Rural Sociology Commons^™

Time To Trade In Our Island Mentality For A World View, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"The 836 residents of New Shoreham (Block Island) don't leave that island very often because of the expense and inconvenience. And some say that there is no need to leave that 10 square miles of beauty because they have everything there, so they are happy to stay.

That type of mentality, of feeling isolated and different from other places, may also be true of the state which, coincidentally, has the name "island" in its name. The reluctance to leave or move across the minuscule box of orders that define this smallest of states means that we turn inward and don't …

Nebraska’S Changing Agriculture: Perceptions About The Swine Industry, John C. Allen, Rebecca Filkins, Sam Cordes, Eric Jarecki

Publications from the Center for Applied Rural Innovation (CARI)

The livestock industry has been restructuring during the past several decades, resulting in fewer and larger farms as well as some vertical integration. One particular livestock sector, hogs, has received much attention in Nebraska during the past year. An increase in the applications for new hog confinement facilities has caused concern for some rural residents. Some are worried about environmental damage, while others are concerned about economic implications for smaller farms. However, supporters of these facilities point to additional jobs and other economic benefits they can bring to a community. Given these issues, how do rural Nebraskans feel about large-scale …

Rural Nebraskans’ Perceptions Of Tax Restructuring And Local Schools, John C. Allen, Rebecca Filkins, Sam Cordes, Eric J. Jarecki

Publications from the Center for Applied Rural Innovation (CARI)

School finance in Nebraska has been altered dramatically in recent years. School districts have been required to reduce their property tax levy to $1.10 per $100 in valuation this year. In addition, the formula for state aid has been changed. Many schools are scrambling to make changes to reach this levy lid. Some are considering cutting programs, cutting staff or even consolidation to deal with the limited funding. Many of these changes in school funding have resulted from a demand by Nebraskans for lower taxes and controlled government spending. Given these issues, how do rural Nebraskans feel about the current …

Community Life In Rural Nebraska: Trends And Comparisons, John C. Allen, Rebecca Filkins, Sam Cordes, Eric Jarecki

Publications from the Center for Applied Rural Innovation (CARI)

Nebraska’s rural communities have undergone many changes in recent years. The development of a global economy and pressures to consolidate services and government offices are some of the challenges that rural communities are currently facing. How have these changes affected rural Nebraskans’ perceptions of their communities? Do their perceptions differ by the size of their community, the region in which they live, or by their occupation?

This report details results of 4,196 responses to the 1998 Nebraska Rural Poll, the third annual effort to take the pulse of rural Nebraskans. Respondents were asked a series of questions about their community …

Rural-Urban Differences In Infant Mortality In The State Of Indiana, 1988-1992: A Proportional Hazards Analysis, Katherine Novak

Katherine B. Novak

Paper presentation at the Annual Meetings of the American Sociological Association. August, 1998. San Francisco, CA.

Rural Nebraskans’ Quality Of Life: Trends And Contributing Factors, John C. Allen, Rebecca Filkins, Sam Cordes, Eric J. Jarecki

Publications from the Center for Applied Rural Innovation (CARI)

Nebraska’s economy and population have shown growth during recent years. Agricultural producers are experiencing change as well with the implementation of a new farm program. How have these changes affected rural Nebraskans at a local level? How do they perceive their quality of life? Do their perceptions differ by the size of their community, the region in which they live or by their occupation?

This report details results of 4,196 responses to the 1998 Nebraska Rural Poll, the third annual effort to take the pulse of rural Nebraskans. Respondents were asked a series of questions about their general well-being and …

Improving The Quality Of Child Care In The Rural South, Margaret E. Griffin, R. Dwight Hare, Patrica A. Baggerly, Melinda M. Leftwich, Sue Standifer, Susan A. Elkins

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

A collaborative of six social service agencies and a state university determined that the single most pressing need of families in a 14-county, rural area was child care. The Training Resource Center, developed through a W K. Kellogg Foundation grant, worked with day care licensing and early childhood professional groups to develop a plan to address the systemic nature of the problem of how to improve the quality of child care. Programs developed included training, mentoring, NAEYC accreditation, and a resource library. After 15 months, some programs show the possibility of sustainability.

The Nation In The Village: War And Migration In Narratives Of Egyptian Peasants, Reem Saad

Faculty Book Chapters

The second of two issues, this volume covers aspects of Egyptian society. Contributors include: Donald Cole, Soraya Altorki, Asef Bayat, Eric Denis, Enid Hill, Ziad Bahaeddin, Malak Rouchdy, Linda Herrera, Jim Napoli, Hussein Amin, Mahmoud al-Lozy, Cynthia Nelson, and Shahnaz Rouse.

Review Of The Prairie Schoolhouse By John Martin Campbell, Sally Salisbury Stoddard

Great Plains Quarterly

John Martin Campbell, in this fine book consisting of sixty black and white, well conceived photographic plates and explicative text, has created an evocative picture of the prairie schoolhouses, the age from which they sprang, their environment, and the people for whom these formulaic structures fulfilled many functions. Older folks who grew up in the largely poor, rural areas of the vast American prairies will easily identify with Tony Hillerman's anecdote in the foreword, and they will surely experience a deep nostalgia and a profound sadness for the decay of the schoolhouse concept as well as the decay of the …

Industrial Development In Indonesia, Development For Whom?: A Case Study Of Women Who Work In Factories In Rural West Java, Peter J. Hancock

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This research was conducted in order to address two major research questions: 1) To what extent and in what ways are a cohort of female factory workers in Sundanese West Java influential in the cultural, social and economic development of the geographic area in which they live and more specifically within their own households? 2) To what extent does the Indonesian state support or inhibit such development? In order to answer these and other secondary research questions I conducted qualitative and quantitative research. I used a theoretical framework which directed the methodology, questionnaires and both qualitative and quantitative data was …

Barriers To Effective Programming Of Rural Gifted And Talented Students, Linda K. Moehring

Graduate Research Papers

Gifted and talented students in rural areas have barriers that are specific to them. Through a review of literature on gifted and talented students in rural schools this writer has determined five barriers to effective educational programming: (1) Anti-intellectualism as a societal attitude; (2) isolation of rural gifted students; (3) the all-encompassing role of the gifted and talented teacher; (4) inadequate curricular or programming opportunities; and (5) lack of funding.

The review and analysis of literature on the rural gifted and talented include the recommendation that much more research needs to be conducted in the area of service to rural …

The Effects Of Residence Location On Parental Involvement With The School: A Contrast Between Nonmetropolitan Rural And Other Communities, Yongmin Sun, Daryl Hobbs, William Elder, Dongchu Sun

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

Educational research has long noted the impact of parental involvement with the school on a student's educational success. Despite decades of research, only a few studies have attempted to identify factors that account for variations in parental involvement. In this study, we have employed Coleman's notion of social capital to study the effects of family structure and residence location on parental participation in school related activities. Based on a large stratified sample of Missouri parents, our analyses have demonstrated that parents from dual-parent families and parents who have lived in a school district for a long period of time tend …

Facing The Future: Rural Sociology In A Time Of Change, Libby V. Morris

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

This article is a revised version of the presidential address delivered at the annual meeting of the Southern Rural Sociology Association, 1997.

Solid Waste Management And The Need For Effective Public Participation, Catherine A. Solheim, Charles E. Faupel, Conner Bailey

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

Recent changes in technical requirements for landfill design, mandated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, have led to closing the majority of solid waste landfills in the United States. Efforts to site new landfills have elicited widespread opposition. Based on eight case studies in Alabama, we identify three themes behind this opposition: threats to quality of life, potentially harmful economic impacts, and frustration over representational issues in the process involved in selecting the proposed solid waste facility. These concerns mirror much of the literature on public opposition to landfills and other facilities which pose similar threats to the environment and …

Social And Demographic Influences On Environmental Attitudes, Marybe Mcmillan, Thomas J. Hoban, William B. Clifford, Margaret R. Brant

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

Sociologists have studied environmental attitudes for over two decades. Much of this research has sought to determine what factors are related to these attitudes. Past research has shown that certain social and demographic variables tend to have a positive influence on environmentalism. One of the more valid and reliable indicators of environmentalism is the 12-item attitude scale known as the New Environmental Paradigm (NEP). That scale has been shown to consist of three sub-scales. This paper extends previous research by examining the relative influence of six independent variables (age, gender, race, education, income, and residence) on each of the sub-scales …

To Cross The Rubicon?: The College Of Agriculture Rural Development Dilemma, Louis E. Swanson, Shripad D. Deo

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

No abstract provided.

Women, Technology, And Rural Life: Some Recent Literature, Pamela Riney-Kehrberg

Pamela Riney-Kehrberg

Historical study of American farm women has had a relatively short life, reaching back approximately twenty years. Rural women rarely existed in earlier scholarship that reserved the categories of farmer and farming for males. Agricultural history thus manifested itself as a story of men and their tools, stretching back historiographically into the early days of the 20th century. Although in 1953 Jared van Wagenen described in careful detail many of the physical processes of farming in The Golden Age of Homespun, the women's work from which he derived his title occupied less than twenty pages at the end of his …

The Rural Workplace And Technology Utilization: Results From The 1997 Annual Nebraska Rural Poll, John C. Allen, Rebecca Filkins, Sam Cordes, Amy M. Smith, Eric Jarecki

Publications from the Center for Applied Rural Innovation (CARI)

This working paper presents findings from the second annual Nebraska Rural Poll. The study is based on 3,264 responses from households in the 87 non-metropolitan counties in the state. The objectives of this paper are to answer the following questions:

1. What percent of rural Nebraskans have employment, and what is the nature of that employment: full-time? part-time? self-employed?
2. What benefits do rural Nebraskans have at their place of employment? Health insurance? Paid vacation? Other?
3. What is the extent and nature of self-employment in rural Nebraska?
4. What is the extent of telecommuting and the use of various …

Rural Development Strategies For Nebraska: Results From The 1997 Annual Nebraska Rural Poll, John C. Allen, Rebecca Filkins, Sam Cordes, Amy M. Smith, Eric Jarecki

Publications from the Center for Applied Rural Innovation (CARI)

This working paper presents findings from the second annual Nebraska Rural Poll. The study is based on 3,264 responses from households in the 87 non-metropolitan counties in the state. The objectives of this paper are to answer the following questions:

1. Do rural Nebraskans generally support policies of state and local governments which provide tax breaks and other financial incentives to businesses that will locate or make a commitment to stay in their state/area?

2. How effective do rural Nebraskans believe the Nebraska Employment and Investment Growth Act and the Nebraska Employment Expansion and Investment Incentive Act have been in …

Quality Of Life Of Rural Nebraskans: How Are They Doing And What Is In The Future?, John C. Allen, Sam Cordes, Amy M. Smith, Matt Spilker, Amber Hamilton

Publications from the Center for Applied Rural Innovation (CARI)

This working paper presents findings from the first Annual Nebraska Rural Poll. The study is based on 2,754 responses from households in the 87 non-metropolitan counties in the state. The objectives of this paper are to answer the following questions:

1. All things considered, do rural Nebraskans believe they are better off today than five years ago, and do they believe they are better off than their parents were at their age?
2. Do rural Nebraskans believe they will be better or worse off ten years in the future?
3. What is the current level of psychological well-being among rural …

Ianr Program Support: Results From The Nebraska Rural Poll, John C. Allen, Amy M. Smith, Sam Cordes, Amber Hamilton, Matt Spilker

Publications from the Center for Applied Rural Innovation (CARI)

This working paper presents findings from the first annual Nebraska Rural Poll. The study is based on 1,971 responses from households in the 87 nonmetropolitan counties in the state. The objectives of this paper are to provide information on how rural Nebraskans perceive the importance of various programs funded by the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources (IANR). The survey questions about IANR programs were included as a separate one page insert that was included in the large Rural Poll survey booklet. Because the IANR questions were marked “optional,” one must be cautious in drawing definitive conclusions from the responses. …

Community Life In Rural Nebraska: Results From The 1997 Annual Nebraska Rural Poll, John C. Allen, Sam Cordes, Rebecca Filkins, Amy M. Smith, Eric Jarecki

Publications from the Center for Applied Rural Innovation (CARI)

This working paper presents findings from the second annual Nebraska Rural Poll. The study is based on 3,264 responses from households in the 87 non-metropolitan counties in the state. The objectives of this paper are to answer the following questions:

1. How do rural Nebraskans perceive changes occurring in their community?

2. How do rural Nebraskans describe their communities: friendly or unfriendly, trusting or distrusting, supportive or hostile?

3. How satisfied are rural Nebraskans with various services and amenities; and how does satisfaction vary by community size, region, household income, age, gender, education and marital status?

4. Do rural Nebraskans …

Quality Of Life Of Rural Nebraskans: Results From The 1997 Annual Nebraska Rural Poll, John C. Allen, Sam Cordes, Rebecca Filkins, Amy M. Smith, Eric Jarecki

Publications from the Center for Applied Rural Innovation (CARI)

This working paper presents findings from the second annual Nebraska Rural Poll. The study is based on 3,264 responses from households in the 87 nonmetropolitan counties in the state. The objectives of this paper are to answer the following questions:

1. Has the well-being of rural Nebraskans changed from what they reported in the first annual Rural Poll?
2. All things considered, do rural Nebraskans believe they are better off today than five years ago, and do they believe they are better off than their parents were at their age?
3. Do rural Nebraskans believe they will be better or …

Gang And Gang Activity In A Non-Metropolitan Community: The Perceptions Of Students, Teachers, And Police Officers, Joshua Swetnam

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

In recent years, both the media and the research literature have noted an increased presence of street gangs in non-metropolitan and rural communities. An initial step in the investigation of this phenomenon is to gauge how the members of these communities react to increases in gang activity. This study was conducted in a small (approximately 20,000 citizens) Kentucky town identified by its police force as having a sizable gang population. Individuals from three groups within the community who have frequent, direct contact with gang members (police officers, teachers, and students) look part in the study. Participants completed questionnaires designed to …

Violence And Displaced Rural Women. Montería (Córdoba), Fernando Bernal Castillo

Fernando Bernal Castillo

This a study case of rural women being displaced by the violence of both the guerrillas and the paramilitary and now settled down in the slums ofof Monteria, the capital city of the department of Cordoba, Colombia

Colombia: Rural Descentralization, Performance Of The Local Governments. Its Main Determinants, Fernando Bernal Castillo, Fernando Bernal Castillo

Fernando Bernal Castillo

This paper examines the main determinants of the performance of the agricultural technical assitance offices of the municipalities of Colombia

Opportunity, Community, And Teen Pregnancy In An Appalachian State, Robert Bickel, Susan Weaver, Tony Williams, Linda Lange

SHU Faculty Publications

Teen pregnancy has become an issue that educators and public policy makers are obliged to treat as a serious problem. Too often, explanations of teen pregnancy have included uncritical use of the notion of adolescents at risk. Recently, however, attention has been given to structurally-determined contextual factors in explaining teen pregnancy. Such contextual factors include economic and educational opportunities and costs, as well as chances for valued participation in socially and culturally stable communities. This interest in contextual factors parallels a development in the literature on high school dropouts. A data set previously employed to study variability in drop-out rates …

Farm Women And Work : Required But Not Recognised, Fiona M. Haslam-Mckenzie

Journal of the Department of Agriculture, Western Australia, Series 4

Across Australia, government sponsored Rural Women's Networks have been established to encourage rural women to look beyond their individual context and to identify as part of a much larger group of women, all with common concerns. These networks have encouraged women to view themselves as legitimate participants in a patriarchal society and to realise that the traditional male culture of farming is redundant. Fiona M. Haslam-McKenzie, a lecturer in the Faculty of Business at Edith Cowan University, reviews the recognition given to women on the farm.

Three Film Reviews, John A. Drobnicki

Publications and Research

Reviews of Advertising Missionaries, directed by Chris Hilton and Gauthier Flauder; Chastie (Paradise), a film by Sergey Dvortsevoy; and Wilbert: Street Kid in Nicaragua, a video by Bent Erik Kroyer.

Higher Education In Rural America : A Study Of Northern Plains American Indian And Non-Indian Attitudes, Aspirations, Expectations, And Perceived Barriers, Marta Albertus Brosz Mohr

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study addresses the need for educational research specific to rural populations of American Indians and their non-Indian neighbors. In order to provide answers to both theoretical and practical questions, a survey was conducted with a random sample of rural residents living within a twenty-five mile radius of a rural, tribal institution of higher education. The structured interviews gathered data regarding attitudes, aspirations, expectations, and perceived barriers. Analyses of the data indicate that this population has strong, positive attitudes toward higher education and aspires to a college education in spite of real and perceived barriers. This study does not support …