Search

This paper propose an export base model of local employment growth where one of the "export" sectors is cash transfer payments to individuals. The basic sector considered are: agriculture, manufacturing, inter-governmental transfers, and cash transfer to individuals. The model is tested with a sample of U.S. counties using data from secondary sources. Cash transfers are found to have strong positive effects on local nonbasic employment growth. Manufacturing and agriculture were also found to have significant effects. Also in the model are ecological qualities such as industrial diversity and urbanization of the local community. The findings and hypothesis are discussed in relation to the "population turnaround" of nonmetropolitan communities, the growth of social welfare payments, the economic significance of cash transfers to local communities, and the Keynesian macro approach to economic growth. [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]

The authors examine the public policy implications of industrial development and its effects on the income status of weak competitors in a community system. Age, sex, education, and labor force status were regarded as resources which indicate the competitive capacity of individuals. Using longitudinal data (1966&ndash1971) from a rural Illinois region experiencing industrial development and a control region with no industrial development, changes in the parameters of a causal model which relates competitive capacity and income are estimated. Income differences between strong and weak competitors tend to increase over time. However, there is no evidence that the changes are due to industrial development. Finally, it was found that sex and labor force status have a stronger net effect on income than either age or education. The public policy implications of these findings are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The need to develop a concerted, systematic approach to societal monitoring is becoming increasingly recognized. And to meet the challenge, researchers are developing better means by which social phenomena can be judged. One area of research drawing attention as a good social indicator deals with the concept of community satisfaction. Measuring community satisfaction can serve to fulfill two basic criteria set forth by Campbell and Converse as necessary to an adequate system of social accounting. First, an adequate indicator must be seen as a function of objective conditions coupled with the subjective assessment toward those conditions. Second, multiple measures or indicators are needed to describe a social situation. It is the intention of the author to perform substantive investigations in the area of community satisfaction. The assessment of community services from a time-series perspective could supplement objective indicators and facilitate inferences regarding future change, particularly with respect to providing local service delivery system.

The prevalence of psychiatric impairment symptoms appears to be lower in rural communities than in previously studied urban areas, particularly in New York City. This suggests the possibility that the rural life style generates less stress, or perhaps fewer stressful situations. The observed differences may result from deviations in population composition along dimensions known to be associated with prevalence of symptoms. This article examines how the rural population performs in the Midtown Psychiatric Impairment Index. In addition, this article compares the prevalence rates of psychiatric symptoms in a sample of rural communities with that of previously reported rates.

Students of community have not developed a cumulative body of knowledge which can be called a sociology of community. Four of the major reasons for this failure are (1) the tendency to confuse studies of community-related phenomena with analysis of community, (2) the perpetuation of competing and noncomplementary approaches to the study of community, (3) the emphasis upon viewing each community as a spatially and temporally unique phenomenon, and (4) the schism between rural and urban (or nonrural) sociologists. We believe that a sociology of community is both possible and worthwhile. Its development will require for many sociologists fundamental shifts in organizational, conceptual, and methodological orientation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The decline in number of functions performed by rural families and the rise in extended education of rural youth at consolidated schools would seem to offer the conditions for the development of a youth subculture. This study attempts to establish evidence of an emerging youth contraculture in a rural Midwestern area. Degree of correspondence between a sample of rural high school students and their parents were analyzed with respect to their attitudes toward several minority groups. The authors' analysis of this study is guided by the general assumption that a youth subculture serves as an important socializing agent. Indicators of the existence of contraculture are used by the authors to gauge whether there is a decline in the familism of rural families. With this, the authors concludes that none of the indicators serves as evidence of such contraculture. Generalizations about the decline of familism and the loss of functions by the rural family should not be extended to the socialization of attitudes of rural youth.