Hodges, Donald G. (author), Luloff, A.E. (author), and Luloff: Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802; Hodges: Department of Forestry, Mississippi State University, Mississippi 39762
Format:
Journal article
Publication Date:
1992
Published:
USA
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 91 Document Number: C06516
James F. Evans Collection, Since the late 1950s and 1960s, New Hampshire has experienced unprecedented growth. During the past two decades, this growth has begun to be felt in the state's North Country, particularly among its many small communities. As a result of developmental pressures in this region, numerous local problems related to the environment and socio-economic conditions surfaced. The responsibility for meeting the challenges of such growth and development often fell on amateur bureaucrats. Relatively little is known about how representative such officials are of their local citizenry in terms of attitudes and opinions or socio-demographics. This paper presents the results of a study comparing demographic characteristics and assesses the congruence of attitudes of citizens and local government officials in the North Country of New Hampshire. (author)
Examines the social dynamics between landlords, tenants and agricultural agency professionals to better understand how those dynamics affect the adoption of sustainable agricultural methods on rented land. Author offers a strategy of change.
James F. Evans Collection, This is a comparative analysis of the adjustment of a Danish and a Polish ethnic group to the American culture in a dairy farming area in central Wisconsin. The adjustment is evaluated in terms of recommended farm practices. These practices are grouped under three major categories: (1) livestock practices, (2) cropping practices, and (3) mechanization. For every trait measured the Danish farm group exceeds the Polish group in the proportion who have adopted the selected recommended practices. The performance suggests that the Danish and Polish ethnic groups are different universes from the standpoint of behavior and reaction to recommended dairy farming practices. The Danish and the Polish groups constitute distinct culture complexes, or subcultures, within the North central dairy region. the evidence of the study indicated that the cultural adjustments of the Danish group facilitate the introduction of new ides, whereas the adjustments of the Polish group tend to perpetuate status quo. (author)
James F. Evans Collection, The effects of the economy on political attitudes is a long-standing sociological issue that is receiving renewed attention in the face of recent U.S. economic downturns. While the impacts of the farm crisis on financial and household well-being of farm operators have been addressed by a number of studies, few have explored its political outcomes. Four perspectives that consider how economic forces translate into political beliefs are outlined, two reflecting objective economic position (class location and financial pressure) and two indicating subjective appraisals (feelings of economic uncertainty and subjective deprivation). Data from a sample of Ohio farm operators for 1987 are used to analyze how the perspectives are related to progressive beliefs about farming, the domestic nonfarm economy, and third-world food production. Indicators of objective economic position and subjective appraisals have relatively limited impact on farmers' political attitudes. Of these indicators, subjective appraisals were more closely related to attitudes. In addition, operators' stances on farm political issues also affect their views on domestic nonfarm and third-world policy agendas. Implications were found for studies of farmers' political attitudes as well as for broader sociological theory regarding the development of progressive attitudes during periods of economic decline. (original)
James F. Evans Collection, Consumer concerns over pesticide residues and food additives have been growing in industrialized societies, including the United States and Japan. However, little comparative research has been carried out to determine which household characteristics may be significantly associated with these heightened concerns, and whether or not the same factors are useful for understanding variation in these worries in more than one society. This paper examines food safety attitudes in Seattle, Washington, and Kobe, Japan, and discovers that while the absolute level of expressed concern is higher in Kobe, the predictive power of household characteristics in explaining attitudinal differences within countries is similar. Implications for rural areas and future research on family structures in capitalists societies are discussed. (original)