Rural Sociology Research Articles

A More Complete Picture: Rural Residents’ Relative Support for Seven Forms of Natural Resource‐Related Economic Development

AbstractUnderstanding rural resident support for various forms of natural resource‐related economic development has been a common research topic in rural sociology. However, the vast majority of research has only evaluated support for one form of natural resource use at a time. The little research that has explored support for a wide variety of uses has found that residents are likely to support many of the suggested forms of development. We assessed rural resident support for seven forms of natural resource development: commercial logging, natural gas, mining, real estate, wind energy, tourism, and outdoor recreation. Using social exchange theory, this study examines the influence of perceived impacts of development, industry trust, and perceived industry power on general support for the seven forms of natural resource‐related economic development using a fixed effects generalized linear model among a sample of residents of rural Pennsylvania communities. Additionally, we use mixed logit discreet choice modeling to evaluate the drivers of relative support, meaning a stated preference for one form of development over other possible options. The drivers of general support and relative support were similar, with trust in industry and impacts to quality of life emerging as the primary drivers of both.

Characteristics of “work in agriculture” scientific communities. A bibliometric review

Work is a central concern for sustainable farming systems and rural communities, especially regarding specific issues of the agricultural sector, as the strong decrease in rural employment and the less attractive working conditions. Many articles covering diverse related topics have been published. However, the few studies analyzing the state of worldwide scientific research on work in agriculture give only a fragmented view, since they focus on specialized topics and disciplines. To fill this knowledge gap, the aim of this study was to review the state of research on work in agriculture addressed by the scientific literature, through a bibliometric analysis by country, institution, journal, author, and keywords. Our main finds are that (1) work in agriculture issues is divided into six main research domains: occupational health and safety, labor market and rural employment, labor and farm sustainability, work organization, agricultural policy and agrarian changes, and labor and family farms; (2) these research domains are analyzed by five scientific communities: ergonomics, agricultural economics, livestock farming systems, rural sociology, and agricultural policy; (3) the reference authors, most-cited articles, and main journals were identified for each scientific community; (4) USA, France, and China arise as leaders in the scientific landscape. We show for the first time the characteristics of the main scientific communities worldwide that have performed the most relevant research related to work in agriculture over the past 10 years. This review provides a benchmark for future research on agricultural work-related topics and encourages collaborations between researchers from different scientific communities for interdisciplinary innovation, which support sustainable working conditions in agriculture.

Refugee Migration Histories in a Meatpacking Town: Blurring the Line Between Primary and Secondary Migration

There is substantial movement of US refugee populations originating from Africa, Asia, and other parts of the world across all parts of the country, beyond large metropolitan areas and traditional immigration hubs. Counter to expectations that refugees would remain in a given resettlement location for a period of integration and support, many non-resettlement communities have attracted newcomer refugees. The dynamics of early movement of refugees blurs the line between initial resettlement and secondary migration. To study the timing and motivations for refugee secondary migration, we conducted structured quantitative interviews with 92 refugees in Greeley, Colorado. Like many other small agricultural cities across the USA (Marston et al. International Journal of Migration and Residential Mobility, 1(3), 253–268, 2016; Broadway Rural Sociology, 72(4), 560–582, 2007), Greeley has experienced an influx of refugees due to a shift in the meatpacking labor market from immigrant to refugee labor. This study adds to prior research documenting refugee secondary migration (e.g., Marks 2014; Hume and Hardwick Geographical Review, 95(2), 189–209, 2005; Weine et al. Family Process, 50(1), 27–46, 2011) with a larger study sample focused on gathering uniform accounts of refugee migration histories. Our data show that many refugees arrived in Greeley very soon after initial resettlement. Employment and social networks were a draw for most interviewees to move to Greeley; however, many who came for work had not yet found employment or were unemployed after leaving jobs at the meatpacking plant. These and other findings suggest the importance of research on refugee mobility. In an ever-globalizing world, the blurred line between primary and secondary migration necessitates preparation among American communities to maximize refugee integration.

School of Chicago And Its Approaches to The People and Communities of The Northwest Semiard

This article deals with the contributions that the principles of the Chicago School, proposed for the urban centers, can bring in the analysis of the problems existing in the rural space. For the theoretical basis, the discussion of these concepts was carried out; of traditional peoples and communities, of the communities that exist in the northeastern semi-arid region, such as the Caiçara I Population. It discusses the process of urbanization of rural areas and their consequences; on the fragility of existing studies, especially on critical rural sociology and its role in the elaboration of concepts specific to the rural area. It is observed the elements that approach rural areas in the process of urbanization the emergence of segregated communities and if rural communities can be the new "ghettos" of urban centers. The identification and discussion of the principles of the Chicago School in the rural community under study is carried out. The methodological proposal used is the bibliographical research, performed through the systemic review of literature that dialogues with the use of methods of critical ethnography. It concludes with the suggestion of a model for the development of the public policy agenda aimed at identifying and meeting the real needs of these communities.

The Rising Salience of the Absent: An Interactionist Analysis

The paper uses examples from rural studies to demonstrate the relevance of symbolic interactionism for unlocking the complexity of contemporary society. It does so by making a case for a nonprescriptive theory-method dialectic. Case examples are drawn upon in support of the argumentation, including early interactionism and ethnographic work in the United Kingdom, and, in the second half of the paper, rural sociology and fieldwork. The main argument presented is that the traditional remit of interactionism should be extended to recognize how absence is increasingly influential. It concludes that interactionism is in tune with other new trajectories in the social sciences that take into consideration co-presence proximity both on and off-line.

The Rural Problem: Justice in the Countryside

AbstractThis paper makes the case that justice scholarship cannot adequately account for the rural grievances that helped launch Trump to the presidency. This relative blind spot in the literature offers an opportunity for rural sociologists and rural studies scholars more generally to elevate their relevance in the academy and beyond. From late‐2012 to late‐2017, I traversed the state of Colorado interviewing and participating alongside non metro residents from its 24 “rural” and 23 “frontier” counties—the latter designation refers to those counties with a population density of six or fewer persons per square mile (the state has 64 counties in total). The argument is informed by 129 face‐to‐face interviews with residents from across these 47 counties. An additional 144 participant observation‐related conversations help further inform the argument. After explaining why rural grievances driving much of today's populism remains a problem for justice scholarship, I document injustices experienced among those interviewed, categorizing them along the three axes of distribution, recognition, and representation. I then offer tentative suggestions for building recognition and empathy between metro and non metro Coloradans. The paper concludes discussing its limitations and the next steps for future scholarship.

From “Meat Culture” to “Cultured Meat”: Critically Evaluating the Contested Ontologies and Transformative Potential of Biofabricated Animal Material on Culture and Law

This article calls into question how different the parallel ontologies of meat are in terms of the realities they enact. It argues that while biofabricated animal material is expected to transform the production and consumption of meat, the material’s ontologies reinforce existing interrelationships between the dominant meat culture and the law. Additionally, the expectations surrounding biofabricated animal material vests the material with transformative power, even though it does not challenge the structural factors, namely law and culture, which underlie the exploitation and commodification of animals. I begin by delineating the co-constituting relationship between law, the realities of meat production and consumption, and meat culture. I then unpack the interface between different ontologies of meat and consider why the contest has taken place in legal terrains. From here, I consider the key expectations that have assigned transformative power to biofabricated animal material. I suggest that these expectations work to reinforce existing meat culture, and the configurations of power that benefit from it, as supported via legal instruments.

Agriculture as Carework: The Contradictions of Performing Femininity in a Male-Dominated Occupation

ABSTARCTWomen in the US have farmed for centuries, but have infrequently had the farmer title. Rural sociologists have explored women’s on-farm roles, as well as rural conceptualizations of gender that influence who can be a farmer. As the proportion of women claiming the farmer title increases, it is important to explore women farmers’ experiences. This article focuses on sixteen farmers in Colorado across the conventional-alternative spectrum. Through engagement with feminist and rural sociological theory, and based on analysis of semi-structured interviews, we contend that women in this study expand what it means to be a farmer by performing femininity through carework within their farming practice. This study demonstrates how some women farmers adapt a variety of predominantly feminine-coded work—such as education, customer support, and feeding work—to make agriculture a space of carework, and farming a role expanded beyond a masculine ideal.

Does fracking drive you to drink? Unconventional oil and gas production and alcohol consumption in U.S. counties

Unconventional drilling technologies like hydraulic fracturing and directional drilling have markedly increased oil and gas production in the United States while also bringing production in proximity with many communities. Foundational research in rural sociology predicts the rise of local “boomtown” problems like excessive alcohol consumption as a result of sudden energy booms. In this paper, we use data from U.S. counties to understand the relationship between energy production and alcohol consumption. Results suggest that oil and gas production has very modest effects on binge drinking and heavy drinking, and that these effects may vary by gender and across U.S. states.

Researching Rural Housing: With an Artist in Residence

AbstractThis article presents a unique amalgam across artistic research and rural sociology. We draw on a collaborative art residence programme between a University and an arts organisation in England, which invited an artist to respond to a highly contentious topic in rural England: housing development. The ambition for the residency was, firstly, to provide new perspectives on rural housing research, and, secondly, to provide a space for engagement between the local community, planners and academics. Through our interdisciplinary collaboration, we explore how Sander Van Raemdonck’s artistic process worked towards these ambitions. The artistic practice involved a walk with the local community, a peripatos, in a post‐industrial site proposed for housing development. Drawing on the artistic practice, the interdisciplinary team developed then a second walk, a ‘walkshop’, to mediate between housing/planning experts and reflect on the experience of the artistic practice. Following those artists and social scientists that already utilise walking as a method, we argue that the artistic peripatos can support a multi‐sensory way of communicating, a way to get ‘under the skin of a place’. More critically, we argue that artist in residence programmes provide rich opportunity to develop interdisciplinary research with artists.

Refugee Settlement in New Brunswick

Refugees who try to settle in sparsely populated areas often leave these areas for major metropolitan areas within a few years of arrival in Canada. The refugees often feel discouraged by the lack of satisfactory employment possibilities. If refugees settle in a rural area longer than 2 years, however, they are likely to remain there long-term (Carter et. al., International Journal of Migration and Integration 9:161-183, 2008; Donato et al., Rural Sociology 72:537-559, 2007; Fonseca, Population, Space and Place 14:525-535, 2008; Hugo, Population, Space and Place 14:553-571, 2008; Krahn et al., International Migration Review 39:872-894, 2005). For New Brunswick, this statistic is particularly important. New Brunswick is the only province in Canada with a declining population, and this demographic situation deeply worries the provincial government (Government of New Brunswick 2014). The province of New Brunswick sees refugee reception as a way to grow the population. However, the province suffers from high unemployment rates, which brings the issue of refugee retention into sharp focus for the region. This paper investigates the extent to which refugee experiences of settlement in New Brunswick correspond with evidence about the barriers and opportunities found in research regarding immigration settlement in rural communities and welcoming communities in other areas of the country. It then details the evidence collected from 40 refugee respondents in New Brunswick through semi-structured interviews (in Fredericton, Moncton, and Saint John) and one focus group (in Fredericton). The respondents identified several key systematic problems that impeded their settlement in the province, as well as suggested solutions to these problems.

Hunting communities of practice: Factors behind the social differentiation of hunters in modernity

Hunting is a social world in which members socially differentiate themselves into smaller social worlds on the basis of adhering to a particular method, aesthetic, or game. Such identity constitution has been understood as forming communities of practice of hunters. Importantly, these communities frequently take pride in their distinct identities and assert theirs is the ‘real’ way of hunting. In this paper, we canvass the diverse factors that make up hunter identities and examine them for patterns and meaning. Our analysis places the phenomenon of social differentiation as it currently takes place in hunting in the context of responses to modernization. On this analysis, hunter identities are found to be rooted in defensive localism, class competition over resources, gender and moral affiliation, and the protection of the social legitimacy of hunting before an increasingly critical society. Our work is at once a synthesis of recurring hunting profiles across literature and field sites in Europe and a critical analysis of the significance of hunting communities of practice in future research, including serious leisure studies, nature-based recreation, criminology and rural sociology.

Symposium introduction—ethics and sustainable agri-food governance: appraisal and new directions

This Symposium contributes to a theoretical and methodological discussion on the role of ethics and responsibility in the governance of agri-food systems, as drivers for transitions towards sustainability. The papers in the Symposium are the outcomes of a collective reflection that was initiated at the European Society for Rural Sociology (ESRS) 2017 congress, within the Working Group on Ethics and sustainable agri-food governance. The session examined how ethics and ethical values drive change in the agri-food system, and how they increasingly evolve and influence food system governance. Building on the discussions and outcomes of this ESRS Working Group, the collection of papers in this Symposium fosters and deepens the discussion on the role of ethics in food systems, ranging across different food system actors, activities and contexts and presents new theoretical and methodological frameworks to understand the construction of more ethical agri-food systems.

Дети деревенских мигрантов в Китае: исследование проблем социализации

The research analyzes the social challenges of internal migration in modern China. The primary focus is on left-behind children («留守儿童»), i.e. children of rural migrants moving to cities because of work. The author summarizes Chinese sociological studies dealing with the analysis of problem situations in this regard. In particular, the paper describes the pivotal approaches of social and demographic scientists to considering the issue of left-behind children and structuring this social group. Besides, it presents current statistical data and typical case studies. The emphasis is placed on arranging custody and socialization of children whose parents have to leave to work in urban areas. Regardless of the analytical approach or methodology, the researchers conclude that children of rural migrants are vulnerable. The reasons for this situation imply the imbalance in their socialization and maldistribution of resources between urban and rural regions. When the Chinese society faces the increase in the percentage of rural migrants, families moving to cities, it is significant to provide social surveys of their children since the future of a child is the pivotal family interest and the main migration factor of parents. Nowadays, the problem of left-behind children is the priority for Chinese economic sociology and rural sociology as it reflects the need to develop and take prompt measures to adjust social policies.

Grabbing land legally: A Marxist analysis

AbstractThis article lays the groundwork for a Marxist theory of the international law of land-grabbing. It argues that any comprehensive politico-economic analysis of land-grabbing must also be a politico-economic analysis of the law of land-grabbing. It argues further that Marx’s account of ‘primitive accumulation’ in Capital – an account it presents as an historical explanation of the transition to capitalism as well as a general theory of ‘extra-economic’ force deployed through state power, including, crucially, the power of law – is helpful for developing an analytical framework for understanding the legal facets of land-grabbing. Political economists, rural sociologists, and social and political theorists have argued for and against the applicability of Marx’s theory of ‘primitive accumulation’ to the contemporary wave of global land grabbing. Intriguingly, though, no international lawyers have grappled with the question of whether a specifically Marxist approach to the phenomenon can or should be developed. This article does so, contending that contemporary land-grabbing is unintelligible absent a theory of capitalism, and that the processes whereby capitalism transforms land and labour are unintelligible absent a theory of the periodic waves of legally mediated ‘primitive accumulation’ that propel it forward. The article pays particular attention to the work produced by Olivier De Schutter during his tenure as United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food.

Социология деревни: китайские и западные теоретические традиции

The paper analyzes the Chinese and Western theoretical traditions in the studies on rural sociology. The emphasis is placed on the approaches of Chinese and Western sociologists to examining the problems of a village in the era of urbanization. A comprehensive sociological analysis of the rural economic development remains a major development challenge for social sciences, particularly for the sociology of China. This analysis implies both a review of theoretical studies on the village in Western social sciences and the creation of a Chinese-adapted concept of economic and social research into the complex social adaptation of modern Chinese village to the global economic processes. It is difficult for Chinese rural sociologists to develop this branch of the sociology and create opportunities for acquiring new knowledge on urgent, acute, complex social and economic and demographic problems of the modern Chinese village without such a theoretical integration. The aforementioned Western theoretical approaches may well become the basis for the modern rural sociology in China because, since the early 20th century, Chinese researchers have been striving to escape from forced empiricism and rise to the high scientific and theoretical level of understanding the transformation of the Chinese peasantry.

The Political Power of Large‐Scale Farmers and Land Inequality: Some Evidence from Poland

AbstractGiven current political concerns with inequality and the sustainable management of natural resources, the issue of the distribution of productive assets in rural areas has become an increasingly important focus of research. Referring to both ample historical evidence and qualitative research, rural sociologists have long postulated that the distribution of economic resources is strongly influenced by the distribution of political power. In this article we support this claim with quantitative analysis. Our focus is on the relationship between land inequality and the attainment of political power by large‐scale farmers in rural Poland. Our findings suggest a strong statistical association between the current level of land inequality and the fact that mayors operate relatively large land holdings themselves. Our results are qualitatively the same no matter whether we measure land inequality as the share of land used by the largest landholders or the land Gini index. They also hold in several robustness checks.

The Making of an Intellectual: Orlando Fals-Borda, 1948-1958

The decade 1948–1958 influenced Fals-Borda’s later career much more than his critics have recognised so far. By tracking many previously unstudied primary sources, this article looks at Fals-Borda’s positivist stage, which has been generally regarded as a hindrance to his career, against the backdrop of his personal and professional motivations to become a rural sociologist. Thus, it argues that his abandonment of the establishment and commitment to the peasant struggle for land in the 1970s were much less a disjunction than a continuation of some concerns and leitmotifs wholeheartedly embraced since the very beginning of his career.

Attitude of Youths to Agriculture as Career in Iwo and Aiyedire Local Government Areas of Osun State, Nigeria

The study determined the attitude of youths to agriculture as a career in Iwo and Aiyedire Local Government Areas of Osun State, Nigeria. The sample size of the study was 90 youths who were randomly selected from the clans of the study area. The questionnaire was the instrument used for data collection. Data were analyzed with mean and t-test. Results showed that the attitude of youths to agriculture as a career in the study area was negative as indicated by grand means of 2.44 and 2.47 in Iwo and Aiyedire respectively. The variable with the highest negative response in Iwo with a mean of 2.32 was that agriculture is a gold mine for young entrepreneurs. For Aiyedire the variable with the highest negative response of 2.42 was that agriculture is attractive and decent. The major constraints of the youths to the choice of agriculture as a career in Iwo were insufficient land to start (3.02) and use of crude tools for farming (3.02). Lack of funds to begin (2.91) and insufficient career guidance by agricultural extension workers and rural sociologists (2.79) were the major constraints for youths in Aiyedire. In order to attract more youths into having a positive attitude to agriculture as a career, the study recommends provision for sufficient land and fund for young farmers and engagement of more agricultural extension workers and rural sociologists for career guidance to youths in the study area.

Processi di territorializzazione e flussi migratori. Pensare le migrazioni in prospettiva territoriale

The aim of the article is to discuss the interconnections existing between urban and migration studies. It argues that, at the beginning of the XX century, namely in the pioneering works of the Chicago School, the two debates developed jointly. The essay illustrates the added value of using a spatial lens to understand migrations. Moreover, it shows the advantages of considering migratory processes to read the current transformations undertaken by contemporary cities and rural areas. Finally, it introduces the contributions collected in this monographic section of the Journal «Urban and Rural Sociology».