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The object of this paper is to suggest a theoretical approach to the study of social development in developing countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Social development is regarded here as a radical transformation of economy and society, and as something which must be assessed in primarily human terms. After a critical examination of some conventional theories of modernization and social change, the paper goes on to suggest that a fruitful line of research is to view development as fundamental structural change. This would involve examination of social structural features in a society which encourage or hinder social development. Finally, specific empirical research is to be directed to identify agents as well as obstacles to social development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper contains an exploratory effort to analy the factors which determine the effectiveness of personal discussion as an extension method. The basic data for the paper consist of an inquiry among a small number of farmers and extension workers, ad hoc observations during a workshop on methods of personal discussion at Wageningen, and experience. The point of departure for an analysis of the extension agent's behaviour in personal discussion is the client's expectations regarding his behaviour. A number of such expectations among Dutch farmers are presented. From these expectations, a number of variables (15) are developed which describe the conditions under which personal discussion occurs. These conditions allow the formulation of a number of sub-roles -- appropriate for the conditions -- which the extension worker can enact in personal discussion. The sub-roles presented are: 1. one who asks for information; 2. one supplying information; 3. one supplying cut and dried advice; 4. one who sustains the client's confidence in what he intended doing anyway; 5. one who helps the client to think rationally; 6. one who helps the client to overcome his emotions. Awareness of such sub-roles will allow the extension worker to play the appropriate one for the conditions which are present and to choose deliberately among the alternatives available. The paper ends with some practical suggestions on how best to conduct a personal discussion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For more than a generation a considerable amount of attention has been given to the development and utilization of an empirical measure of the theoretical concept of innovativeness. Research workers in agriculture have employed various types of adoption of farm practices scales as a measure of the relative rates of adoption of technological innovations by farmers. The major problem in using an adoption scale has rested with unidimensionality; the degree to which the developed scale measures the innovativeness dimension. Following the review of several research studies aimed at establishing unidimensionality, some sociologists claimed that the analyses provided no clear cut answer as to whether adoption scales measure only a single general dimension; innovativeness. The major aims of this paper are to demonstrate that such unidimensionality does clearly exist and to show the theoretical and practical implications. The data used in this paper were drawn from an interdisciplinary study of the factors determining the adoption of agricultural innovations by a sample of 116 woolgrowers in New South Wales.

It has long been recognized that the study of peasant movements requires two basic methodological rules for its proper understanding: first, the focus of the study must be both on the interaction process which binds the peasantry to its overlord and the social forces that impinge upon both poles of interaction; second, such study must necessarily deal with the historical contexts within which the interaction process between lord and peasant develops. The main purpose of this paper is to apply these two methodological rules to a case study of a) the transformation of a regional power structure and b) the origins and development of a peasant movement that swept an intermontane valley of Peruvian Central Sierra dominated by the hacienda system, transforming it into a region of Indian communities. A second purpose of the paper is to derive certain theoretical generalizations from the empirical case, which can be relevant for the development of a theory of political peasant movements. This article also discusses the role of successful peasant movements in the development process of dependent, unequally developed societies, like Peru.

In this paper, an attempt has been made to evaluate the contents volumes I to X of Sociologia Ruralis (1960-1970), with the understanding that only the (75) English written papers are being reviewed. The main starting points have been derived from Article 4 of the Constitution of the European Society for Rural Sociology. After having proposed a number of critical remarks on the subject that have been dealt with in the papers concerned, a tentative evaluation has been made of the practical, theoretical, and methodologic relevance of these papers. In the final section, some ideas are suggested which might be used in order to remove several shortcomings brought to light in to previous sections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information on a workshop related to the linkages between theory and practice in rural sociology. The papers in this Workshop concentrate on the conditions affecting the utilization of rural sociological research findings by practitioners. A restriction is that papers deal with applied research and not with pure research, which in the long run can have an important effect on the decisions of practitioners. There are four papers: (1) a paper by the author, which gives a theoretical framework, but no empirical evidence that this framework is correct. Unfortunately, this paper is somewhat out of date, because after it was written, the author obtained an overview of 4000 publications in this field, (2) a paper by author M. Lerner, which gives a case study of 15 years of sociological research for the Settlement Department of the Jewish Agency in Israel. Experience taught that it was necessary to change the relations between research workers and practitioners considerably over this time, (3) a paper by author A. Levesque, which describes to years experience of a French private research agency in research on rural development for a number of different government agencies and professional organizations, (4) a paper by author R. Riedler, based on experience in a mountainous district of Austria, where not much empirical sociological research has been done.

The objectives of this paper are threefold. First, it traces briefly the use of the comparative method La sociology. It documents that what is currently called 'cross-national research' is an interest that has antecedents running back for at least a century in a great variety of field. Secondly, the paper argues for a closer interplay between sociological theory construction and cross-national data. Because current sociological theory is exceedingly culture-bound, basing its propositions largely on data derived from modern American and Western European societies, the need for testing hypotheses within truly cross-cultural settings is most timely and urgent. Thirdly, the paper delineates three major methodological problems in cross-national research. These problems include (I) the requirement of equivalence of meaning, (2) the requirement of concept equivalence, and (3) the requirement of equivalence of cultural variability. It concludes with a recommendation for furthering interest in cross-national research in rural sociology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents, in a modified Weberian framework, an approach to the study of capitalist farmers in the British class structure. Their market situation is principally analysed in terms of the outcome of pressure group activity vis-a-vis the state. A typology is derived for their work situation based upon the degree of market-orientation and the degree of direct involvement in husbandry. This typology can be related to the legitimating strategies which farmers choose to operate over their employees. The analysis of their status situation emphasises the declining coherence of the evaluating criteria on which status is based and illustrates the limitations of existing occupational prestige studies with regard to farmers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper discusses some of the problems and processes of social and institutional restructuring in Israeli rural life in the context of regional settlement. First, the sociological meanings of region and regional organization before statehood, and the major changes in regional-rural settlement during the period of independence, are presented. The differential regional-physical and socio-economic focuses in the two main sectors of rural settlement - the collective and the co-operative are explained. The bulk of the analysis is devoted to regional settlement of new immigrant villages, in which the functional and dysfunctional consequences of regional organization are smdied in one planned regional network, established according to some new sociological planning concepts, In this context, inter- and intra-institutional tensions between existing and emerging rural organizational patterns, and the re-integrative functions of the new organizations are dealt with on different levels as political and/or religious reintegration, regional enterprises and regional independence, political empowerment of the regional leadership, and regional participation in national decisionmaking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, changes in the socio-economic structure in rural regions have been looked upon in the light of international migration, with special reference to the flow of labour from the Mediterranean into the northern and north-western industrialized countries of Europe. The effects of these increasing manpower movements do not always appear beneficial for both areas. The free movement of labour and capital in Europe implies a concentration and accumulation of economic activity in some few regions, and has the effect of depopulation and deprivation in many other areas. The resistance against the international planning of capital and labour distribution is still dominant among the powerful European pressure groups; also the prejudices against the countryside still operate. In order to increase the attraction of rural areas, breaking the vicious circle has been proposed through an international programme of large-scale investments in the socio-cultural sector of stagnating districts, including the areas where no industrialization may be expected. The increase of the general education level of the rural population can be one of the main stimulants in a development schema. For rural sociologists, this approach implies renewed attention to the study of the possibilities of radical change in rural communities. A successful reduction of the economic and social inequality between the rich and the poor areas in Europe should be a good exercise for the forthcoming development of the Third World. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper reports on a study dealing with emergent regionalization among veteran settlements in Israel. Regional organization is approached in a functional way, as a social system in a process of change and is considered in its micro and macro aspects. The focus of the analysis is threefold: the function of the region as a mechanism of developmental change in terms of social integration, increased participation and redistribution, and improved mobilization; the factors which influence the process of regionalization, in its initial emergence, and in its sustained functioning; and the relationship between different regional organization and social structure and institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper several generally accepted reasons for Irish emigratìon (population density, poor marriage prospects for females and internal family pressures) will be rejected. Today's emigration has its own structure and its own contemporary causes. It is argued that emigrating is not any longer final in character, but can better be described as migrant labour. On the basis of a statistical analysis and the results of sociological fieldwork in a rural trade centre in S. W. Ireland it is shown that economic factors and the standard motive of adventure are most important in explaining why the Irish emígrate nowadays. The relation between these two types of factors is one between necessary and sufficient conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyses some differences in the material standard of living for groups of Danish self-employed farmers, and the factors influencing these differences. As most of the traditional measures of standard of living are difficult to use in a meaningful way, in this survey a new measure has been constructed, based on information about the actual possession of a number of consumer durables amongst a representative sample of 1.458 Danish farmers in 1969. The measure is used to test some hypotheses about the relationships between the size of holding, the age of the farmer, his education, his work outside his farm, and his investments in the farm. It is concluded that the constructed measure implies some limitations, but that some of the most serious problems of the traditional measures are avoided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the effect of economic and social changes on a small village of a hundred people situated in the Spanish Pyrenees. Although on the margin of urbanised Spanish society, this community is increasingly dependent on forces that originate outside the village: the influence initially of industrial migrants, and latterly, tourists and land developers. As the composition of the community has changed it has become increasingly difficult for groups of people in the village to regard themselves as part of a collective entity with shared traditions and institutions. The changes in Gema, and the responses to those changes, provide a commentary on the way rural communities relate to largely urban and national social systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In mid-1972 the continent of Africa had a population of 364 million or 9.6 percent of the world population of 3,782 million. The annual crude birth and death rates which were 47 and 21 per 1000 respectively produced a growth rate of 2.6 percent per annum, a rate second only to that of Latin America. The African population will double in 27 years. The population is very young with 44 percent under 15 years of age while only 3 percent is 65 and over. This paper will deal with two issues: What are the population problems in Africa and what are the African peoples and governments doing about them? Whether Africa has a population problem is a topic that will continue to be debated for the rest of this century. It is an issue on which reasonable and intelligent people disagree. The author's position is to say categorically that a problem does exist and then go on from there. This article also attempts to review the knowledge of family planning in Black Africa. The necessity for massive action on the part of governments has been emphasized. The readiness of the population is not in doubt. The political risks the elite: political, military and intellectual, runs should be completely spelled out in any communication addressed to them.

The theme for this Third World Congress for Rural Sociology was selected by a working group, which met in Rome, Italy at FAO headquarters in the summer of 1969. This group included eminent scholars with diverse national and cultural backgrounds. It, therefore, must be considered a commentary on the appropriateness of the theme selected that a consensus was achieved in a relatively short period of time. This theme, Development Policies and Rural Life, was considered in keeping with research and action programs, which were being implemented by rural sociologists and other social scientists in almost all nations of the world. In light of the serious nature of the deliberation with regards to the theme and program of the Congress and in view of the objective which inspired the decisions, it occurred to the author that it would be appropriate to attempt a paper which was keynoted on ways to lessen the degree of incoherence and incongruity which characterizes the arena within which sociologists contemplate the field of rural development. According to the author, his tact has been to scrutinize as objectively as possible the two separate but inextricably related issues over which controversy is centered.

According to the author, it is appropriate, after concluding the book A Decade of Development, to take stock of where the study of development has taken sociologists and where it has gone wrong. That it has gone wrong is painfully obvious given the meager results of efforts to improve the quality of life in most third world countries as well as the attempts on the part of advanced capitalistic countries to enhance the life chances of their less-advantaged sectors. A portion of these mistakes may be attributed to methodological errors on the part of those engaged in the study of development. The present paper attempts to review some recent approaches to the study of development and suggest what future steps are needed to develop a clearer understanding of the issues and approaches to developmental concerns. The major approaches to the sociological study of development may be divided into two broad camps that roughly conform to the unit-ideas that form the foundations of sociology. These unit-ideas range from conservative to radical philosophical assumptions. In everyday terms these two broad camps are usually referred to as equilibrium models or conflict models.

Max Weber (1864-1920) enjoys a world reputation as a jurist, economist, historian and sociologist. As a sociologist he has become known in particular for his publications on methodology and for his studies on the sociology of religion, law and music and on political and industrial sociology. Little is known of Weber as a rural sociologist (sec. I), even among American and European rural sociologists (sec. III), in spite of the fact that Weber was intensively concerned with agrarian and rural problems over a period of years (sec. II). Although he did not at the time regard himself as a sociologist (sec. II), the sociological tendency of his 'rural' studies is unmistakable (sec. IV). In the final section (sec. V) it is put forward that Weber's lack of proper recognition among rural sociologists might be mainly due to the poor correlation between rural sociology on the one hand, and general sociology and the various other branches of sociology on the other hand. Rural sociology is not innocent of a certain 'professional blindness'. The paper is concluded with a plea for a serious confrontation between rural sociology and the work of Max Weber, as well as with that of other classical and modern authors in the field of the science of which rural sociology expressly claims to be a branch. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a review of research on small town population characteristics and change in the United States. The decline in number and proportion of small towns sometimes observed in census analyses is in large part due to the growth of places out of the small population size class. Many individual places are declining, however, especially those of small size outside the commuting range of metropolitan centers, and those located in regions generally characterized by slow growth or population loss. The centralization process in rural areas, whereby people have over time turned to varied and larger centers for trade and services is reflected in small town population growth patterns. The outstanding population characteristic of most small towns is the high proportion of older people. The extent to which this is due either to immigration of retired persons or to the out-migration of younger people deserves further attention. Population research shows the small town problem to be exaggerated. Many small places are growing, and at a rate comparable to other population segments. Small centers located in areas not conducive to growth, however, cannot all look to an optimistic future. But it is important to recognize that population growth is not necessarily a desirable goal; of greater importance is improving the quality of life available to community residents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ageing population and consequent high dependency ratios are features common to all European countries. However, the specific problems of the elderly in rural areas have not been the subject of systematic research, despite growing preoccupation with the obstacle this group may constitute to modernization and restructuring of agriculture. In default of hypotheses based on properly weighted data on rural populations, the paper examines the type of alteration in the situation of old people which is reported as occurring as agriculture becomes increasingly focused on highly organized market production. It then discusses the possible impact of this change of situation on the basic needs of the old in rural areas, as identified in general studies of old age. These basic needs-for economic security, housing, health care, and continued activity -- are briefly reviewed in the context of rural life. The question is put as to whether it is feasible to solve the old-age problems so presented on lines consonant with the general principles to be observed in treatment of the old, which have emerged in these last few years as a consensus of informed opinion. In view of the lack of precise facts, a long-term research strategy is suggested. As a first approach, some global studies of all factors involved within some limited and clearly defined areas would seem essential. Specific problems could then be selected for more thorough study, perhaps on parallel multi-national lines, to ascertain which practical solutions are most likely to be of help in evolving new human patterns of living in integrated rural communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores certain aspects of the phenomena associated with rural modernization in a selected case. It traces the chain of events and changes in attitudes that led to the introduction of tractors and, subsequently, to the problem of 'over-mechanization' of agriculture in a once traditional, relatively isolated, peasant village in southern Germany. An acculturation model is employed for analytical purposes. Diffusion is treated as the necessary condition for technological modernization to occur and the roles and attitudes of initial adopters are explored in detail. Four socio-historical stages are studied: i) presentation, 2) acceptance, 3) integration, and 4) aftermath or repercussions. One unanticipated consequence has been the problem of over-mechanization relative to the productive capabilities of existing land resources. Land is regarded as the only basis for economic security in an uncertain world, and villagers cling to their holdings even though almost all are employed in industry. The use of modern machinery is considered essential. This phenomenon, which may be inefficient on a strictly cost-account basis, may nevertheless be functional in social terms, serving to stabilize a rural society in transition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines some theoretical aspects of information transfer and the possibility of distortion in the retransmission process in India. The data from the study demonstrate that there is cleavage in perception of innovations between change agents and their clients, especially those with whom they interact most frequently. These data support propositions derived from studies of serial transmission, suggesting that message distortion occurs. Furthermore, one can infer from these data that distortion may be most severe at an early stage in a series of transmissions and this is also consisted with much serial transmission research. The data indicate that professional change agents disagree in some important respects with their primary clientele with regard to innovations being advocated for further adoption in the study area. It is apparent from these data that any distortion which may occur in this field situation is not systematic in a particular direction. If cleavages of the kind described in the paper are more general in other planned contexts, in agriculture or family planning, or whatever the objectives of the program, then it may well be that further research on message distortion should have a high priority.

This paper discusses the contribution of the sociologist to the planning of agricultural and rural development in Israel. The author first outlines the three levels of agricultural planning - national, regional and farm, and then provides some background to rural settlement activities in Israel. The confrontation of new immigrants from traditional societies with the technologically advanced agriculture of Israel resulted in severe social crises in the new villages, affecting also their economic achievements; and the subsequent assignment of rural sociologists to the villages to study the life-pattern of these traditional groups and provide them with counseling and instruction, whilst at the same time undertaking general research. The recommendations of the sociologists helped the development authorities to evolve suitable measures for integrating these immigrants into society as socially independent and economically successful members. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper emphasises the need to give priority to supporting institutions in. attempts at mobilising local initiative for development. This policy is thought to increase the immediate response to local mobilisation efforts and make initiatives more lasting. The establishment of supporting institutions will require the direction of a great part of the developmental efforts to reforming the government apparatus at regional and national level. However, because it will seldom be possible in make many successful reforms at higher levels at the same time, concentration of development efforts on a few sectors is in most cases the only realistic policy. This is apparently incompatible with a very comprehensive, multi-sectoral approach to local development. With regard to local communities, a policy which concentrates on a limited number of activities at a time is also likely to create better chances of active popular participation in and some local diversification of the development process, as opposed to pressing overall transformation efforts which may well result in apathy and a tendency to increased dependence on the government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dates of adoption of innovations constitute a basis for the analysis of innovativeness which is the main dependent variable in most diffusion studies. Rural sociologists, as a rule, ask farmers to recall when they adopted a new practice. The question arises, what is the reliability of data obtained with the aid of such a method? In this paper the findings of an experiment are reported in which respondents were re-interviewed after some weeks as to the dates of adoption. The repeatability of findings, i.e. the consistency in answers reporting the adoption dates, was accepted as one of the possible criteria of reliability. Younger age and a higher level of education tend to be positively correlated with the consistency of replies. The degree of the consistency in the answers is also affected by the nature of the given innovation. The general picture of the diffusion process, as based on the data obtained at the first and at the second stage of interviewing, is fairly similar. It is observed that even if data on irtnovativeness are biased on an individual level, they are not necessarily biased at a village level, at least not in the same proportion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information on the possibilities and limitations of cross-national and cross-regional research. In approaching cross-national and cross-regional research, the author has taken for granted the fundamental rationale of comparative study as such, and disregarded general problems of its validity. This is so, as the last Congress considered this issue, and the main points of these deliberations are on record. Instead, the author has tried to focus on more specific topics of conceptualization, methodology and organization, as they bear directly upon rural social study. Accordingly, the papers included have two major foci and fall into two groups; in each of which the author has tried to secure a discussion of both theoretical as well as applied and practical aspects. The first group, focuses on problems of the proper meaning or nature of comparative research and on the essential qualities it must have to be effective. The second group is related to problems attending the execution of comparative projects. The first of the two deals mainly with major questions of methodology: firstly, with problems of interpersonal relations, including those of political clearance, of tackling cultural variations and of stereotyping; and secondly, with technical ones, chiefly the comparability of secondary data, the utilization of and relationship to theoretical models and the standardization of field procedures.