust and should be endowed with a lower death rate.

The article analyzes main forms of relationship between various culture traits, characteristics and complexes to outline culture-integration. In each culture complexes, individual components of the total mass of culture object and traits bear a functional relationship to one another and to the whole and the entire complex is thus functionally integrated. There are various forms of integration which differ fundamentally from one another. The numerous interrelations of various elements of culture can be reduced to four basic types. These factors are spatial or mechanical adjacency, association due to an external factor, functional or causal integration and internal or logico-meaningful unity. Spatial or mechanical adjacency means any conglomeration of cultural elements in a given area of social and physical space, with spatial or mechanical concurrence as the only bond of union. All these objects drifted together and spatial proximity is the only bond uniting them. A culture area is often nothing more than a spatial adjacency of the traits and complexes of the area in question.