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In this paper, an attempt has been made to evaluate the contents volumes I to X of Sociologia Ruralis (1960-1970), with the understanding that only the (75) English written papers are being reviewed. The main starting points have been derived from Article 4 of the Constitution of the European Society for Rural Sociology. After having proposed a number of critical remarks on the subject that have been dealt with in the papers concerned, a tentative evaluation has been made of the practical, theoretical, and methodologic relevance of these papers. In the final section, some ideas are suggested which might be used in order to remove several shortcomings brought to light in to previous sections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the scope of prevision in religion which has always been one of the chief conditions and causes of religious change. A detailed prevision of the future development of religion was the characteristic feature of the earlier nineteenth-century sociology. In so far as sociological prevision is possible with regard to the organic development of society in general, it will be possible to foresee the social form that religion will tend to acquire in any given culture. The complete secularization of Western culture may be followed by its gradual dissolution and by the reassertion of the traditional religion-cultures of Asia which have been temporarily overshadowed by the European world-hegemony.

This article discusses the processes of regional balance in relation to social ecology. There are two and only two areas on the surface of the earth, China and India, which deserve comparison with Europe in so far as they support a denser population by intensive agriculture. China and India together constitute nearly 36 per cent of the world's population and yet in these regions the proportion of cultivable land to total area is smaller than in Europe. The greater the density in rural areas, the closer and more stable is the adjustment of the arts of living to natural conditions. In the crowded regions of the industrial west, the conditions of living equilibrium are maintained by the importation of food from abroad and export of manufactured goods which buy food. As a basic principle the appropriate natural region for intensive studies in social ecology are those wherein the environment operating for a long time has developed a stable bio-economic balance. Further, agricultural research indicates that there is a limitation in the improvement of crops by plant breeding and that limitation depends upon the indigenous farming practice. Similarly, the indigenous agricultural practices differ strikingly from region to region even with reference to the same crop.

This paper discusses the new economic and social tendencies of the European civilization. Individual freedom and political rights and national sovereignty and independence have been governing the ideals of the modern world. While they have been conquering public opinion and being given conscious political sanctions, a new set of social and economic conditions have been coming into existence. The age of nationalism has been marked by the growing internationalization of social and economic life. At the time of the French Revolution, each European people was distinct in its culture, its customs, its ways of thought, event its costumes. The victory of political liberalism and the acquisition of individual liberties appear to have been accompanied by an increasing loss of individual independence and initiative in the ordinary business of life. This also is the result of economic causes. It has come about that the center of social gravity has shifted from the political to the economic field. People still preserve the old political forms, but it is the economic issues that control their lives. The true feature of the new society, according to professional historian M. Lucien Romier, is not the class struggle but the growth of great economic interests which transcend the boundaries of nation and class.

Profiles French Senator Pierre Frederic Guillaume Leplay and examines his role in social science. Leplay was born on April 11, 1806, at La Riviere Saint Sauveur, a village of some size on the left bank of the Seine, between the port of Honfleur, France and the forest of Brothnne. Born at a critical moment in the history of his country, wherein the horrors of foreign war were added to the internal dimensions and hatreds bequeathed by the Revolution, he had seen the gradual return of peace and prosperity. Urban and rural, academic and domestic influences had been happily blended in his early life. He was educated first at home by a priest, then at school, and later at the Ecole Polyechnique and at the Ecole des Mines in Paris. In 1832, he became co-editor of the journal "Annales des Mines." In 1858, he founded the International Society for Practical Studies in Social Economy, with branches in almost all the countries in Europe. In 1881, he founded "La Reforme Sociale," a fortnightly publication of joint scientific and practical interest.

At the close of World War I, some six million Europeans had been uprooted and displaced by the whirlwind of war. The problems of resettlement were handled either in a piecemeal fashion or left entirely to personal initiative and chance. The author feels that the piecemeal planning and casual administration can bring untold suffering upon those in Europe who have already suffered much. He says that because the problems of resettlement are so vast and so complex, it is generally recognized that their solutions can be found only in international planning and in the establishment at the European peace conference of an international administration strongly backed by the new national governments of Europe. He feels that one should first recognize who these people are. Civilians are the largest group of victims of active warfare. Either by their own fear of approaching armies or by decrees, they have been moved away from active theaters of war or bombed cities. The situation was such that the whole villages were evacuated. Families were separated. The author says that the problem is not the simple one. It will involve not only resettlement of displaced people but a recognition of population pressures in the face of increasingly nationalistic policies and the closed-door of other nations.

This article presents a review of research in the teaching of social studies in the elementary school in Europe. Identifies particular attention to the problem of internal course organization, with summaries of theories, practices, and research evidence. It presented an extensive survey of the status of geography as a subject of study, with respect to curriculum, methods and equipment. The diversity of content and method in the decentralization of the English school system in relation to social studies. Considered the problems of teaching process on both the elementary and secondary levels.

The article illustrate contrasts and similarities in the general development of European and American sociology in recent times. A conspicuous difference in this respect is that in American Sociology has grown as a child nursed by the Universities and Colleges; while in Europe its modern start, since August Comte, and development have in a considerable degree taken place outside of the Universities and Colleges. Indeed a number of the founders of the principal modern sociological systems in Europe never occupied the position of a teacher in University at all. This difference also continues to exist at the present moment: although the number of Universities and Colleges in Europe where sociology has been introduced as a regular course has considerably increased since the time of the War and Revolutions; nevertheless this number is still much below that of the United States. Another difference lies in the character of the European and American sociologists. The bulk of the sociological works in America are marked by their quantitative and empirical character while the bulk of the sociological literature of Europe is still marked by an analytical elaboration of concepts and definitions; by a philosophical and epistemological polishing of words.

The story of man's occupation of the earth seems to be divided into two rather sharply marked periods the ancient and the modem world. It is not altogether a distinction of time; somewhat it is of space. For more than half of mankind is living in the ancient world today for all practical purposes. People of Europe and the Western Hemisphere and of certain islands of the Western seas are proud of our modernity. Perhaps the pride is based too heavily upon the modern machinery that people use so universally. The difference between the ancient world and the modern world, wherever those worlds may exist in time or space, is the difference of ideals upon which the two worlds are founded. The ancient world seems to have risen upon the theory that physical force is man's final arbiter, The modern world seems to be growing upon the faith that ideas rule that things of the spirit are unconquerable when they promote broader fellowships, more abundant living, more kindly pace in the works and ways of men.

The emergence of social science on the continent of Europe and its tardy reception in academic circles have a common, basic cause. Social science is an application of rationality to the understanding of man and his society. Society is a moral reality, at least, this is its crucial aspect, for it is an interpersonal world, even as justice is its essential form. A science appropriate to the exploration of this phenomenon is ineluctably a moral science. On this point, the French tradition of social science has been utterly lucid. In the same sense, the German tradition has clung to the notion that the social sciences are sciences of spirit or culture. The moral, evaluative and implicity metaphysical aspects of the human sciences made them an appropriate instrument for moral reorganization but also made them ready targets of institutional defensiveness. However, the historical perspective on man provides a constructive interpretation of the role of social science in the ethical task. Ethics as a science is concerned with the principles, aims and motives of moral action, or, in historical terms, with the constitution of a future in the context of an interpersonal world through decisions in the present.

The paper reviews research findings from various European countries (including the author's own studies in Vienna) on intergenerational relations between parents and their grown-up children. Numerous data disprove certain important features of the classical theory of the isolated nuclear family in industrialized and urbanized society. Although, according to newer data, joint living is a minority pattern, effective interaction (economic support, help in both ways and mutual visiting) is frequent and emotionally important particularly to the elderly. ‘Intimacy—but at a distance—corresponds to wishes of both generations. A special section of the paper is dedicated to propositions for theoretical innovation in the problem area studied including, e.g., a criticism of role theory, a criticism of statements on family cohesion based on findings of help patterns only. The paper postulates an amalgamation of major aspects of social gerontology with a sociology of the family cycle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the program launched by the Ohio State University known as the Social Studies Education Program Abroad. These program provides opportunity for teachers-in-training to travel and study in Europe and to expand the students view of world affairs. The program was part of the university's goal to expand the international dimensions of various departments across the school campus. It served as an extension of study in education, history and the social sciences, but the primary goal of the program was for the teaching of social studies. Aside from the academic and professional dimensions of the program, the most important insight of the activity was the personal growth of the participants and the broadening of their view in social science.

The article focuses on marriage and the blood feud in heroic Europe. A stock dilemma found in the heroic literature of early medieval Europe was that of an innocent victim caught between conflicting loyalties. Thus, a wife enmeshed in a struggle or feud between her own family and that of her husband present an especially dramatic and popular example of such a dilemma. By looking at the role of women in the heroic society, it has been observed that the frequent occurrence of such tragic situations in the literature was not simply fortuitous. Rather the women frequently were placed, or chose to place themselves, in a situation which carried a strong likelihood of such a tragedy coming to pass. One of the prominent roles of a woman was, through her marriage that of acting as feud-healer or alliance-binder. This use of marriage either to heal an open blood feud or to create an alliance so as to prevent future feuds was an obvious and sensible policy. But, since the ironic ends of marriage frequently were unrealized, at least in the literature of the day, women became almost sacrificial victims to good but vain intentions. The composition of blood feuds by non-violent means is a major criterion in measuring the transition from a primitive to a more sophisticated society.

The article provides management science related news from Europe. L'Association Francaise d'Informatique et de Reserche Operationelle is developing a seminar on "l'Information Documentaire." An International Symposium on Mathematical & Computational Methods in Social Sciences will be held in Rome from July 4-8, 1966 under the auspices of the International Computation Centre in Rome. A seminar on Graph Theory will also follow the Symposium in Rome from July 8-12, 1966.

The article presents a comparative study of centre formation, territorial unification and national development. Further, it discusses the imbalances in the current research in nation development, a sample of global models and also suggests a hypothetical model for Europe in this regard. The author makes observation that the extraordinarily rapid wave of decolonization and state formation deeply affected the priorities within the social science community from the mid-fifties onward. The great wave of Third World studies also triggered impressive efforts of theory construction. It is opined that there are marked imbalances in the range of cases and variables covered in comparative analysis of processes of political development. Most comparisons have been limited to institutional or aggregate statistical data for each nation as a unit and have tended to neglect highly significant variations in the rates of growth among competing economic, political or cultural centres and between such centres and the rural peripheries.

The article presents information on various research papers from Europe published in an earlier issue of the journal "International Migration Review". "Family Planning Among Different Ethnic Groups," by R.E.D. Simpson. In this extract, from his much longer report "A Medico-Social Study of a Group Practice with a High Proportion of Immigrants," the author describes the increasing use made of family planning in his practice in Bristol, England. "France's Portuguese Workers," by Marie-Claire Viguer is based on Statistics from the Ministry of Social Affairs and the National Immigration Office and on results of investigations made at Toulouse at the Sociology of Labor Center by French and Portuguese research workers.

The article presents news briefs on several social science publications as of December 1972. The 1972 edition of the book "Statistical Abstract of the United States," was issued by the U.S. Bureau of Census. This 93rd annual edition of the "Abstract" includes a more comprehensive section of statistics from the 1970 U.S. Census of Population and Housing than was possible in 1971. "Current Research" booklet published in English, is now available from the Centre for European Society. The American Academy of Political and Social Science will publish a special monograph of papers and proceedings presented at a two day conference on Integration of the Social Sciences Through Policy Analysis.