Rural Sociology Commons^™

The Decline Of Black Farmers And Strategies For Survival, Robert Zabawa, Arthur Siaway, Ntam Baharanyi

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

By most accounts, black farmers in the United States are categorized as either limited resource or subsistence producers given an historic lack of access to credit, mechanical, and land resources. Additionally, advanced age and limited education have placed black farmers on the "endangered" list. Given these constraints to financial and human capital, black farmers have adopted survival strategies in an attempt to maintain their farms. Results presented here from research conducted in the Black Belt region of Alabama indicate that there is a high degree of participation in the off-farm workforce and reliance on off-farm income for black farm family …

The 1890 Land-Grant Universities, Robert L. Moxley

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

No abstract provided.

The Infusion Of Teachers From Eastern Indonesia Into West Kalimantan, Jay H. Bernstein

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Leisure Lifestyle And Perceived Social Support Of Older Adults In A Rural Environment, Elizabeth Dow Pittaway

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The purpose of this study was to gain an understanding of the leisure lifestyles of rural older adults and specifically to determine whether a relationship existed among leisure lifestyle, perceived social support, and well-being. Control variables included socio-demographic factors, value of leisure, satisfaction with life domains, length of residency, ethnicity, religion, and personal and structural barriers. The theoretical framework included social exchange theory and social support perspectives. A descriptive correlational research design was utilized and a mail survey questionnaire was developed and distributed to people 55 and older. Rural older adults spent more time on indoor leisure compared to outdoor …

The Future Of Farming: Regional Variation In Opinions From Louisiana And The Nation, Alan Acock, Ann Dellenbarger

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

Findings from a 1987 telephone survey of Louisiana residents are reported. Opinions of 701 persons were gathered using a weighted probability sample across the state. Socioeconomic and demographic characteristics were used to identify regional clusters of parishes to determine differences among regions of the state. The results point to a paradox. While the clusters exhibited extreme variation in socioeconomic and demographic characteristics, there was surprising similarity in the responses regarding opinions on agricultural issues. Support for agriculture was uniformly strong across all regions, with over 80 percent of respondents agreeing that both the state and federal governments should do a …

Acknowledgements, Robert L. Moxley

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

No abstract provided.

A Gender Comparison Of Former Agricultural Students' Employment Experiences, John K. Thomas, Kathy L. Schiflett

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

Deepening shortages of highly qualified scientists, managers, and technical professionals seriously threaten American agriculture. The purpose of this study is to investigate the degree to which gender differences exist in former agricultural students' acquiring employment in the agricultural industry after leaving college. Data were obtained using a 30 percent random sample (n=1,730) of students enrolled in 1977 at two major land-grant universities in the Southwest. A mail survey conducted in late 1986 resulted in 707 respondents. Male out-numbered female respondents 3 to 1, which was approximately the same enrollment ratio in 1977. Findings of the survey indicate that 9 out …

Sociology And Biotechnology: Challenges And Opportunities, Thomas J. Hoban Iv

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

Sociologists have traditionally been concerned with technological change. We now find renewed research interest in the social impacts and risks of biotechnology. Many public and key opinion leaders recognize that closer attention must be paid to tradeoffs, uncertainties, and negative consequences related to biotechnology. Sociologists have a number of important roles to play in ensuring that the benefits of biotechnology outweigh the potential risks. This paper examines several important issues about agricultural biotechnology that have not yet received adequate attention from sociologists. The nature of biotechnology as an innovation and as a risky technology is examined. Particular attention is aid …

Family Type And Familism In Contemporary Appalachia, James K. Crissman

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

Residents of Appalachia have long been considered isolated, "old-fashioned," and "traditional" when compared with the rest of the United States. Such terms as "yesterday's people" have been utilized to describe present-day Appalachians, and romanticized ideas abound as to the contemporary Appalachian family. It is still quite often pictured as extended and highly familistic. This research consisted of a study of 675 rural families throughout the state of West Virginia, which is the only state entirely within the Appalachian area. The interviewees tended to live in nuclear families. They did not display the expected degree of familism. Familism is related to …

Revitalizing Rural America: Focus On Rural Youth, E. Yvonne Beauford

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

The youth comprise a significant component of the rural population. They are rarely considered in policies, programs, or strategies for the revitalization of rural America. This paper focuses on rural youth as a potential dynamic element of change in rural America. The questions addressed are: how can we help to motivate more young people to consider careers in agriculture; and how can we improve our abilities to retain and attract talented young people to rural areas. A selected review of the relevant literature suggests that current factors influencing choice of an agriculture major differ from the past and that migration …

Determinants Of Work Status Among Heads Of Poor Families In The South, Elizabeth S. Morrissey

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

Increases in the incidence of working-age persons outside the labor force and poor female-headed families have focused national attention on that portion of the working-age poor who do not work. This study examines the role of selected demographic, family and family income variables on the work status (working versus nonworking) of metropolitan and nonmetropolitan heads of poor families in the South. The findings indicate that both age and receipt of public welfare in the previous year exert significant influences on working, regardless of residence. By residence, race is a more important predictor of work status in metropolitan than nonmetropolitan areas, …

They Are The Government: Bureaucracy And Development In An Egyptian Village, Hania M Sholkamy

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Laura Fraser Diary, Zach S. Henderson Library Special Collections

Finding Aids

Spanning from 1889-1892, this collection consists of a diary once belonging to Victorian Liberty County resident, Laura Fraser. Contents include personal correspondence, written short stories from prominent writers, local newspaper clippings, and personal accounts.

Find this collection in the University Libraries' catalog.

Our Authors, Robert L. Moxley

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

No abstract provided.

Acknowledgements, Robert L. Moxley

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

No abstract provided.

Black Farmers And The Economic And Social Conditions Where They Live: Some Policy Implications, Robert A. Hoppe, Herman Bluestone

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

Black farmers tend to live in southern counties where nonfarm employment opportunities are limited. These counties have grown slowly, much more slowly than southern metropolitan areas. In counties with concentrations of black farmers, blacks face severe economic and social conditions. They have a higher incidence of poverty, less education, and higher unemployment than other blacks in the South. In addition, blacks in these counties lag far behind whites in socioeconomic status. Economic growth and socioeconomic conditions in counties with black farmers vary considerably by region. Strategies to address the black farm crisis must consider both the characteristics of black farmers, …

The Rural South In Crisis: New Challenges For Rural Development, Lionel J. Beaulieu

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

Rural society has been subjected to a series of forces during the course of the last two decades. Since the advent of the 1980s, the economic viability of many farm operations has been severely jeopardized. Although attention has been directed primarily to the Midwest farm belt, farm stress has, in many respects, been greater in the South than in any other region of the country. Moreover, the crisis is not strictly an agricultural one, for a large number of communities across the rural landscape, especially in the South, have been subjected to crises of their own. While the so-called "rural …

Effects Of Alternate Income-Generating Strategies Of Small Farm Households: A Modified Farming Systems Approach, E. Yvonne Beauford, H. Max Miller

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

The growing dependence of small farm households upon nonfarm income involves important changes in sources of income, in levels and techniques of production, and in assessments of economic well-being. Based on a sample of small-farm households drawn from the four rural development regions of Georgia, this research examines these changes by focusing on household income, tracing patterns of decision-making related to its production, and attempts to evaluate the consequent economic well-being of small-farm households. The primary analytic technique is discriminant analysis, with 28 variables representing three elements of the farming system--the household, the household's resources and farming enterprises. Findings suggest …

Rural Sociological Research In The South: An Historical Overview, Alvin L. Bertrand

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

The history of rural sociological research in the South is examined in terms of eras: Early History, The Depression Years, the War Years, the Great Society, and the New Rural Sociology. Although following national patterns, southern rural sociological research has maintained a regional character, attuned to the unique problems of the region.

Is Structural Differentiation In Localities A Single Or Multidimensional Phenomenon? Alternative Measures And Relation To Population, Terry J. Tomazic, Robert L. Moxley

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

Several measures of structural differentiation for various institutionalized areas of county development are compared. Evidence regarding the hypotheses that differentiation is a system-wide, unidimensional phenomenon and that it is related to population are investigated. Scalable dimensions are found to exist among county administrative characteristics, medical special ties, commercial services, and educational institutions. Guttman scales formed from the complexity of such development are often used along with population size as operational measures of locality differentiation. The four scales and population size are analyzed together using the Guttman-Lingoes Multiple Scalogram Analysis for three different points in time. It is concluded that the …

Family Economic Organization And The Practice Of Subsistence Cropping: The Case Of Swaziland, Vernaline Watson

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

An understanding of interrelationships between agronomic systems and the larger social organizational structures that sustain them is deemed crucial in devising appropriate strategies for increased crop production in Africa and other nonwestern settings. This paper focuses on Swaziland, in southern Africa, where effort is under way to promote surplus, commercial cropping among small-scale indigenous farmers. The persistence of subsistence type cropping by these farmers is shown to relate to traditional patterns of family economic organization, specifically division of labor and ties of economic interdependence among family members. Implications for agronomic policy are discussed.

Application Of A Linear Programming Model For Estimating The Economic Impact Of Tourism Development, Marvin W. Kottke

Storrs Agricultural Experiment Station

No abstract provided.

Vermont Revisited, William Jay Smith

New England Journal of Public Policy

Vermont Revisited, William Jay Smith's sweet-bitter memoir of Pownal, Vermont, captures the political and social minutiae of a small, rural New England town in transition which continued to preoccupy itself in almost conspiratorial drama with its own parochial agendas, denying, even if not oblivious of, the changes at its doorstep. Yet Smith's observations of the machinations that were grist for the mill of the small-town intrigues are tinged with a sadness, with an awareness of an old order dying, of old values under siege, of a new order intruding itself — less private, more depriving if perhaps more equitable, and …

Paths Of Rural Transformation, Hanan Hosni Sabea

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Income Variability In Connecticut: 1980, William H. Groff, Kenneth P. Hadden

Storrs Agricultural Experiment Station

No abstract provided.

Acknowledgement, James H. Copp

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

No abstract provided.

Selection Factors In Housing Among Rural Low-To-Moderate Income Residents, Kenneth J. Gruber, Ann R. Hiatt, Gladys G. Shelton

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

Growth in rural areas has increased the need to examine more closely the quality and acceptability of different types of existing housing. This study focuses on the reasons rural residents moved to their housing and whether their needs were satisfied by their selections. Comparisons of reasons for moving among conventional home, mobile home, and apartment residents indicated similar motivations for housing choices. Comparisons of present housing satisfaction revealed that a large majority of all respondents selected housing that met their needs. The results suggest that despite the predominant preference for single-family conventionally built homes, a substantial portion of future housing …

Traditional And Non-Traditional Explanations Of Food Consumption: The Case Of Beef, Patricia K. Guseman, William Alex Mcintosh, Stephen G. Sapp

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

Changes in the consumption of many foods, particularly beef, underlie the recent interest in isolating factors explaining these trends. This study focuses on three orienting explanations for differential beef consumption--microeconomic, social structural, and risk reduction perspectives. Consumption is defined by past and anticipated future utilization of beef, as well as present beef consumption relative to possible substitutes. While the microeconomic model is the most useful for isolating an individual's beef intake, it is clear that consumption behavior is dependent on more than income and supply factors. Social structural and risk reduction perspectives increase by 83 percent the R² found through …

A Rural-Urban Comparison Of Preferences Expressed By Elders For Long-Term Care Arrangements, William J. Mcauley, Rosemary Blieszner

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

This paper examines the long-term care (LTC) arrangements selected by rural older people, identifies the characteristics associated with their selections, and compares patterns of selection and related factors with those of elderly urban residents. The research is based upon 1,240 cases selected from a larger statewide area probability sample of noninstitutionalized persons at least 60 years old. Results, based upon tabular and logistic regression analysis, suggest that older rural residents are more likely than their urban counterparts to select LTC arrangements that involve both formal and informal forms of care as well as arrangements that are more likely to facilitate …

The All New This Old South, Leann M. Tigges, Gary P. Green

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

Recent claims concerning the rise of the Sunbelt closely resemble those previously made about the New South. It is assumed that the South has finally broken the ties of dependency with the North and has embarked on a remarkable path of self-sustained growth. In fact, this growth in the South is considered to be largely at the expense of the North. These and other similar claims are based on five assumptions about the South: 1) An economic transformation has occurred in the region; 2) absentee ownership is minimal; 3) benefits of economic growth has been diffused to most segments of …