THE ACCOMMODATION OF RURAL AND URBAN WORKERS TO INDUSTRIAL DISCIPLINE AND URBAN LIVING: A FOUR-NATION STUDY.

The industrial man hypothesis holds that workers from different social and cultural backgrounds adapt rapidly to the occupational and social systems of industrial society, whereas the developmental hypothesis holds that adaptation vary according to stage of industrialization. The two explanations were tested by the use of data on automobile workers from rural and urban backgrounds in countries at different levels of industrialization: India, Argentina, Italy, and the United States. Data were obtained for participation and adaptation in the factory, labor union, family, neighborhood, community, and nation. The lack of persistent or systematic differences among workers from rural and urban backgrounds supports the industrial man rather than the developmental hypothesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]