Agrarian values traditionally have been linked with farm families. Using data from a survey of Wisconsin farm spouses, this article explores the relationship between the identification of farm husbands and farm wives with agrarian values and related sex role orientations and position in the social structure of agriculture. As in previous studies, a commercial/refugist dimension of variation in agrarian identities was found. Depending on the structure of farm household organization, there also was substantial support for a much wider range of agrarian and non-agrarian identities than previously supposed. This was particularly so for farm wives. The change from lifestyles dependent on farming activities to those not dependent on agriculture has been central to the growing diversity in farm spouse roles and self-perceptions. Future studies need to consider three distinctive sets of value-orientations associated with traditional business, and property-holding lifestyles. (author)
Godwin, Deborah D. (author), Marlowe, Julia (author), and Department of Housing and Consumer Economics and Agricultural Experiment Station, University of Georgia, Athens, GA; Department of Housing and Consumer Economics and Agricultural Experiment Station, University of Georgia, Athens, GA
Format:
Journal article
Publication Date:
1990
Published:
USA
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 85 Document Number: C05437
AGE 84925163, The study evaluates 145 health care programs that were implemented in the 1970s to serve nonmetropolitan populations in the United States. The evaluation employs multiple indicator unobserved variable models to disaggregate the effects of the socio-environmental milieu; i.e., education, income, racial composition, poverty, housing conditions, crowding, occupation structure, and rural health care programs on physician availability and two health status indicators--neonatal mortality and post-neonatal mortality. The results show that rural health care programs did not increase the availability of physicians in the targeted areas. However, implementation of the programs contributed significantly to lowering the neonatal mortality rate.
AGE 84925159, Previous research leaves many questions to be answered about the effects of rurality on rates of serious social disruptions. The premise of this study is that rurality affects opportunities for disruption in social interaction. Further, it is argued that structural cleavages provoke disruptions where opportunities are conducive. The combinations of rurality with particular structural cleavages, therefore, predict specific patterns of disruption. Findings of a canonical analysis, with data for counties of the northeastern United States, show that rurality, in combination with other population characteristics, affects the rates of nonlethal violence, homicide, suicide, and divorce. The most generalized pattern includes a low rate of nonlethal violence and high rates of homicide, suicide, and divorce. An understanding of patterns of disruption in modern society can be enhanced by focusing on the effects of rurality.
AGE 85925422, Data from 358 households in 12 sites representative of climatic, geographical, and agricultural variations in the eastern communal areas of Botswana show that differences in the agricultural practices and extension contact of male- and female-headed households largely disappear when economic stratum is controlled. Female-headed households are shown not to be a homogeneous group. There appear to be greater similarities between farmers within the same economic stratum regardless of gender than between farmers of the same gender in different strata.
Bokemeier, Janet L. (author), Garkovich, Lorraine (author), and Department of Sociology, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY; Department of Sociology, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY
Format:
Journal article
Publication Date:
1987
Published:
USA
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 88 Document Number: C06050
Kloppenburg, Jack, Jr. (author / Department of Rural Sociology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI) and Department of Rural Sociology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI
Format:
Journal article
Publication Date:
1991
Published:
USA
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 90 Document Number: C06474
James F. Evans Collection, As a result of environmental and agrarian activism and of academic critique, a substantial amount of space is available now for moving agricultural technoscience onto new trajectories. A critical rural sociology has played a key role in pushing forward the deconstructive project that has been instrumental in creating this space. And rural sociologists can be active agents in the reconstruction of the alternative science that must emerge from "actually existing" science and that must be developed if there is to be a truly alternative agriculture. But to be effective in this effort we need to enlarge not only the canon of our colleagues in the natural sciences, but our own canon as well. This article suggests that the theoretical resources for such reconstruction are available in contemporary sociological and feminist interpretations of science. Material resources for the reconstruction of a "successor science" are to be found in the "local knowledge" that is continually produced and reproduced by farmers and agricultural workers. Articulations and complementarities between theoretical resources are suggested and potentially productive research areas are outlined. (original)
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)
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)
