Search

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.

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 several issues related to agricultural development discussed in the seminar sessions of the third world congress for rural sociology. Serious questions were raised concerning the appropriateness of the usual variable characteristics included in many sociological studies if such studies are to have utility for policy-makers and planners dealing with problem of development in rural areas. The relatively low correlations found between such characteristics as age, sex, years of schooling and size of farm suggests that the focus should be on characteristics more closely associated with involvement such as beliefs and disbelief about the groups or activities. Given the technology available today, it should be possible to collect the data appropriate to decisions about a given project in a reasonably short time and to tailor the collection to the particular area concerned whether it be a small rural village or a district or a nation. One of the major conclusions of the session and of cooperative researches has been that cooperatives have failed to make the contributions to development that sociologists had anticipated. It was felt that cooperative structure is quite flexible and could and should be adapted to local customs in many cases.

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 reports that recent literature considers prevailing land tenure patterns a barrier to agricultural development in many developing countries and much discussion has focused on land reform as a means of removing this barrier. Most land reform programs emphasize the need to shift to an owner-operator based agriculture, following the hypothesis that prevailing tenure patterns do not lend themselves to providing the incentives necessary for increased production. Since most literature on the effect of tenure on production concentrates on the tenants and owner-operator groups, a study was undertaken at the College of Agriculture, University of the Philippines, to analyse the role of the Filipino landlord, to develop a typology of each type with its functions and factors involving operational decisions. The results indicate differences in whether annual crops or perennial crops are grown. Class levels tend to follow absentee vs. resident landlord groups, with more of the former in the upper class and the smallest number in the lower class. A pattern of landlord-tenant relationships emerged that was either paternal or non-paternal and traditional or modem in the landlord's attitude toward the development of the enterprise.

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 focuses on the factors which impede agricultural development in inter-tropical Africa. These factors are the insulting behavior of some western technical advisers, the active dislike of being stationed in rural areas and the disesteem for agriculture and peasants shown by the higher civil servants, the isolation of many regions due to the lack of good roads and the eccentric location of capitals and finally, the trauma of the peasant, that is to say his stoicism, apathy, inertia and lack of enthusiasm for agriculture. The discussion about the applicability of western economic theory in underdeveloped societies or sub-societies has not yet ended. It may be true that, in a radically different social structure, economic behavior includes actions and objects which in the industrial countries are not ordinarily thought of as pertaining to the economic sphere. It may also be true that some of the actions of African peasants do not correspond to what the homo economicus is supposed to do. The African peasant may sometimes strive for a target income and regard additional income as not worth the extra effort in order to obtain it.

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 presents information on the conference on comprehensive planning of agriculture in developing countries. The Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovoth, Israel, again acted as host to an International Conference on Science in the Advancement of New States, following up the first meeting held in 1960. The purpose of the conference was to bring together those actually responsible for agricultural planning and development in the developing countries, and representatives of academic and research institutions, so as to provide an opportunity for a free and direct exchange of problems, views and know-how between them. The participants accordingly included decision makers, top-planners and administrators from Africa, Asia and South America on the one hand and top scholars and experts from all over the world, on the other. Three broad topics were discussed during the deliberations, econornic and physical aspects of agricultural planning and development, on national, regional and farm levels, cultural, social and political factors affecting rural life and development, from the point of view of the overall society, the village community, and the individual family and problems of agricultural research, education and extension.

This article presents information on the trends in agriculture in Latin America. In this article change is looked at as the process whereby different kinds of local social systems or communities adapt themselves to novel elements of endogenous or exogenous origin. The three community types are those which accompany plantations and traditional "haciendas" and are frequently coterminous with them, and communities of smallholder neighborhoods grouped around trade and service centers. The extraordinary growth of the cities and the stagnation of the country is causing demand for food products and industrial staples which is not being met effectively by the agricultural sector. In the rural sector, under the impact of the expansion of the modern industrial urban core of the nation, there is a breakdown of structures, a turning away from traditional values, a failure of social control, and the incompatible grafting of new elements on the archaic fabric. The deepest problem of rural change is the transformation of the "estate-like" relation patron-laborer and all that it implies.