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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 Unfortunately, this paper is somewhat out of date, because after it was written, the author obtained an overview of 4000 publications in this field, (2) a paper by author M. Lerner, which gives a case study of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.

Presents abstracts of articles related to sociology published in the October 2003 issue of the journal "Theory and Society." "Micro-Business and Social Inclusion in Rural Households: A Comparative Analysis," by Elizabeth Oughton, Jane Wheelock and Susan Baines; "Ruralities and Gender Divisions of Labour in Eastern England," by Steven Henderson and Keith Hoggart; "The Reinvention of Tirau: Landscape As a Record of Changing Economy and Culture," by Ruth Panelli, Ottilie Stolte and Richard Bedford.

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.)

This article traces briefly the use of the comparative method in 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 fields. Secondly, the article 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 article delineates three major methodological problems in cross-national research. These problems include the requirement of equivalence of meaning, the requirement of concept equivalence and the requirement of equivalence of cultural variability. It concludes with a recommendation for furthering interest in cross-national research in rural sociology.

Introduces articles and research papers of the July 1985 issue of the Journal "Sociologia Ruralis."

Engineering new networks between state agencies, farmers and other actors is central to contemporary agri-environmental policy. This article examines relationships between network membership, identity and changes in farming practice from the perspective of three different conceptualisations of social networks. These include social network analysis, the network society thesis and actor-network theory. Despite their common reliance on the metaphor of ‘networks’ to focus sociological analysis, these approaches are based on divergent ontological assumptions and suggest a number of different research foci. The paper finds that while social networks embedded in group membership and interactions among farmers appear to have had dramatic impacts on the expression of personal and group identities – particularly in relation to women – their impact on the adoption of more overtly environmentally sound farming practices has been limited in several important ways. By contrast, less visible relationships of knowledge and expertise that extend beyond the co-present interactions of producers appear to shape farming identities and practices ‘at a distance’, in ways that contribute to the limited impact of agri-environment group membership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information related to the eleventh congress of the European Society for Rural Sociology, which will be held at Helsinki, Finland, in August 1981. The main theme of the symposium will be "How rural is our future." Some other themes that will be discussed in the meeting includes, rural employment and alternative farming systems, social aspects of rural planning, employment alternatives, jobs in rural development and rural organizations and development. A Paper elaborating on the main theme and sub-themes of the congress is currently being prepared by the Scientific Committee, and will be published in the next issue of the journal Sociologia Ruralis. The article also provides the address from where the information on local arrangements can be obtained.

The article presents information on the various conferences, meetings and papers published in various periodicals related to the rural sociology. The Fifth Congress of the European Society for Rural Sociology will be held from August 19 to September 2, 1966, in or near Dublin, Ireland. The general theme will be "The Future of Rural Life." The titles of the subtopics are Technological and Economic Changes in Agriculture and their Impact on the Farm Population, Institutional Changes and Rural Life, The Rural-Urban Continuum, Interaction between Social Change and Physical Planning and Culture and Society in the Countryside of the Future. The paper "Rural Sociological Research Team of the C.N.R.S. and Laboratory for Rural Sociology of the I.N.R.A." appeared in the April-June 1964 issue of the periodical "Revue Francaise de Sociologie." The "Groupe de Sociologie Rurale" of the C.N.R.S. was created about fifteen years ago by scholar H. Lefebvre with the initial aim to organize meetings which assembled the best ruralistes in France, like M. Cepede, L. Chevalier, P. Coutin, R. Dumont and C. Parrain. Some years ago the group developed into a research team which dedicates itself to fundamental and methodological studies of French rural societies.

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 contention of this paper is that organic farming, the movement and ideology, challenges sociological theory of the nature-culture relation (environmental issues, the role of science). The idea is discussed and explored in two ways. Firstly the paper gives a 'diagnosis' of organic farming in terms of modernization. The organic farming movement is a social movement having some success in a period when the power of social movements in general seems low. It is also a movement with a radical view on environmental issues and the man-nature relationship. Recently, several researchers have written about the institutionalization of organic farming, where institutionalization might be understood as a kind of modernization. How can we understand the organic farming movement in terms of modernization? Is the organic farming movement a movement opposing modernity, arguing for pre-modern structures of society? Is it perfectly modern in the classical sense? Or is the existence of the organic farming movement rather a frontier empirical example of the reflexive state of modern society? The Danish organic farming movement serves as an example for the discussion. The 'diagnosis' depends on the theoretical point of departure - which theory of modernity is used. This leads to the second approach, namely the comparison of Ulrich Beck's theory of risk society and Bruno Latour's theory of actor-networks. Both theories are dealing explicitly with the nature-culture relation in late (or 'post' or 'reflexive') modern societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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 article presents a report on the second meeting of the Working Party on Rural Sociological Problems in Europe. It further describes a review of investigations and of institutions engaged in rural sociological research and training in Europe and one of the papers discussed at the meeting.

This article endeavours to illuminate a largely underexplored area of family farming research; that of multiple-household arrangements at the farm level. The investigation focused on an agricultural area of south-east Spain where family-based farms specialising in export-oriented horticulture have undergone profound transformations over the last decades. In-depth interviews were undertaken with 20 informants complemented by a face-to-face survey of 135 farmers. A closer look at the farm-family interplay unveiled the existence of holdings jointly managed by several kindred households. These farm governance structures are associated with a greater ability to cope with the managerial complexity of this agricultural system and provide a sound basis for farm expansion, thus emerging as an important element of farm differentiation. Micro-level information allowed us to explore, for the first time, the variable morphology of the organisational forms that were often found to lie behind different legal arrangements and their role in the intergenerational transfer process. These findings have far-reaching implications for research, since they take us considerably beyond the picture portrayed by conventional agricultural statistics and challenge many of the traditional assumptions and categories of the existing literature on family farming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the preparation and implementation in France of a vaccination campaign (2008) to protect livestock against bluetongue disease ( BT) and questions the long-term stability of structural relationships in the animal health sector. Using three approaches from the sociology of risks - exogenous or endogenous nature of crisis, responsibility of expertise - we show that post-bovine spongiform encephalopathy ( BSE) reforms, by claiming a clearly separated role for each party (risk assessment, risk management, farmers' responsibility), have left the issue of relationships between actors by the wayside. We argue with the bluetongue case that such radical partitioning is unworkable. Discussing the decline of the French 'health tripod' (State, farmers, veterinarians), we emphasise that it has been idealised as a model that each party has a major interest to maintain. Our sources are based on 35 interviews, analysis of professional press and ministry of agriculture's internal notes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article identifies and positions micro-politics within rural development practice. It is concerned with the hidden and subtle processes that bind groups together, including trust, power and personal perceptions and motivations. The first section of the article provides a theoretical context for micro-political processes which reveals subtle distinctions from social capital. The section following describes the ethnographic approach that sets the methodological framework for the research. The findings reveal how micro-political processes manifest in a rural development group affect norms and relations both positively and negatively. Finally the causes of and factors affecting micro-politics are considered before concluding with a discussion on how micro-politics may be managed in rural regeneration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the study on social configurations of three types of rural communities in Wales. The Welsh communities include a sector described as a countryside of scattered settlements, rural village and market town. The objective of suggesting the community types is to establish the usefulness of creating ideal type theory for further sociological research. Furthermore, the development of ideal types may form essential introduction to the tasks of sociologists since it helps them in narrowing down the study of specific community.

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 comparative perspectives on rural sociology. The formulation of the theme of the Twelfth European Congress for Rural Sociology allows for a very broad span of research. The way themes of this and former congresses have been phrased leads to the conclusion that the European Society for Rural Sociology has a systematic preference for broad, general and rather loosely defined congress topics. An important function of sociology, including rural sociology, is the redefinition and reconceptualisation of existing and emerging problem areas by making use of the results of empirical research. To the extent that rural sociology is successful in this respect, there is a critical opinion about the accomplishments of the past. Repeated critical evaluation of results, to make room for a new conceptualisation, inevitably militates against persistent, cumulative progress. However, the processes of reconceptualisation themselves are positive indication of lively intellectual activity. Some remarks about the idea of progress in rural sociology, and comparative perspective, which is an important aspect of the congress theme has been presented.

The article discusses some considerations relevant to the training for international rural sociologists. In the opinions of the North American-trained colleagues from other societies and cultures, most or all of the research methods and statistical techniques can be used as taught, with only limited adaptations. Similarly, they estimate that all or almost all of the organization methods and community development processes which were part of their North American training can be utilized in their own society with only limited adaptations. When asked if the sociological concepts which were part of their training called attention to a meaningful body of phenomena in their own society, 98 per cent indicated that most or all of them did. Thus, in the opinions of the respondents, research methods, organization and community development methods and concepts as general sensitizing concepts are all transferable from one society to another and from one culture to another with only small adaptations.