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Copyright of Sociologia Ruralis is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper introduces the contributions to the World Congress special issue on 'Agricultural Change: Class, State, Technology, and International Food Regimes in the Late 1980s'. The papers are placed in the context of recent trends in the literature in the sociology and political economy of agriculture. Trends highlighted are the decreased dominance of deductive theories and the increased attention given to commodity systems and rural social structures, to international food and agricultural regimes and international commodity complexes, to the sociology of agricultural science and technological change, to the dynamics of agricultural crisis, and to understanding the relations between production and circulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on several abstracts published in the journal "Sociologia Ruralis." The paper "Theorising Nature and Society in Sociology: The Invisibility of Animals," by Hilary Tovey argues that animals are central to rural social life and a rural sociology needs to develop theorizations of the rural which incorporate this fact. It looks to environmental sociology, the sociology of the relations between nature and society, for help in this respect, but argues that the debates which have characterized recent sociology of the environment have focused attention on the problems of conceptualizing nature at the expense of attempts to reonceptualise society. The paper "Communities in Nature: The Construction and Understanding of Forest Natures," by Terry Marsden, Paul Milbourne, Lawrence Kitchen and Kevin Bishop outlines three different but interrelated theoretical strands associated with contemporary society-nature debates; namely social constructionism, realism and ecological modernization. By using empirical evidence from a case study of community and forestry interactions in a South Wales ex-mining village, the paper argues for the need to incorporate into these theoretical debates a deeper analysis of community understandings and practices.

This article presents a list of papers related to rural sociology. The list includes "A Typology of Singhalese Villages," by G.H.F. Welikala, "Social Structure and Local Initiative in Rural Thailand," by G. Kalshoven, "Legitimization of Directed Change in Pre-industrial Societies," by Ashghar Fathi, "Rural-Urban Migration and Town-Country Relationship in Israel," by A. Berler and Y. Ginsburg, "A Theoretical Model of Cumulative Disagiarization," by Vogislav Duric, "The Changing Patterns of Settlement and Population Distribution in Latin America," by Olen E. Leonard, "Mexican-American Migrant Farm Laborers and Their Employers in Ohio," by B. Perry Joseph and Eldon E. Snyder, "The Rural-Urban Transition in Brazil," by John V.D. Saunders, "The Impact of Industrialization on Geographic Mobility and Economic Decision-Making of a Rural Society in South Asia: A Case Study From Rourkela/Orissa, India," by K.H. Junghans and "A Research Design for the Understanding of Social Change From a Human Ecosystem Perspective."

Copyright of Sociologia Ruralis is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article focuses on several abstracts on sociology. "Ontology matters: The relational materiality of nature and agro-food studies," by David Goodman examines This paper examines the question of ontological choice in agro-food studies, and emphasizes that such choices are consequential, determining analytical points of entry, arenas of theory and praxis, and normative positioning. These questions are explored by examining the privileged place of the labor process in the development of agro-food studies and, as a more specific illustration, in analyses of agro-biotechnology. It is suggested that the modernist ontological priorities embedded in the unreconstructed conceptualization of the labor process not only have been ignored but also have found an unexamined place in post-structuralist agrarian political economy. The discussion closes by reviewing the strengths and weaknesses of actor-network theory as an alternative avenue of critical engagement with the new bio-politics of agro-food networks. "A matter of life and death? Men, masculinities and staying behind in rural Ireland," by Caitriona Ni Laoire is set within the context of a growing interest in the gendered nature of rurality and of rural life, and in particular in the context of an emerging literature on rural masculinities. It focuses on rural men and in particular on the phenomenon of rising male rural suicide rates.

The article presents abstracts on papers related to sociology. The paper "Rural Development: From Practices and Policies Towards Theory," by Jan Douwe van der Ploeg, Henk Renting, Gianluca Brunori, Karlheinz Knickel, Joe Mannion, Terry Marsden, Kees de Roest, Eduardo Sevilla-Guzmán and Flaminia Ventura reflects the discussions in the IMPACT research programme and suggests that at the level of associated theory also a fundamental shift is taking place. Rural development is a autonomous process in which agriculture plays the key role. The paper "Food Supply Approaches: Exploring Their Role in Rural Development" by Terry Marsden, Jo Banks and Gillian Bristow explores the role of short food supply chains. In the paper, the consideration is given to the short food supply chains, and a three level topology is present. The dimensions and evolution of short food supply chain and the identification of four types of evolution have also been examined in the paper. Four types of evolution are temporal, spatial,demand and institutional.

The 'new rural sociology' arguably represented the most significant watershed in the development of rural sociology during the 1970s and 1980s. I argue, however, that the new rural sociology, especially its dominant traditions of Chayanovian and neo-Leninist Marxism, has now been almost entirely superseded as a theoretical position in agrarian political economy by the international food regimes, commodity chains/systems analysis, regulationist, and actor-network traditions. In addition, Wageningen School research on `farming styles' and the 'cultural-turn' within rural sociology and rural studies have arisen, in part, as challenges to the more structuralist styles of reasoning within agrarian political economy. Parallel trends in the sociology of development are also discussed. The paper concludes with an appraisal of the strengths and weaknesses of these new late twentieth century traditions in agrarian political economy, particularly in comparison with the new rural sociology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Sociologia Ruralis is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article presents information on the XXI Congress of the European Society for Rural Sociology. Through European policies and regulations rural development the here and the there are unavoidably connected. From this perspective it is interesting to explore how agricultural and other economic activities are re-allocated in rural Europe. The XXIst Congress in Keszthely takes an important current event the one-year anniversary of the European enlargement as starting point for engaging in the ongoing questions around change and continuity, diversity and cohesion in rural Europe.

Presents an introduction to the articles published in the January 1984 issue of the journal "Sociologia Ruralis."

The organic movement is hailed as a way of transforming industrial agriculture making it more ecologically sensitive. This paper explores, from a sociology of knowledge perspective, how biodynamic farmers' understandings are the basis for influencing a wider population. I argue that their relationship to their farming and‘Others’ resembles a form of religious life defined by asceticism, repetition, sacrifice, and an emphasis on spiritualism and purity. Their reserved relationships with the outside world, particularly in communicating their ideas on agriculture meanwhile recall the search for solitude of religious hermits. They reject a strategy of direct proselytising as attempting to persuade may involve compromises, it would mean revealing their difference and alienating themselves further from the wider community, and some of them question their ability to influence people and wider systems. On one level they want to maintain the purity of their ideals and farming practices, on another, they don't want to be made to feel too different. They take on the role of trying to change the wider agricultural system through example and‘bearing witness’ to the ideas of biodynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper will aim to demonstrate how a wider theoretical and conceptual landscape, based around environmental social theory, can help to assist contemporary rural sociology in progressing its agenda. Of particular relevance here is an assessment of rural sociology by Buttel, where he makes the point that in the past decades work on aspects of regulation and globalization, for instance, has tended to be quite the reverse of the earlier theoretical developments of the 1970s and 1980s. He argues for more theoretical innovation to be undertaken. While the past decade or so has demonstrated quite a flurry of rich empirically engaged work, actual theoretical development has reached, he argues, something of a hiatus; with various schools tending to adopt a position along the actor-oriented-political economy axis.

Abstract The paper argues that animals are central to rural social life and a rural sociology needs to develop theorisations of the rural which incorporate this fact. It looks to environmental sociology, the sociology of the relations between ‘nature’ and ‘society’, for help in this respect, but argues that the debates (particularly the ‘realist’ versus ‘social constructionist’ debate) which have characterised recent sociology of the environment have focussed attention on the problems of conceptualising ‘nature’ at the expense of attempts to reconceptualise ‘society’. It ends by arguing that sociology needs a ‘New Societal Paradigm’ which would include at least ‘domestic’ animals within society, and recognise the social relations of inequality and hierarchy through which their life opportunities are structured. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What does the rise of organic food as a social phenomenon mean politically? What political impact does this form of consumption have on society? Is it a small and unimportant “blip” in the overall march of globalized, industrialized food and rationalized consumption systems. Is it even, perhaps, complicit in this process? Or is it a radical break ? The array of answers to these questions forms the “production–consumption debate” currently taking place in the examination of agro–food systems. If agro–food networks are conceptualized as interactive, socio–ecological metabolic circuits linking agricultural nature, social labor, the corporeal and the symbolic, then this paper argues that analytical concern in agrofood studies has focused overwhelmingly on the production ‘moment’ in these circuits. Despite the lessons of numerous ‘food scares’, anti–GMO movements and the mad cow disease pandemic, an asymmetry now holds sway in agro–food studies between production and consumption even though in other fields, as Jackson (1999) notes, consumption has been “duly acknowledged” (p. 95). As this asymmetry is addressed, a contemporary reformulation of the ‘agrarian question’ might investigate the potential for new forms of progressive food politics, ranging from ‘weak’ struggles over the modes of social orderings, such as knowledge systems, to more formal alliances between producers and consumers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the author's comment on the paper "Planned Development via Project," by Dirk van Dusseldorp published in this issue of the journal "Sociologia Ruralis." The author welcomes Van Dusseldorp's concern for a more productive approach to planned development via projects. However he disagrees reasoning by which this argument is backed up. According to the author, the paper provides an inadequate theoretical background for the practical proposals which the writer advocates at the end and which are well worth consideration. The theoretical model of planning processes as 'linking loops' is unspecific. It is clearly an adaptation of economic and psychological theories of rational choice or decision-making. Even more sophisticated sociological models often remain extremely formal and tend to concentrate on the question of means of reaching and implementing decisions.

Copyright of Sociologia Ruralis is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper presents a number of critical reflections on some ideological distortions which have adversely biased research on the peasantry as a class, as a cultural universe and as a political force. The authors look at the two main traditions in the theory of modernization -- the "liberal" and the "Marxist" -- to prove that both assume the disappearance of the peasantry as a necessary event and that therefore the peasantry as such has inevitably become scientifically uninteresting for their representatives. They explore each tradition in some detail and establish the existence of a certain amount of open hostility towards the peasantry among certain sociologists, economists, planners, and policy makers. Significant countertrends in current rural sociology are, however, detected and a conclusion calls for greater attention to the values and possibilities of peasant culture and life, without falling into a romanticised vision of the peasantry, is reached in the end. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the currently most interesting sources of rural sociological research in contemporary Poland is the examination of the socio-economic and political consequences arising from the co-existence of a largely privately owned agricultural sector and a state industrial sector. The emergence of the dual-occupational "peasant-worker" is just one very important aspect of this phenomenon, and the aim of this paper is to outline some of the problems it creates for both these sectors. These peasant-workers fall outside of the state's attempts at incorporating the individual peasant into the planned economy whilst at the same time they are not as responsive nor as dependent as might be desired upon the state's demands in industrial production. Their "awkwardness" is all the greater in that the state does not possess the resources to propel them in one direction or the other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Sociologia Ruralis is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Sociologia Ruralis is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Sociologia Ruralis is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Sociologia Ruralis is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article discusses the governmental farm policies as a zero-sum game in which one segment, commercial farmers, gains while another segment, farm labor and rural people, lose. Evaluation research is a neglected area of sociology. Methodology and skills in conducting evaluative research need improvement. Sociologists can make contributions to measuring goal accomplishments and explaining the process by which the program objectives are established and the program is implemented. Sociological knowledge should have utility in goal formation. Sociologists have envied the money measure used by economists. They are only now seriously searching for indicators or standards by which to compare returns or payoffs to various segments of society. They usually arrive at "quality of social relationships" or "improved life's chances" but these are multi-dimensional and not easy to quantify. Rural sociologists have been oriented primarily to build a body of knowledge and to discipline problems, rather than to undertake research on the problems of the rural society. Analysis of farm policies would require a focus on current rural societal problems.

This article presents information on the papers related to sociology published in the journal "Community development." The first thing which comes to the mind when one reads these papers, is that the vagueness of the concept of community development, notwithstanding the numerous attempts to define it clearly, is not taken away but is continuously restored by the wide variety of topics and approaches which appears in the material. It is perfectly clear at what promoters of community development are aiming in the main and this should interest scientists of many disciplines as well as policy makers of a great many specializations and levels. As community development is particularly applicable in rural areas it is not surprising that a considerable part of the papers in this set is within the immediate range of interest of the rural sociologist; some papers are, in fact, written by rural sociologists. Of great value is the fact that the material presented is really international, that is, in such a sense that cross-national comparisons are made, that situations and practices peculiar for nations are viewed from abroad.

The article analyses the crisis and 'double bind' situation to which Catalan dairy farmers find themselves subjected. Two contradictory commands are being imposed on them: 'act as if nature does not matter and increase production because, otherwise, the abandonment of livestock activity threatens you'; and 'reduce production and protect the environment to avoid an environmental catastrophe'. In the first part of the article, we study the socioeconomic crisis facing cattle farmers. In the second, we analyse farmers' discourse on the matter as a 'double bind'. Our conclusions indicate that in order to escape this paradoxical situation and gain some autonomy with respect to industry, farmers must establish a collective conscience and unite their interests: Although the path of producer cooperativism may be among the most realistic, it is not an easy one to follow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author reflects on the XVth Congress of the European Society for Rural Sociology. He argues that the congress, which is to be held on August 2-6, 1993, comes at a most important time not only for Europe's agricultural economy and rural society but also for rural sociology. He believes that the developments taking place in the European countryside in the 1990s, are bound to stimulate renewed interest in the developmental processes within rural society.

The article presents abstracts related to agriculture. They include "The ongoing quest for a model of Greek agriculture," "Family farming and capitalist development in Greek agriculture: a critical review of the literature," "Peri-urban rural areas in Greece: the case of Attica," and "Cultural identities and integration in rural Greece."

The article presents a generalized study of household size and kinship composition of a domestic group in a community. The size and kinship composition of any domestic group is the result of many diverse influences. Several factors like sex ratios, fertility, age of marriage and first child, and life expectancy affect the size and composition of a household. A large household is less likely to have insufficient labor at critical times of the year for meeting unexpectedly large labor requirements. A large household may also enable older people to have lighter work loads and provide them greater security. It has been argued that the larger the amount of household land, the more labor inputs can be applied without reducing the returns to labor below returns in alternative work. The larger households have more possibility of kinship extension. Work animals may also be a crucial constraint for household size. Urban industrial growth also affects rural households by altering the opportunities facing their members and the goals they seek.

Copyright of Sociologia Ruralis is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Sociologia Ruralis is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article presents comments of the author on a paper related to the applicability of the Guttman scale in rural sociological research merits the attention for two reasons. First it directs the attention of rural sociologists to a relatively little known research technique, which has proved to be of great value in other research areas. Secondly, it explores the possibilities of this technique for action research; in the words of their summary: how to apply research in the service of policy makers. However, it seems that the authors have stated their case a bit overoptimistically, where they describe the possibilities of the Guttman scale as an "instrument d'action et de pedagogie." The authors speak of elaborating standards for the measurement of attitudes, capable of showing the characteristic stages in the process of evolution of farmers, to indicate the exact place of each category in the process, to make possible comparisons--on the psychological level--between the different categories and to control the effectiveness of the actions undertaken.

The abstracts of studies on rural sociology published in the periodical "European Society for Rural Sociology," are presented. These include the strategies of women Dutch farmers in rural entrepreneurship, the impact of the 2001 foot-and-mouth disease outbreak on business households in Great Britain, the interpretation of sustainable development through agri-tourism in southern Tuscany, Italy, the praxis of neo-peasantry in rural France and the debates of production-consumption linkages in rural studies. Furthermore, the main points of these studies are highlighted in the summaries.

Sociology increasingly recognises that 'the social' extends beyond 'the human'. The ongoing theoretical integration of animals has extended our understanding of notions like alienation, violence and technology. This article considers in turn the highly contested concept of sustainability. Focusing on our entangled relationships with domestic animals, particularly horses, extends our critical understanding of sustainability in three ways. First, by recognising horses as social actors, we can challenge the anthropocentrism of sustainability and integrate animals into our analysis of how social systems create and /or resist sustainability claims. Second, in adding species to traditional categories of race, class and gender, we can extend critiques of sustainability by considering how it intersects with relations of power. Third, by exploring how alternative visions of the future emerge from within everyday as well as epic settings and encounters, the article broadens our understanding of what should be sustained and for whom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents an introduction to the July 1, 1981 issue of the journal "Sociologia Ruralis."

The article discusses various reports published within the issue, including one by Stathis Damianakos on the quest for Greek agriculture and another by Roxanne Caftanzoglou and Dimitris Skuras on the cultural identities and integration in Rural Greece.

The article presents information on a workshop related to university and non-university research. The tendency to conceptualize social phenomena in dichotomous categories is deeply embedded in Western social thought. The theme of the workshop is "University and Non-University Research" or "Pure versus Applied Research in Sociology" and it reflects such a tendency. As one traces the evolution of sociology from its very beginning, the relations of pure and applied sociology appear as a recurring theme. In fact, sociology was conceived by many 19th century thinkers as providing the theoretical foundations for a comprehensive applied science. Such views were especially prevalent in France where the idea of a natural science of society was transmitted from the encyclopedistes through Saint-Simon and others to Comte, who believed that sociology-as the summation of positive science-could establish universal laws of social behavior by reference to which all disputes about social policy might be settled. The anarchy of opinions would then come to an end in social matters, as it had done in the case of natural phenomena.

In this article, I develop the concept of 'suppressive synergy' to explain how meat products retain their everyday legitimacy amongst consumers despite the controversies which surround these products. While sociologists have offered various explanations for and solutions to contemporary food controversies, absent from this literature is a more integrated explanation as to how industry, mass media, and consumers' everyday habits reciprocally limit the public's engagement with these arguments. I investigated this empirically elusive phenomenon by conducting six focus groups plus follow-up interviews with urban meat consumers in the US and a content analysis of meat-related articles in the New York Times (1983-2011). Findings indicate that suppressive synergy occurs on both spatial-temporal and cognitive-affective dimensions. The meat and livestock industry enchants consumers with ornate products while sequestering production facilities in remote areas. Consumers, resistant to abandon their everyday habits and the cultural imperative of meat consumption, routinely avoid and dissociate themselves from meat-related controversies. The mass media further normalises meat culture by infrequently covering these debates. This only reinforces public indifference, as the dearth of controversial stories bolsters the cultural presupposition that meat consumption is a generally benign activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article develops a conceptual framework for the analysis of community that is designed to explain the complexity, diversity and changes that account for comparative community differentiation in the modern world. The concept is deconstructed into a number of constituent dimensions and dynamic processes, revealing the interrelationships between interest, normativity and identity. Contradictory processes associated with solidarity and exclusion are shown to push and pull at each other through the different dimensions. These processes are manifested in people's everyday lives, often simultaneously. This complexity is a source of both the vulnerability and the strength of communities. The article concludes with a number of diagnostic tools for deconstructing community and a three-pronged approach for community revitalisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents an introduction to the July 1, 1988 issue of the journal "Sociologia Ruralis."

While farm succession has been well explored using quantitative data, we use the qualitative, case-oriented method of objective hermeneutics to explore important issues in succession processes. Objective hermeneutics makes use of short text sequences from interviews, exploiting the relationship between societal norms and the constitutive rules resulting from personal biographies. A case study including an intra-family succession, an almost-failed succession and an inter-family succession is analysed with reference to three sequences from an interview. It is shown that hierarchy plays a big role in succession processes within the family. Another result is the emotional turmoil that can result from a failed succession. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on two specific gender related changes that are linked to agricultural and rural restructuring, at least partly motivated by the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). The first relates to the increase in part–time farming and women’s increasing off–farm work, linked to falling farm incomes and reduced subsidies. The second relates to women’s participation in rural development policy and practice. Both part–time farming and rural development initiatives can be seen as potentially enhancing gender equality. It could be suggested that off–farm income provides women with financial independence, and places them in a position where they expect and receive more equitable sharing of household decision making power. Rural development initiatives are understood as offering a new form of governance that is more inclusive, more representative, and more transparent. They are seen as providing scope to include women in political structures in a way that has not previously been achieved. However, it is argued in this article that ideological and cultural barriers exist, such that agricultural and rural restructuring unfolds in a gendered fashion, which support the status quo. This is not to suggest that gender or cultural ideologies are static. This is clear in the competing ideologies of equality legislation in Northern Ireland and traditional cultural practice. Despite this struggle, the current face of agricultural and rural restructuring is not one that significantly advances gender equality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the conceptualization of nature in environmental sociology, with emphasis on the sociological investigation of nature conservation. In doing so, it aims not only at making an inventory of concepts in environmental sociology, but also at adding to its theory. Most contributions to environmental sociology bracket environmental issues and nature conservation issues or, gray and green issues together, and mainly focus on the gray environmental problems of emission of pollutants, production of waste, and depletion of energy and raw materials. Correspondingly, nature or natural environment is taken in a broad sense that is comparable to physical environment. This broad conceptualization of nature is in need of differentiation and theoretical elaboration, if environmental sociology is to clarify issues in which the valuation of nature itself is a core problem. Nature conservation issues typically fall into this category. The main part of this article presents an analysis of different concepts of nature in environmental sociology. For the purpose of this analysis, the author takes environmental sociology in a comprehensive sense, incorporating not only authors that identify themselves as environmental sociologists, but also other social scientists that have contributed to the social theory of environment.

The article presents information on the emergence of welfare State rationality in Finnish agricultural policy. Before World War II and during the following two decades, Finnish society was in many ways dominated by agriculture. This is certainly true to the extent that the proportion of the farming population is a valid indicator. Rurality was also deeply rooted in Finnish culture. Furthermore, agricultural issues were in the centre of domestic policy considerations. However, a major shift-concerning both agricultural and social policy in political life-took place in the late 1950s and 1960s. This article focuses on the co-existence of these two policy domains, that is, on the social aspects in Finnish agricultural policy. Before the shift after the World War II, an extensive resettlement scheme and an agrarian reform had been carried out. This was seen as a necessary solution for the problems of the landless rural population, which had not been addressed since the 1930s. Resettlement was also necessary for solving the urgent problems caused by the Karelian immigrants and the war losses of both farm properties and agricultural land to the Soviet Union.

The table of contents for the August 1997 issue of "Sociologia Ruralis" is presented.