Social Participation of Professional in Rural Areas.

Although an extensive literature on professions (and professionalization) has accumulated, there are few researches of rural professionals, and fewer still which allow a systematic comparison between the major professions. The former condition, the neglect of professionals located in rural areas, is perhaps, in part, due to the fact that the growth of professions has to a large extent accompanied urbanization. The latter condition may be due to several factors such as the restricted interest of the researchers, the costs of enlarging the sample, the paucity of "rural practicing" professionals in certain of the categories of professions (e.g., lawyers or dentists), and the lack of agreement on the analytic framework to guide comparisons. One of the main features of the research herein reported is that the professionals studied represented the main divisions commonly referred to as the "established" professions and all resided in the same geographical area at the same point in time and responded to the same interview schedule. The focus of the research is the professionals' social participation patterns. We shall see first of all whether or not significant differences among the established professions are present in regard to certain areas of social participation (hereafter abbreviated SP) and, secondly, if such are found, whether or not other factors are also related to these SP differences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]