34 pages, A growing body of research lends support to opportunity theory and its variants, but has yet to focus systematically on a number of specific offenses and contexts. Typically, the more crimes and contexts to which a theory applies, the broader its scope and range, respectively, and thus generalizability. In this paper, we focus on agricultural crime victimization— including theft of farm equipment, crops, livestock, and chemicals—an offense that opportunity theory appears well-situated to explain. Specifically, we examine whether key dimensions of the theory are empirically associated with the likelihood of victimization and also examine factors associated with farmers’ use of guardianship measures. In contrast to much previous research, we combine multiple individual-level measures of these dimensions. We conclude that the theory partially accounts for variation in agricultural crime victimization, depending on the type of crime, and that greater work is needed investigating how key dimensions of opportunity theory should be conceptualized and operationalized in rural contexts. The study’s implications for theory and practice are discussed.
31 pages, Imaginaries of empty, verdant lands have long motivated agricultural frontier expansion. Today, climate change, food insecurity, and economic promise are invigorating new agricultural frontiers across the circumpolar north. In this article, I draw on extensive archival and ethnographic evidence to analyze mid-twentieth-century and recent twenty-first-century narratives of agricultural development in the Northwest Territories, Canada. I argue that the early frontier imaginary is relatively intact in its present lifecycle. It is not simply climactic forces that are driving an emergent northern agricultural frontier, but rather the more diffuse and structural forces of capitalism, governmental power, settler colonialism, and resistance to those forces. I also show how social, political, and infrastructural limits continue to impede agricultural development in the Northwest Territories and discuss how smallholder farmers and Indigenous communities differently situate agricultural production within their local food systems. This paper contributes to critical debates in frontiers and northern agriculture literature by foregrounding the contested space between the state-driven and dominant public narratives underpinning frontier imaginaries, and the social, cultural, and material realities that constrain them on a Northwest Territories agricultural frontier.
Parents shape children's social choices through their social and economic actions. Parental social participation connects children to a civic culture and encourages involvement in civic groups. Parents' ties to farming in farm-dependent communities furuther enhance children's civic orientations by providing added opportunities and incentives for social participation. Data from Iowa Youth and Families Project confirm these hypotheses, showing that the children of farmers and of rural leaders are more likely to participate in civic groups. These results establish parental social involvement as a source of social capital and demonstrate the importance of farm incluences for understanding the social involvement of youth in rural society.
Gartrell, C. David (author), Gartrell, J.W. (author), Lewis, Scott C. (author), and Lewis: Department of Sociology, University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada; Gartrell, C.: Department of Sociology, University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada; Gartrell, J.: Department of Sociology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Format:
Journal article
Publication Date:
1989
Published:
USA
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 83 Document Number: C05148
AGRICOLA IND 89062953, We test two hypotheses based on Cancian's theory of the status-innovation relationship which predicts upper-middle-class conservatism in agricultural communities (1967, 1972, 1979, 1981). Quantitative meta-analysis of 34 rural development surveys yields a cumulated difference-of-proportions that (1) actually runs counter to the direction predicted by Cancian's "upper-middle- class conservatism" hypothesis, and (2) supports Morrison et al.'s (1976) conjecture that upper-middle-class conservatism effects should be weaker in pyramidal representations of rural stratification systems. Future research should focus on community-level contextual factors that may influence the nature of the status-innovation relationship:
Brown, Raplh B. (author), Hassinger, Edward W. (author), O'Brien, David J. (author), Pinkerton, James R. (author), and Department of Rural Sociology, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO
Format:
Journal article
Publication Date:
1991
Published:
USA
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 90 Document Number: C06475
James F. Evans Collection, The relationship between the social networks of leaders and community viability is examined in a comparative study of leaders (N=75) in five rural communities (population range 1,000 to 2,500). The analysis looks at leaders' connections to organizations outside of their communities and at different kinds of linkages between leaders within their respective communities. Leaders in more and less viable communities do not differ much in characteristics such as age, education, and occupations, but the presence of women in leadership position is associated with community viability. In addition, there is some support for the expectation that leaders in more viable communities are more likely to have formal linkages to statewide and national networks. The most important finding, however, is that the way in which leaders relate to each other in instrumental tasks within their respective communities is associated with community viability. (original)
Bell, Michael M. (author / Department of Sociology and School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Yale University, New Haven, CT) and Department of Sociology and School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Yale University, New Haven, CT
Format:
Journal article
Publication Date:
1992
Published:
USA
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 90 Document Number: C06477
James F. Evans Collection, Today sociologists tend to doubt the rural-urban continuum, the idea that community is more characteristic of country places than cities. Based on an ethnographic study of an English exurban village, I argue that the continuum remains an important source of identity for country residents, one from which they derive social-psychological and material benefits. They root this conception of themselves as country people in nature, making this identity a particularly secure one. These real social consequences suggest that sociology should no longer doubt the reality of the rural-urban continuum, at least at the level of the definition of the situation. It, therefore, should remain an important topic of sociological study. (original)
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)
Beggs, J.J. (author / Louisiana State University), Hurlbert, J.S. (author / Louisiana State University), and Haines, V.A. (author / University of Calgary, Canada)
Format:
Journal article
Publication Date:
1996
Published:
USA
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 104 Document Number: C09010
Green, G.P. (author / University of Wisconsin-Madison), Marcouiller, D. (author / University of Wisconsin-Madison), Deller, S. (author / University of Wisconsin-Madison), Erkkila, D. (author / University of Minnesota), and Sumathi, N.R. (author / University of Wisconsin-Madison)
Format:
Journal article
Publication Date:
1996
Published:
USA
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 104 Document Number: C09012
Fliegel, Frederick C. (author / Department of Agricultural Economics, University of Illinois, Urbana) and Department of Agricultural Economics, University of Illinois, Urbana
Format:
Journal article
Publication Date:
1969
Published:
USA
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 43 Document Number: B05151
Evans, cited reference, This study is concerned with inter-community differences in social organization as these may affect the success of agricultural change programs in a sample of 108 Indian villages. With knowledge of the sociology of the community in its present state, it is not surprising that a number of the operational hypotheses posed were not supported by the data. Among these were hypotheses concerning agrarian structure, occupational structure, and the expected negative role of factional and religious cleavages. Local availability of farm labor and capital, plus a proliferation of formal organizations favor change program success. Traditional and modern elements of community organization seem to be intertwined in the modernization of agriculture, indicating a need for more systematic sociological knowledge of the community. (original)
Sawhney, M. Mohan (author / Department of Sociology and Anthropology, North Carolina State University at Raleigh) and Department of Sociology and Anthropology, North Carolina State University at Raleigh
Format:
Journal article
Publication Date:
1967
Published:
USA
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 43 Document Number: B05153
Jenkins, David R. (author), Matthews, M. Taylor (author), Sletto, Raymond F. (author), and South Carolina Agricultural Experiment Station; South Carolina Agricultural Experiment Station; South Carolina Agricultural Experiment Station
Format:
Report
Publication Date:
1942
Published:
USA
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 44 Document Number: B05353
Title page, table of contents, introduction, summary, Clemson, South Carolina : South Carolina Agricultural Experiment Station of Clemson Agricultural College, 1942. 39 p. (Bulletin no. 339)
