Rural sociology
1800s: Martineau · Tocqueville · Marx · Spencer · Le Bon · Ward · Pareto · Tönnies · Veblen · Simmel · Durkheim · Addams · Mead · Weber · Du Bois · Mannheim · Elias Rural sociology is a field of sociology traditionally associated with the study of social structure and conflict in rural areas.
Rural sociology was a concept first brought by Americans in response to the large amounts of people living and working on the grounds of farms.
[5] This is partially explained by the highly philosophical nature of pre-war European sociology: the field’s focus on broad scale generalizations largely erased rural-urban difference.
Practical applications and research methods employed by Land Grant Colleges,[6] the Country Life Commission,[7] and early American rural sociologists like W.B.
"[17] This departure from America’s more homogenous treatment of rural culture[18] grounded the field in methods that require community-level planning before technical change or community development can occur.
[19] These differences somewhat receded the 1950s and 60s, when European rural sociology shifted away from sociocultural study and towards the facilitation of modern agricultural practices.
[16] Critics were particularly concerned by the field’s seeming disregard for consideration of social interaction and culture, and encouraged a return to earlier modes of rural sociology that centered community structure.
[20] Considerations of European rural sociologists have since expanded to include food systems, rural-urban interface, urban poverty, and sustainable development.
[17] Its liberal internationalism and inclusivity makes it a unique interdisciplinary organization that stands somewhat apart from academia and splits its focus between theory and applied research.
[16] Unlike the United States,[26] European populations in urban areas are shrinking, with a noted uptick in migration back to rural and intermediary spaces over the last two decades, and especially since the end of COVID-19 lockdowns.
This move towards interdisciplinarity reflects the human and topographical geography of Europe writ large, and foreshadows possible integration of rural sociology into mainstream academic discourse.
[30] The earliest cases of studying rural life in Australia were conducted by anthropologists and social psychologists [31] in the 1950s, with sociologists taking on the subject beginning in the 1990s.
Ultimately, these attempts to institutionalize rural sociology in New Zealand failed due to the departments lack of organization and failure to publish impactful survey results.
[39] Such a focus is particularly salient in New Zealand where livestock farming has historically been a major national source of income and environmental policies have become increasingly strict in recent years.
The beginnings of rural sociology’s development in Latin America began in 1934 under the research of Commission of Cuban Affairs of the Foreign Policy Association member Carle C.
[54] As a North American rural sociologist, he conducted a study in Cuba comparing the wealth and conditions of cane workers to that of colonizers.
[55] While in Ecuador, Leonard attempted to establish a similar program in the Hacienda Pichalinqui region by identifying how locals gathered, the value and meaning of possessions, and the attitudes of those in the area.
As a combined force, they were also tasked with requesting that studies be performed on conditions of social, economic, and spiritual nature as they pertain to the well-being of rural communities.
Rural class structure, agrarian reform, and capitalist modes of production were all topics of discussion as the peasantry navigated their revolutionary status.
Researchers claim that this has been expressed through embracing non-farm activities, feminization of rural work, growing rural-urban relations, and migration and remittances.
[60] Sorokin makes these conclusions by drawing on records from these countries, which indicate study and thought about the sociology of early agriculturalists and those in rural areas.
The excerpts and records used “give the ancient evaluation of agriculture as being a means of group subsistence as compared with other occupations; they reflect the society’s view as to the relative rank of the cultivators in the social order; they depict ancient opinions concerning agriculture as an economic basis for the moral and social well-being of a society, as well as sever similar points.
[68][69] The government needed rural sociology to aid in its understanding of “the problems of extreme poverty of the people, overpopulation and general under-development of the economy”.
[71] The foreword of the book underlines the importance of understanding each aspect of society so that the Indian government could create “a uniform line of action for building a better social milieu”.
[75] Influences from American sociologists were welcomed during this time and continued to impact Chinese rural sociological studies into the 21st century.
[77][78] Other prominent Japanese rural sociological researchers of this time include Kitano Seiichi, Kizaemon Ariga, and Yozo Yamamoto.
