Rural Sociology, Sociology of Agriculture, Sociology of Food

Sociologyindex, Books on Rural Sociology, Sociology Books 2009, Abstracts, Bibliographies, Syllabus, Journals

Sociological approaches to rural policy challenges, issues such as community revitalization, rural demographic changes, rural development, environmental impacts, the structure of food and agricultural production, and rural-urban linkages.

Issues related to farm policies, technology transfer, farm safety, and resource stewardship, and their implications for producers, farm families, hired farm labor, and residents of rural, agriculturally dependent communities. Topics covered will include the rural media; small town development; rural gender issues; agricultural restructuring; youth and ageing in rural areas.

Rural sociology is a field of sociology associated with the study of life in small towns and the country. It is a scientific study of social arrangements and behaviour amongst peoples that are distanced from points of concentrated activity. Much of rural sociology involves the examination of statistical data.

Agribusiness is the predominant focus of rural sociology and much of this field is dedicated to the economics of farm production. Identifying family and social relationships that influence food consumption and nutritional status.

Sociologists define rural as those areas which are not urban. Rural sociology, then, contrasts with urban sociology. Urban areas are usually defined in terms of size and population density. The line between urban and rural is quite arbitrary. However, rural settlement patterns tend to be, relatively, small in scale and low in density.

Rural society is faced with various problems including the environmental degradation and overuse of water resources, the establishment and inadequate regulation of toxic waste dumps, and poverty. The loss of rural population to urban areas is also an area of concern, especially in northern states, such as North Dakota.

Rural sociology became prominent, during the late industrial revolution, in France, Ireland, Prussia, Scandinavia, and the US. As urban incomes and quality of life rose, a social gap appeared between urban and rural dwellers. In the 1920s, Edmund deS. Brunner studied some 140 villages as director of the Institute for Social and Religious Research, he reported that as agriculture mechanized, farms were growing larger.

After World War II, modern rural sociology began to appear in France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and the UK.

A few of the many online resources you might find useful in learning more about rural issues in the United States. Scroll down to see those resources broken into eleven categories: http://www.rurdev.usda.gov/nrdp/resources.html

General rural information - http://www.csu.edu.au/research/crsr/links/linkgen.htm

Rural education and youth issues - http://www.csu.edu.au/research/crsr/links/linkedyu.htm

Rural Social Work Caucus - http://www.uncp.edu/home/marson/rural/

The Agriculture, Food, and Human Values Society is an organization of professionals dedicated to the study of values issues associated with the production, distribution and consumption of food, fiber and natural resources. - http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/rhaynes/afhvs/

RESOURCES FOR THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL STUDY OF FOOD HABITS - THE ETHNOHISTORY OF THE AMERICAN DIET - FOOD AND CULTURE - Eating Attitudes, Religious and Secular Fasting, Body Fat, and Body Image - (including definitions of overweight, ideas about obesity, etc) - http://lilt.ilstu.edu/rtdirks/

THE EUROPEAN FOOD PROJECT - This research, information and educational project aims at studying and publicizing trends in eating- and drinking-habits in a number of European countries, both within and outside the EU.

This will be done not so much from the point of view of nutrition but from that of cuisine as an important aspect of culture in everyday life as well as from that of new tendencies in agriculture and food-trade. - http://www.uni-bonn.de/~uzr604/food.html