Making Sense of the Concept Rural and Doing Rural Sociology: An Interpretive Perspective.

In this article we argue that rural sociologists have, for the most part, pursued perspectives which largely ignore the actor's view of the world. We suspect that this has led to a form of theoretical-empirical myopia influencing what is known and can be known about the empirical world, including the concept "rural." We suggest that rural sociologists at least consider viewing the world as an on-going accomplishment rather than as a take-for-granted facticity. Our thesis is very much akin to Feyerabens's "plea for tolerance in matters epistemological," albeit with a "rural" twist to it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]