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Natural resource dependence, although commonly invoked in natural resource sociology, has often been ambiguously defined. Communities are frequently described as dependent on natural resource development, but limited attention has been paid to what that means. In the literature, resource dependence is often treated as over‐specialization in, or over‐reliance upon, the natural resource sectors. However, the logic of over‐specialization conceptually grounds dependence in poor economic outcomes. Thus, a one‐dimensional typology of dependence based on a threshold of the share of development in the natural resource sector—as commonly used—does not fully capture the concept and risks tautology. In this paper, I address this ambiguity by formally defining natural resource dependence as over‐specialization in the natural resource sectors. I then present an ideal typology, known as the Natural Resource Community Typology, and a corresponding classification scheme for rural communities in the United States. The typology integrates both extractive and non‐extractive natural resource activity and has two dimensions—the level of development and the level of economic prosperity—and six mutually exclusive categories—extractive specialized, extractive dependent, non‐extractive specialized, non‐extractive dependent, hybrid specialized, and hybrid dependent. I classify counties from 2000 to 2015 and find that while extractive dependence decreased over the study period, non‐extractive dependence increased. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much theorizing has been done about the African food crisis. This paper reviews a gendered approach to agriculture, focusing on the implications of labor differentiation, incentives, and struggles over access to resources for agricultural development. The paper then analyzes two approaches to understanding Africa's development crises. One focuses on faulty incentives created in statist strategies and the other on an uncaptured peasantry; both approaches are oblivious to gender labor relations. The paper concludes with policy implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper combines three issues that have previously been considered separately; economic restructuring, gender, and participation in the informal economy. Drawing on two complementary data sets of interviews with the residents of a rural county, the paper first suggests that the participation in the informal economy is extensive. The second major finding is that households whose members have held on to "good" work in the formal economy participate in the informal economy in a different way than do households whose members are less fortunate. Third, the paper demonstrates that participation in the informal economy is highly differentiated by gender. Finally the intersections among location in the formal economy, gender, and informal economic activities are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The decade of the seventies thus far has witnessed a considerable amount of legislative attention directed at rural areas. Under the general heading or rural development no fewer than 48 bills were introduced in the first session of the 92nd Congress in the House of Representatives and 22 bills were introduced in the U.S. Senate. Few of these became law but the sheer numbers give some indication as to the political importance of the issues involved. The purpose of this paper is to focus on a portion of one of the most important pieces of rural development legislation, the Rural Development Act of 1972 (RDA-72). This article traces the legislative history and the philosophical assumptions of RDA-72 with particular regard to the provisions of rural industrialization in the U.S.

There are two hypotheses concerning how rapid growth affects women in rural communities: (1) women are more adversely affected than men, and (2) growth liberates women from their traditional sex roles. We used a specific subgroup of the female population-single, never- married females of marriageable age-to examine these two hypotheses. This paper focuses on how a male marriage-market squeeze caused by the influx of a large number of single, never-married males of marriageable age affects these females. The hypotheses, combined with proposals drawn from the demographic literature on marriage markets, are tested using data from counties in Montana and Utah impacted by energy development in the mid- and late 1970s. The measures used are changes in nuptiality rates and age patterns of first marriages. Our results do not allow us to fully accept or reject either hypothesis. Rather, changes in age patterns of marriage indicate that sorting out the local effects from the more pervasive social effects is problematic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the process of uneven development in the Deep South, focusing on the decade of 1970-1980. Measures developed from Census and County Business Pasterns data are used to examine several industrialization processes in all the counties of Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, and Mississippi. These data reveal that changes in manufacturing establishments and employment are not uniform across the region, and low-wage industries continue to dominate the economy of the region. Further, the analysis documents the continuing significance of racial composition in these industrialization processes: plant and employment increases are more likely for predominantly white counties and losses more likely for counties having large black populations. Counties having high proportions of blacks and poor whites display the strongest attractions for low-wage industries. I also examine the effects of other labor-market characteristics upon the development process and suggest policy implications on the basis of these findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is limited recent research on the strategies that rural local governments are employing in the face of changing intergovernmental relationships, especially in relation to local economic development. This paper draws on data from a survey of local governments in the Ohio River Valley Region that includes a mix of localities on the urban-rural continuum, to empirically address three issues. First, we examined the extent to which county governments have undertaken local economic development initiatives as well as other, extra-economic activities designed to improve community well-being. Second, we assessed the extent to which rural county governments vary from urban counties in their activities and available resources. Finally, we employed logistic regression models of factors associated with use of development strategies to determine the relationship between rurality and local development policy activities. The results show that rural counties are less likely than urban counties to undertake various economic development activities, with observed urban-rural differences largely attributable to county socioeconomic disadvantages, such as poverty and education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops a framework for examining the questions: Does social capital make a difference for well being in communities of place? How might rural sociologists utilize social capital to further well being in communities? The author reviews social capital literature, contrasting rational choice and embeddedness perspectives. Opting for a marriage between embeddedness and conflict theory, he introduces entrepreneurial social infrastructure (ESI) as an alternative to social capital. ESI adds to social capital the notions of equality, inclusion, and agency. Research results are presented which support the embeddedness approach: community-level action (the community field) is not simply an aggregation of individual or organizational actions within the community; social capital and ESI contribute jointly and independently to community action. Examining economic development as a form of collective action, the author concludes the following: a) ESI contributes to economic development, and b) inclusiveness (internal solidarity) is more closely related to community self-development while industrial recruitment is better predicted by strong external ties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic development involves elemental processes of great complexity and scope and that those who would move from a traditional to a modern society must relate themselves differently to the environment, shifting from an organic to an inorganic energy base, they must alter their ontology, accepting a different cognitive base for their relief system, they must adopt new values, forsaking old ones or integrating them somehow with the new values, indeed, they must psychologically refashion traditional man and his energizing and motivational system. The encompassing task of development requires the involvement of all sectors of society and different types of social units. This paper examines the nature and position of voluntary associations in the historic process of modernization and development.

This paper presents the results of an exploratory study of African Americans and underdevelopment in the Mississippi Delta. The primary focus is on race-specific factors and their associations with social and economic development in the Delta. Data were obtained from The Southern Growth Policy's Southern County-Level Data Files (U.S. Department of Agriculture 1985) and a content analysis of racial conflicts in Mississippi beginning with the 1950s through the 1980s. The results of the analysis show that racial conflicts and a high concentration of poor African Americans are associated with the lack of new technology industries in Mississippi's core Delta counties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the adoption of agricultural conservation technologies through analysis of diffusion, economic or farm-firm, and ecological factors. The traditional argument that all conservation practices are unprofitable is challenged. This position has been taken in arguments that the diffusion perspective is largely irrelevant in explaining the adoption of conservation technologies. This study argues, however, that the economic and diffusion perspectives are complementary. The adoption of an index of conservation practices and the use of conservation tillage are examined. Diffusion or information variables play an important role in the adoption of both conservation technologies. I close with suggestions for improving sociological research in this area; this research will increase the relevance of sociological analysis to policy debate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the effect of hierarchical positioning in the local community power network on hierarchical positioning in the action network. Placement in the power network is based on one's inter-organizational leadership status, whereas location in the action network is derived from one's level of participation in locality-oriented programs. The analysis. based on data collected in a small Indiana community, reveals that hierarchical positioning in the power network serves as the critical determinant of location in the action network, even when personal assets of individual participants are considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using concepts developed to explain the emergence of public welfare in nation-states, this paper proposes a model for explaining welfare effort in communities. This strategy is premised on the assumption that social systems tend to exhibit similar processes whether they are small communities or entire nations. The model assigns prime importance to the influence of economic development as a cause of welfare effort. This relationship is intervened by considerations of urbanization, political environment, the level of government organization, and the presence of a dependent population. The model is tested with a sample of U.S. counties with data from secondary sources by factor and regression analysis. With few exceptions, the model is supported by the data. The implications of the findings are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diffusion theory and political economy are the two most common ways by which rural sociologists have explained the widespread use of agricultural innovations. In this paper, we argue, borrowing from science studies and using the empirical case of soybeans in Brazil, that the use of agricultural innovations is better understood as the result of the construction of networks of people and things. Thirty years ago soybean production in Brazil was insignificant. However, at that time a soybean network began to be formed. Initial actors were, among others, (1) soybean varieties produced in the United States, (2) wheat farmers located in the south of Brazil, and (3) soil in need of nitrogen, an expensive input for the new wheat varieties. State policies were no doubt important in consolidating that network. However, other persons, institutions and things were also necessary, including science and technology, the creation and/or expansion of farmers' organizations such as cooperatives, and the solution to the problem of photoperiod sensitivity in soybeans. We follow the soybean from its introduction in Brazil to its present status as an important crop. The overall context within which the soybean network began is also described. We conclude that the actor network approach is more congruent with the history of soybeans in Brazil than diffusion theory or political economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is well recognized that the informal economy-unregulated economic activities that generate real or in-kind income-features prominently in the day-to-day lives of many in the developing world. Researchers have begun to explore the informal economy in developed countries but this work has focussed primarily on urban areas to the neglect of rural areas. In this paper the nature and correlates of informal work in nonmetropolitian Pennsylvania are described through an analysis of survey data on 505 families. Results indicate that participation in informal activities is widespread is not more typical of the poor does not contribute greatly to family income on average but those help many families whether difficult economic time is both economically and noneconomically motivated and net of other sociodemographic varaibles is positively related to rurality of residence and formal labor supply. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Can leaders in small towns and surrounding areas actually influence local economic and demographic growth? Competing views but few studies of this issue characterize recent debates about the effects of' "growth machines" in local areas. This paper uses alternative indicators of growth during the 1980s for a sample of local areas in rural Pennsylvania to examine the effects of development efforts, controlling ecological and structural characteristics. The analysis considers local participation in state programs and maintenance of a favorable business climate as well as measures of local growth promotion for business and industry, recreation and tourism, development of forest products, and services development. Hierarchical regressions, taking account of the statistically dominant effects of ecological and structural variables, show that local efforts can influence local growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Partly because of the field's efforts to deal first with the kinds of impacts that have been the most obvious and pressing, the traditional focus of social impact assessment has been on the impacts taking place during the most intensive phases of developmental activity. Recently it has become increasingly clear that a number of predictable, significant impacts take place both before and after the periods of most intense activity; these impacts are missed by social impact assessment approaches that are excessively narrow in focus. This paper offers a conceptual frame-work that is relatively simple but that deals with impacts both across time and across potentially affected systems of the human environment, doing so in such a way as to improve the promise of social impact assessment to become more nearly comprehensive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding 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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We test the hypothesis from the theory of ecologically unequal exchange that agricultural exports to China are related to increased forest loss in low‐ and middle‐income nations exporting to it. We do so by analyzing data for 75 low‐ and middle‐income nations using ordinary least squares regression. We find support for our hypothesis that flows of agricultural exports from low‐ and middle‐income nations to China are related to increased forest loss in exporting nations. We also find that a country's total agricultural exports, proximity of forest to infrastructure, and protected areas tend to increase forest loss. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modern agricultural production typically requires large quantities of chemical pesticides, a potential source of both environmental and human harm. Previous social science research has suggested that environmental problems such as those associated with pesticide use may begin to decline at higher levels of economic development. Using fixed effects models, we examine whether this possible relationship holds within nations and over time. This study draws on data from the World Bank as well as pesticide use data from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations to examine the relationship between pesticide use and economic development within nations from 1990 to 2014. The findings are considered from theoretical perspectives in environmental sociology on the drivers of environmental impacts: the treadmill of production theory, structural human ecology, ecological modernization theory, and the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis. The results of this study show a positive relationship between economic development and pesticide consumption over time, with no decline in use at higher levels of economic development. Thus, they generally support the claims made by treadmill of production and structural human ecology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growth of industrial maize farming in Turkey during the first decade of this century points to the primacy of economic development over ecological concerns at a time when global nitrogen and phosphorus flows already exceeded safe limits. In this article we focus on the relations of production as the driver of an economic sector that not only has ecological but also social costs. Through a trend analysis of maize yields as our ecological indicator, we explain how relations of production influence industrial maize farming in this period and how different modes of production (e.g., simple‐commodity producers) participate in a corporate market. A "treadmill of production" perspective argues that simple commodity producers are excluded from industrial treadmills. Our findings indicate that provinces with predominantly simple commodity production experienced significant increases in maize yields and adapted to the industrial maize treadmill. However, there is a significant difference between simple‐commodity producers and large farms that widens over the decade. Our results suggest that simple‐commodity producers are included in ecologically harmful economic practices with significant obstacles. We call for a revision of the assumed relationship between the size of economic operations and their ecological impacts in the critical sociology literature and policy approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Oil and gas extraction, especially via unconventional means like hydraulic fracturing, is hailed as an economic boon by many commentators and political leaders. However, empirical evidence is limited. In this article, we consider the socioeconomic effects (particularly, related to poverty, employment, income, and wages) of unconventional oil and gas extraction using a national data set of U.S. counties. We use a novel between‐ and within‐county random effects modeling strategy to capture both resource curse and boomtown dynamics. Further, we allow the effect of oil and gas development to be conditioned by county rurality. Broadly, our findings suggest that oil and gas development has very complex effects at the county level. Within‐county growth in oil and gas production slightly improves most economic outcomes, but counties that specialize in oil and gas development tend to perform worse than other counties. We find that, in general, the effect of within‐county oil and gas production is not significantly moderated by county rurality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent advances in gas and oil drilling technology have led to dramatic boomtown development in many rural areas that have endured extended periods of economic decline. In Pennsylvania's Marcellus gas fields, the recent development of unconventional shale gas resources has not been without controversy. It has been variously framed as a major opportunity for economic revitalization at the local and regional levels and energy independence at the national level, but also as a significant environmental risk, with uncertain and uneven economic benefits. We use data from a survey conducted in 309 school districts located within Pennsylvania's Marcellus Shale region to study the ways local stakeholders perceive both risk and opportunity associated with gas extraction from Marcellus Shale. Our analyses indicate that there is a strong positive association between perceptions of risk and opportunity associated with gas extraction. Further, the intensity of perception of both risk and opportunity is directly associated with the amount of local drilling, suggesting the complexity of local contexts within which local stakeholders evaluate rapid boomtown-associated community change. In total, these findings complicate the framing of unconventional gas extraction in the Marcellus Shale region, and indeed boomtown growth overall, as fundamentally polarizing issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article proposes the concept of an extractive regime to understand Indonesia's developmental trajectory from 1966 to 1998. The concept contributes to world-systems, globalization, and commodity-based approaches to understanding peripheral development. An extractive regime is defined by its reliance on extraction of multiple natural resources in the formation of an economic and political order that is also supported by global and regional forces. After elaborating the concept of an extractive regime, the article illustrates it through examination of Indonesia's developmental trajectory from its formation in the post-World War II era to its firm establishment during Suharto's New Order. Although a comprehensive study would necessitate attention to the full panoply of commodities, the study illustrates some of the workings of the extractive regime in the timber and fisheries sectors, which share spatial extensivity and other characteristics. The article concludes by considering the future of the extractive regime in Indonesia amid democratization and continued class domination and by offering suggestions for further application, specification, and extension of the extractive regime concept. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An increasing amount of research has been dedicated to studying university-industry relationships (UIRs). Researchers have studied the impacts of UIRs on the integrity of university research. However, while studies have examined the attitudes and actions of university administration and industry leaders with respect to UIRs, limited attention has been devoted to the attitudes and actions of women faculty. Drawing on feminist epistemology and academic capitalism research, we develop and test four hypotheses about gender and UIRs. We use Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM) and data from a nationwide survey of land-grant agricultural and life scientists to examine perceptions of UIRs and individual-level ties to private industry amongmale and female faculty in different academic disciplines. Although we find no significant gender differences in perceptions of UIRs, our results indicate women have fewer ties to industry compared to men when controlling for individual- and discipline-level characteristics. In particular, industry funding of scientific research and consulting for private firms appear to disproportionately favor men over women. We also find that discipline-level industry ties influence scientists' attitudes and industry linkages, suggesting the existence of different disciplinary cultures with respect to UIRs. We recommend researchers, policymakers, and others interested in understanding the growth of academic capitalism, as well as the gender gap in science, pursuemore in-depth investigation of the interaction between gender, academic discipline, and UIRs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Emory-Obed Watershed in Tennessee, like many other rural areas throughout the United States, is experiencing changes in economic activities and social values associated with natural resources. Informed by the interactional approach to community development, this effort strove to build community capacity so community members could more fully govern their life according to their values and interests. We utilized key informant and focus group interviews to gain information about the watershed and to obtain different perspectives on resource-related issues. Data from key informant interviews led to the selection of a geographic community in which a community of interest was nurtured throughout a year involving monthly meetings, a community assessment and submission of a development grant application. It was found that gaining entry into the community and building trust among participants, and between participants and researchers, were critical in this in-place participatory community research. Lessons drawn from this experience applicable to similar efforts are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine ethnic differences in objective and perceived economic well-being in rural Guatemala. The evidence shows that long-standing ethnic differentials in objective indicators of household economic well-being actually widened between 1988 and 1995, a period characterized by rapid economic growth rates. We examine the effects of a major determinant of household economic well-being in rural Guatemala, educational attainment in accounting for ethnic and language differentials in household consumption. our results show that returns to education appear to be substantially lower for indigenous households, especially indigenous households where the head of household does not speak Spanish. Ethnic differentials in perceived economic well-being do not strictly parallel difference in objective indicators of well-being. Indigenous women with any education are more likely to report relative economic deprivation than are non-indigenous women, or ladinas, controlling for objective measures of household wealth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rural communities rely increasingly on local development organizations (LDOs) to promote economic development. The rise of LDOs has been the source of much debate. Using a national data set that links local governments with development organizations, we contrast the economic development activities, and their outcomes, of local governments and development organizations in rural America. We find that LDOs are involved in more economic development activities than are local governments. They are more successful at business recruitment and more effective at retention/expansion, both in number of firms and in jobs. The organizational networks of LDOs and local governments consistently influence their effectiveness. Finally, we examine the effects of an LDO's presence on the outcomes of business recruitment and of retention and expansion activities. The results suggest that the LDO's success may be due in part to the networks in which they are embedded and to the amount of effort they make to promote growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the 1980–1990 period, employment in producer services industries in the nonmetropolitan United States increased substantially. This growth resulted in the development of nonmetropolitan growth nodes in producer services industries. A growth node refers to a nonmetropolitan area that contains a greater than average concentration of employment in a particular industry sector relative to other nonmetropolitan areas. Moreover, this industry concentration not only increases over time, but also represents an important source of employment growth within the area. With nonmetropolitan counties as the spatial unit of analysis, 317 growth nodes in producer services industries are identified for the 1980–1990 period. Access to workers with clerical and administrative support skills, access to highly educated workers, higher earnings per employed worker, access to recreational amenities, and proximity to metropolitan areas were associated with the development of nonmetropolitan growth nodes in producer services industries during this period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyzes related hypothesis concerning the effects of different types of federal expenditures on economic growth in the Appalachian counties during business cycles. A rich tradition of research shows that ecological processes are important determinants of social system change and economic growth. The human ecology approach is a market-oriented perspective that focuses on the natural aspects of local development. According to ecological theory, social system growth is partly a function of the spatial dominance of primary sustenance functions (particularly natural resources) and diversity of sustenance activities. The analysis shows an expected intercation effect between minig earnings and public investment spending. Countries with greater earnings from mining experienced slightly higher net income and employment growth related to public investment spendiug in the 1983-1988 business cycle and shightly higher growth in civilian employment during the 1989-1992 recession. The public goods perspective of econimc development up )n wli ich most development policies are based assumes that growth is a pre- condition to development.

The economic experiences and economic anxiety of rural and urban residents of the Czech and Slovak Republics during the post-communist reforms are compared and related to their support lot the reforms. The analysis is based on live national surveys, 1992-1996, collected by the Sociology Institute of tile now Czech Academy of Sciences. Net of controls, both Czech and Slovak rural respondents report more economic strain and unemployment, a difference that persists over the surveys. These experiences account for rural resident' greater economic anxiety, their fear of economic development and unemployment which also petsists over the surveys. These experiences and anxiety explain, in turn, their lower level of support for the reforms, and endorsement of a return to socialism and strong-hand government. Rural and urban respondents of the two countries have experienced the world differently since 1990, and this is expressed in their economic anxiety and political preferences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why do people engage in economically minor resource production activities? This field study of Vermont and Quebec maple syrup producers and their households and enterprises examines the diversity of motivations and concerns in contemporary maple syrup production. Farmers, former farmers, and non-farmers all produce maple syrup. The concept of embeddedness provides a framework for understanding how producers understand their involvement with maple syrup, by highlighting the social and cultural context of economic action. An embeddedness perspective emphasizes how other work activities, household relations, the surrounding community, and the resource environment shape the possibilities for and understandings of minor resource production activities. Maple syrup generally only supplemented the household income of the 76 producers interviewed. Producers articulated a cultural economy of syrup production centered on its contribution to overall livelihood, cultural identity, and lifestyle. Reasons included managing risks, making seasonal use of land and labor resources, developing a retirement income, demonstrating a rural, agrarian identity, and strengthening family and community ties. Implications for policy include the place of minor resource production activities in securing rural livelihoods and providing cultural anchors in rural regions experiencing demographic and economic change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author of this article comments on the analysis of Michael F. Nolan and William D. Heffernan on the Rural Development Act of 1972. In Nolan and Heffernan's first substantive section, sociologically uninteresting legislative detail was substituted for a political sociology of the 1972 bill and its predecessor acts. However, federal and state efforts to get more factories in rural areas go back 30 years and, in turn, are a response to the social conditions and processes dating from around 1900. The article presents a terse etiological analysis of rural factory location as a basis for discussing who benefits from rural industrialization and other policy issues. Furthermore, the author contends that the lack of a context for RDA-72 cripples their discussion of policy alternatives.

The interrelationships between changes in the location of population and employment and the structure of economic activity in the development of regions has not been examined explicitly, This study constructs a paradigm based on national trends showing the relationship of population and employment in the development of a region. Data for the Old Manufacturing Belt and the South are examined to determine if the processes evident at the national level are apparent in two subnational regions which differ in their levels of economic development. The results are consistent. The paradigm appears to be useful as a model for indicating the broad patterns of change which can be expected to occur as a region develops. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

David McClelland's well-known hypothesis that achievement motivation is in part responsible for economic growth was supported by an interlocking series of empirical studies suggesting that a particular human motive, the need for achievement, promotes entrepreneurship, which in turn is a key to economic growth. But none of the studies focused on peasants, even though they make up at least three-fourths of the population in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, where economic growth is a critical problem. More recent studies by Everett Rogers and his associates which show correlations between achievement scores and agricultural innovativeness in farming communities in both India and Colombia have led McClelland to the conclusion that his hypothesis also holds true for peasants, since he thinks of agricultural innovativeness as a form of entrepreneurship. The purpose of this study is to explore the generalizability of the McClelland hypothesis and of Roger's findings to other peasants, by presenting data on the relationship between achievement motivation and agricultural behavior among two different samples of Palestinian subjects.

This study assesses the impact of agricultural, export-oriented policies on food consumption through a time-series, cross-sectional regression model. The results of this study lead to three basic conclusions. First, there is a significant negative relationship between agricultural export promotion and food consumption. Economic growth and increasing agricultural exports earnings do not necessarily increase food security. Second, protein consumption per capita constitutes a more sensitive indicator of changes in food consumption and a proxy for the distributional dimension of the food consumption problem. Third, alternative policies should incorporate agricultural export into a broader agroindustrial development strategy aimed at achieving food security both by increasing income and by food production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a list of bulletins related to rural education. The list includes "Leadership Skills for Gifted Middle School Students in a Rural Environment", "A Conceptual and Analytical Framework for Doing Applied, Policy Relevant Sociology", "A Case Study of a Community-Based Transition Education Project", "A Simultaneous Model of Education Supply and Demand", "The Role of the Cooperative Extension System in Economic Development", "Characteristics, Motivations, and Costs of the Community of Town Government Volunteers", "Interactive Satellite Instruction: How Can Rural Schools Benefit?", "Citizen Participation Handbook", "Enriching the Rural School Curriculum through Telecommunications", "Beliefs and Attitudes of Rural Educators and Their Perceived Skill Levels in Using Curriculum Models for Education of Gifted Learners", "Using Interactive Technologies to Increase Course Offerings in Small and Rural Schools" and "Partnership in Education: Preparation of the Family Nurse-Practitioner for Primary Care in Rural Health Settings."

This article presents list of several books on the topic rural sociology. Some of the books are "Farm Crisis Response: Extension and Research Activities in the North Central Region," by Paul Lasley and Rand Conger, "Revitalizing Rural America: A Cooperative Extension System Response," by Dough Bradley, "Rural Economic Revitalization: The Cooperative Extension Challenge in the North Central Region," by Kenneth Pigg, "A Socio-Economic Analysis of Brucellosis Prevention Practices," by Donald Voth, Richard Bergen, Julie Omohundro and Steven Thompson, "Farm Crisis in Kentucky: What Can We Do?," by Thomas Hvento and James Christenson, and "Social and Economic Environment of Black Farmers," by Robert Hoppe, Herman Bluestone and Virginia Getz. Some other books on miscellaneous topics are "Economic Research Service: 1986 Catalog of Publications," by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service, "Residential Investment Too Much or Too Little?," by William Grigsby and Morton Baratz, and "Proceedings: The Northeast Economic Development Symposium," by William Gillis.

The utility of a Marx-Weber synthesis for the study of rural stratification is critically examined through an analysis of Patrick Mooney's recent contributions to rural sociology. First, we review his discussions of contradictory class locations and the resulting detours to rural capitalist development. Second, his theoretical and empirical critique of the Mann-Dickinson thesis is appraised and criticized for its use of an ahistorical positivist methodology. Third, we consider Mooney's Weberian explanation of detours to rural capitalist development and find it inadequate because of its one-sided focus on subjective factors. Finally, Mooney's suggestion that life-cycle analysis may be useful in developing explanations of contemporary rural development is considered through a critical analysis of Chayanov's demographic theory of the family farm. We conclude that sufficient differences exist between Marx and Weber with respect to definitions of social class, the relation of formal to substantive rationality, the value of a voluntaristic social-action approach, and the explanatory power of demographic variables to caution against any premature synthesis of their concepts and ideas in rural sociological research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most studies of the effects of rapid growth test social disruption hypotheses concerning the negative consequences of rapid rural energy development. This study focuses on one of the most important assumed benefits of rapid growth-the retention of rural youths. The beneficial retention of young people has been widely accepted and propounded as a positive consequence of rapid growth, but rarely treated as a testable hypothesis. Using statewide data from high school seniors in the rural counties of Utah, this study found no support for the beneficial retention hypothesis. Although demographic factors known to influence migration decisions were used as control variables, no relationship was found between migration intentions of students and rapid growth in energy-related extractive employment. The study illustrates the necessity of applying rigorous tests to the assumed positive consequences as well as to the assumed negative consequences of rapid growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between community characteristics and the acquisition of federal grant funds is estimated for a sample of municipalities in Pennsylvania. A structure-conduct-performance framework is used to predict positive, independent effects of community structure and community conduct on per capita receipts of funds for community development and economic development. Regression findings indicate that structure and conduct influence acquisition of funds for community development but that only the structural variables affect acquisition of funds for economic development. A significant statistical interaction, however, indicates that communities with high levels of both activeness and need receive more community and economic development funds per capita than do other communities. The findings support the idea that both structural and conduct variables affect local participation in the federal grant system [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the late 1950s, selected low-income rural counties were chosen for the implementation of a pilot rural development program. In the 1960s. these programs were expanded to virtually all counties and came to be known as "Community Resource Development (CRD).'' This study estimates of the impacts of those programs upon a variety of quality of life indicators for all Arkansas counties that were nonmetropolitan in 1960. Quality of life indicators are derived from secondary data available at the county level. Community Resource Development inputs are measured as factors or unobserved variables derived from detailed reports of Cooperative Extension CRD personnel. The methodology employed is recently developed statistical techniques for the simultaneous estimation of measurement and structural models when multiple indicator unobserved variables are used. Results of the analysis indicate that few of the quality of life indicators were affected in the direction intended by the Community Resource Development programs. Where effects were presently, they were in narrowly defined social service areas, and no "social multiplier" effects were found. The study examines both the substantive and methodological implications of the findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Migration is a major factor in a local economy's growth potential since it affects the size and characteristics of the labor force. Previous studies of the impact of the migration turnaround on the labor force have not investigated potential variations in the socioeconomic contributions of migrants to nonmetro places. By differentiating among nonmetro places according to their size and distance from a metro area, potential variations in the labor force contributions of migrants to different nonmetro places are explored. Large nonmetro places (population 10,000 to 49,999) and those adjacent to metro areas trend to receive migrants who are family income than do small and nonadjacent nonmetro places. But only in small nonmetro places, both adjacent and nonadjacent, do migrants differ markedly form long-term residents in all of these characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 1970, the long historic trend of net out-migration from Eastern, Kentucky has reversed to one of substantial net in-migration. Correspondingly, the past trend toward a more Concentrated settlement pattern has shifted to one of greater uniformity. These population changes have little to do with a revitalized coal economy, economic growth, or diversification, nor do they reflect the characteristics of the nationwide pattern of movement from metro to nonmetro areas. This research suggest that the migration reversal is primarily attributed to return migrants many of whom are moving to the most isolated parts of the Cumberland Plateau. An important factor affecting recent in-migration appears to be the influence of the stem family that encourages many former residents to return to the old homestead to wait out the economic hard times plaguing the cities of the North Central states. There is little evidence to suggest that enough economic improvement has taken place in Appalachian Kentucky to prevent a massive out-migration from recurring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data are presented to shows that the negative association between rates of population growth and rates of economic development in low-income countries has steadily declined since the 1950s. At the same time, however, there continues to be a pronounced statistically significant relationship between economic growth and the rate of fertility decline. It is concluded that continuing efforts to slow down population growth through a reduction of the crude birth rate will have a positive impact on the rate of economic development in low-income countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rural communities in the United States are often oriented toward the procurement of outside resources so that population and economic growth can occur. Western towns in harsh arid or semiarid environments seem especially prone to such a sociocultural pose. The idea of a "cargo cult" as a principle of community organization is useful in explaining how a small town can harness dramatic change for the good of local residents. This article reviews the significant features of cargo cults in Oceania and then applies the concept to a small community in the Western United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study attempts an explicit test of the hypothesis that values converge cross-nationally as a function of increasing industrialization. A 22-item index was constructed to array respondents on a continuum from traditionalism to modernism in certain values. Value profiles were constructed for samples of workers at four levels of industry in each of four countries. They were ranked on an assumed continuum from least to most influenced by industrialism. Factor analysis of the profile intercorrelations showed that workers most influenced by industrialism were no more alike cross-nationally than workers less influenced by industrialism. The convergence hypothesis was not supported. Rather, the data imply parallel value change in different nations as they industrialize. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]