INTERPRETATIVE RESEARCH AND STRUCTURAL CHANGE IN RURAL SOCIOLOGY.

This paper discusses the contribution that 'interpretative' research might make to rural sociology. Most research in rural sociology has had a heavy quantitative bias, and it is suggested that this bias has often made an understanding of the processes of social change more difficult. One way in which 'interpretative' sociology might prove of value is in bringing together the analysis of changes at the local 'community' level, and more widespread structural changes. The analysis of social transactions between peasants and cattle-dealers in the Spanish Pyrenees, undertaken by the author, focuses attention on the process of social change through the use of 'interpretative' rather than positivistic research methods. It is argued that changes at the 'community' level are only one example of the behaviour which rural sociologists might investigate using a more 'interpretative' approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]