Search

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.

In reviewing some of the current developments in the economic restructuring literature, the paper examines the conceptual implications of the transition form Fordism for rural sociology. The author suggests the need for a stronger integration of social relations in the assessment of economic change. Two key dimensions for consideration are production-consumption relations and the reconstitution of labour relations. These considerations bring the author to the conclusion that rural sociology should focus on the integration of international and local processes and give more attention to the social contexts in which these processes are moulded. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]