Phase II, Raises several questions about prevailing conception of adopters and adoption behavior. Specifically, the author argues that research has failed to take into account variations in farming environments, natural physical parameters, and the social organization of resources as factors influencing peasant farmers' adoption behavior. More attention ought to be given to the location specific constraints, characteristics and requirements of specific technologies, and to the general issue of whether identical technologies are equivalent innovations in different agro-climatic environments. Drawing on data from several villages in Nepal, the author shows that rates of adoption are location specific, that is, influenced more by agro-climatic conditions and socioeconomic organization than by inter-village differences in propensity to innovate. Ecological suitably and varying levels of farm resources have a direct effect on technology utilization.
James F. Evans Collection, Using data obtained from National Opinion Research Center's General Social Surveys (1973-1990), this paper tests two hypotheses concerning possible changes in the sociopolitical correlates of environmental concern. The "broadening base" hypothesis predicts that environmental concern will diffuse throughout the populace, while the "economic contingency" hypothesis predicts that the economically deprived will disproportionally withdraw support for environmental protection during poor economic conditions. analysis of the data over the 18 years, however, failed to lend any clear support for either of the hypotheses. In marked contrast, results indicate that the social bases of environmental concern-at least as measured by the NORC environmental spending item-have remained remarkably stable over nearly two decades despite fluctuating economic, political, and environmental conditions. Younger adults, the well-educated, political liberals, Democrats, those raised and currently living in urban areas, and those employed outside of primary industries were found to be consistently more supportive of environmental protection than were their respective counterparts. (original)
