RSOC 0561/0661 Rural Sociology
INSTRUCTOR: Dr. Joseph J. Molnar
301 Comer Hall 844-5615 JMOLNAR@ACESAG.AUBURN.EDU
Office hours: Monday-Friday 8:30-4:30
CLASS MEETS: 9:00 - 11:30 MW 330 Funchess
TEXTS: Davidson, Osha Gray. 1990. Broken Heartland: The Rise of America's Rural
Ghetto. New York, New York: Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group
Allen, John C. and Don Dillman. 1994. Against all Odds: Rural Community in the
Information Age. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Cobb, James C. 1994. The Selling of the South: The Southern Crusade for Industrial
Development 1936-1990. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. 2nd edition.
Smith, Katie. 1994. The Human Farm: A Tale of Changing Lives and Changing
Lands.West Hartford, Connecticut: Kumarian Press.
OVERVIEW: Historically the primary activity in many rural communities has been farming,
while others have been dependent on forestry, mining, and other extractive industries.
Manufacturing, service industries, and public administration now overshadow agriculture as major
sources of employment in most nonmetropolitan places. Recognizing the interrelated nature of
social and economic conditions in rural areas, the course examines fundamental processes of
social change affecting rural people and their communities. Previous research and theoretical
perspectives addressing evolving conditions in rural areas in the U.S., Europe, and the developing
world are considered.
OBJECTIVES:
1) To review the disciplinary and intellectual origins of rural sociology as a substantive
area in sociology.
2) To review demographic, cultural, and spatial definitions of Rurality.
3) To examine agriculture, forestry, fishing, mining, and other forms of resource
extraction as material bases for the rural economy.
4) To identify common patterns, processes, and structures of inequality associated with
Rurality in the world system.
PAPER: Each student will contribute a paper integrating current research and theoretical
perspectives in some aspect of rural life. Papers that incorporate primary data analysis are
encouraged for graduate students. Undergraduate papers may undertake a delimited
synthesis of published literature on a particular issue or substantive problem.
An abstract of the course paper is due by the third week of the quarter. A draft copy (5+
pages text with initial references) is due November 4. You will receive comments and
guidance on your draft for inclusion in the final copy. The final copy is due the last week of
the quarter.
Students will give 20 minute presentations based on the course paper. These will be
scheduled the last weeks of the quarter [your should prepare a one-page outline/summary
to distribute to the class]
EXAMINATIONS: Three essay exams afford opportunities to integrate readings and class
discussion; most will be take home or in-class from previously distributed question pools.
EVALUATION: Paper (25%), class participation (5%), and exams (70%) comprise
your grade.
ASSIGNED READINGS
I. THEORETICAL AND STATISTICAL CONCEPTIONS OF RURALITY
9/23 -- 1. What is Rural Sociology; What is Rurality? statistical and geographic definitions
Davidson, Osha Gray. 1990. Broken Heartland: The Rise America's Rural Ghetto . (in
toto)
9/30 -- 2. What is Rurality? theoretical perspectives
Smith, T. L. and P. E. Zopf, Jr. 1970. "The scientific study of rural society." Chapter 1 in
Principles of Inductive Rural Sociology. Philadelphia: F. A. Davis.
Berreman, G. D. 1978. "Scale and social relations." Current Anthropology 19(2): 225-245.
Richards, R. O. 1978. "Urbanization of rural areas." Chapter 18 in Street and Associates
(eds.) Handbook of Contemporary Urban Life. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
ABSTRACTS DUE
10/7 -- 3. Urban and Rural Differences
Allen, John C. and Don Dillman. Against all Odds: Rural Community in the Information
Age. 1994. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.(IN TOTO)
FIRST MIDTERM
II. THE DYNAMICS OF CHANGE IN RURAL LIFE
10/14 -- 4. Social Change and Rural Communities
Ploch, Louis A. 1989. Turner -- A Study in Persistence and Change. Bulletin 824. Orono,
Maine: Maine Agricultural Experiment Station, University of Maine.
Cottrell, W.F. 1951. "Death by dieselization: a case study in the reaction to technological
change." American Sociological Review 16:358-65.
Krannich, R.S. and T.R. Greider. 1990. "Rapid growth effects on rural community
relations." Chapter 5 in Luloff, A. and L. Swanson (eds.) American Rural Communities.
Boulder: Westview.
Humphrey, C.R. 1990. "Timber dependent communities." Chapter 4 in Luloff, A. and L.
Swanson (eds.) American Rural Communities. Boulder: Westview.
10/21 -- 5. Rural Poverty and Development
Cobb, James C. The Selling of the South: The Southern Crusade for Industrial
Development 1936-1990. 1994. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. (IN TOTO)
Frankel, L. 1991. "Jesus leads us, cooper needs us, the union feeds us: the 1958
Harriet-Henderson textile strike." Chapter 6 in J. Leiter,, M.D. Schulman, and R. Zingraff
(eds.). Hanging by a Thread: Social Change in Southern Textiles. Ithaca, New York: ILR
Press.
Lapping et al. Chapter 11 "Rural economic development and community development"
Molnar, J.J. and G. Traxler. 1991. "People left behind: transitions of the rural poor."
Southern J. of Agricultural Economics 23(1):75-83.
Molnar, J. J. and W. D. Lawson. 1984. "Perceptions of barriers to black political and
economic progress in rural areas." Rural Sociology 49(2):261-283.
DRAFT MANUSCRIPTS DUE
10/28 -- 6. Farming and Agriculture
Kirkendall, R. 1991. "A history of American agriculture from Jefferson to revolution to
crisis." Chapter 2 in Social Science Agricultural Agendas and Strategies. East Lansing:
Michigan State University.
11/4 -- 7. Farming and Rural Communities
Clark, Judy and Philip Lowe. 1992. "Cleaning up agriculture: environment, technology
and social science." Sociologia Ruralis XXXII(1)11-29.
Tweeten, L. 1983. "The economics of small farms." Science 219:1032-1041.
SECOND MIDTERM
III. RURAL LIFE IN LESS-DEVELOPED COUNTRIES
11/11 -- 8. Peasantry as an Economy
Smith, Katie. The Human Farm: A Tale of Changing Lives and Changing Lands. 1994.
West Hartford, Connecticut: Kumarian Press.
11/18 -- 9. Peasantry as a Culture
Galeski, Boguslaw "Rural social change: general typology, family farms, collectivization"
Chapter in T. Shanin (ed.) Peasants and Peasant Societies. New York: Blackwell.
Kerblay, Basile "Chayanov and the theory of peasant economies" Chapter in T. Shanin
(ed.) Peasants and Peasant Societies. New York: Blackwell.
11/26 THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY
12/4 - 12/6 Class presentations
FINAL MANUSCRIPTS DUE
CLASSES END 12/5 Thursday
FINAL EXAM
Wednesday, December 11, 1:30-4:00pm
Return to Courses.
ADDITIONAL REFERENCES
Berry, B.J.L. 1977. The Changing Shape of Metropolitan America: Commuting Patterns, Urban Fields, and Decentralization Processes. Cambridge, MA: Ballinger.
Bogue, D.J. and C.L. Beale. 1961.Economic Areas of the United States. New York: Free
Press.
Brown, W., J. Skees, L.Swanson, P.Thompson, L. Unnevehr. 1992. Sacred Cows and Hot
Potatoes: Agrarian Myths in Agricultural Policy. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press.
Bureau of Census 1989. Statistical Abstract of the United States National Data Book and
Guide to Sources Washington D.C. Superintendent of Documents, USGPO.
Buttel, F.H., O.F. Larson, and G.W. Gillespie Jr. 1990. The Sociology of Agriculture. New
York: Greenwood Press.
Buttel, F. and H. Newby (eds.). 1980. The Rural Sociology of the Advanced Societies:
Critical Perspectives. Montclair, N.J.: Allenheld, Osmun. HT421.R85
Cobb, J. 1993. The Most Southern Place in America. Lexington: University of Kentucky
Press.
Deavers, K.L. 1985. Natural Resource Dependence, Rural Development, and Rural
Poverty. Rural Development Research Report 48. Washington D.C.: USDA-ERS.
Dillman, D. 1987. Federal statistics in local governments. Chapter 11 in The Politics of
Numbers, eds., P. Starr and W. Alonso. New York: Russell Sage.
Dillman, D. 1985. Social impacts of information technologies on rural North America. Rural Sociology 50:1-26.
Elo, I.T., and C.L. Beale. 1985. Rural Development, Poverty, and Natural Resources: An
Overview. Workshop Paper Series. Washington, D.C.: Resources for the Future, National
Center for Food and Agricultural Policy.
Fitchen, J.M. 1991.Endangered Spaces, Enduring Places: Change, Identity, and Survival in
Rural America. Boulder: Westview Press.
Freudenburg, W.R. 1984. "Differential impact of rapid community growth." American
Sociological Review 49:697-705.
Fuguitt, G.V., D.L. Brown, and C.L. Beale. 1989. Rural and Small Town America. New
York: Russell Sage.
Garreau. J. 1981. The Nine Nations of North America. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Garreau. J. 1991. Edge City: Life on the New Frontier. New York: Doubleday.
Garkovich, L. Population and Community in Rural America. New York: Praeger.
Ghelfi, L.M. 1988. About that lower cost of living in nonmetro areas. Rural Development
Perspectives 5(1):16-19.
Gibson, D.M., R.E. Goodin, and J. Le Grand. 1985. Come and get it: distributional biases
in social service delivery systems. Policy and Politics 13:109-125.
Goldsmith, A.A. 1990. Building Agricultural Institutions: Transferring the Land-Grant
Model to India and Nigeria. Boulder: Westview.
Harrell, R. and G. Weiher (eds.) 1989. Rural Poverty: Special Causes and Policy Reforms.
New York: Greenwood.
Richard Hodges. 1988. Primitive and Peasant Markets. New York: Blackwell.
Lapping, M.B., T.L. Daniels, and J.W. Keller. 1989. Rural Planning and Development in
the U.S. New York: Guilford Press.
Leiter, J., M.D. Schulman, and R. Zingraff (eds.). 1991. Hanging by a Thread: Social
Change in Southern Textiles. Ithaca, New York: ILR Press.
Luloff, A. and L. Swanson (eds.). 1990. American Rural Communities. Boulder: Westview.
Lyson, T.A. 1989. Two Sides to the Sunbelt: The Growing Divergence Between the Rural
and Urban South. New York: Praeger.
Lyson, T.A. 1990. Down and out in rural America: the status of blacks and Hispanics in the
1980's. Chapter in Investing in People: The Human Capital Needs of Rural America, eds.,
L.J. Beaulieu and D.J. Mulkey. Boulder: Westview.
Martinez-Brawley, E.E. 1980. Pioneer Efforts in Rural Social Welfare: Firsthand Views Since 1908. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press.
Molnar, J.J., R.G. Nelson and D. McGranahan. 1990. "The rural community: social structure and population." Chapter 11 in New Directions in Data, Information Systems, and Their Uses. R.C. Buse and J. Driscoll (eds.). Ames: Iowa State University Press. <!DOCTYPE NETSCAPE-Bookmark-file-1>
Murdock, S.H. and D.E. Albrecht. 1990. The Sociology of U.S. Agriculture. Ames: Iowa State University Press.
Nathan, R.P. 1987. The politics of printouts: the use of official numbers to allocate federal
grants-in-aid. Chapter 10 in The Politics of Numbers, eds., P. Starr and W. Alonso. New
York: Russell Sage.
Newby, H.(ed.). 1978. International Perspectives in Rural Sociology. New York: Wiley.
HT421.I54
Newby, H. 1979. Social Change in Rural England. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
O'Hare, W.P. 1988. The Rise of Poverty in Rural America. Occasional Paper 15.
Washington, D.C.: Population Reference Bureau.
Ploch, Louis A. 1989. Turner -- A Study in Persistence and Change. Bulletin 824. Orono,
Maine: Maine Agricultural Experiment Station, University of Maine.
Sawhill, I.V. 1988. Poverty in the U.S.: Why is it so persistent? J. of Economic Literature
XXVI (September):1073-1119.
Snipp, M . 1989. American Indians: The First of This Land. New York: Russell Sage.
Stoneall, L. 1983. Country Life, City Life: Five Theories of Community. New York:
Praeger.
Thomson, Robert. 1987. Green Gold: Bananas and Dependency in the Eastern Caribbean.
London: Latin America Bureau.
Wilson, W.J. 1987. The Truly Disadvantaged. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
SELECTED JOURNALS
A Biased and Incomplete Set of Rural Sociology Web Sites
"http://www.fao.org/" Welcome to FAO
"http://alaweb.asc.edu/index.html" AlaWeb Home Page
"http://coombs.anu.edu.au/ResFacilities/DemographyPage.html CERN/ANU -
Demography & Population Studies WWW VL
"http://cristel.nal.usda.gov:8080 USDA/CRIS Web Site
"http://fgdc.er.usgs.gov/fgdc.html" Federal Geographic Data Committee(FGDC)
"http://govinfo.kerr.orst.edu/ag-stateis.html Census of Agriculture: 1982, 1987, 1992
"http://govinfo.kerr.orst.edu/ag-stateis.html" Census of Agriculture: 1982, 1987, 1992
"http://govinfo.kerr.orst.edu/cgi-bin/ag-list?01-state.als" Agriculture Census for Alabama
"http://h2o.er.usgs.gov/public/watuse/wulv.htmlLivestock water use in the United States in
1990
"http://home.city.net/countries/united_states/alabama">City.Net Alabama, United States
"http://lib.stat.cmu.edu/" StatLib Index
"http://members.gnn.com/JSNIX/index. Alabama Forestry Link
"http://pardoo.cs.umass.edu/GovBot/" GovBot Database of Government Web Sites
"http://pardoo.cs.umass.edu/GovBot/" GovBot Database of Government Web Sites
"http://probe.nalusda.gov:8300/index.html" Databases at the National Agricultural
Library
"http://schmidel.com/biotech/tech14.htm The Biotech BiblioNet (July 1996)
"http://sedac.ciesin.org/plue/ddviewer/" Demographic Data Viewer Home Page
"http://ssdc.ucsd.edu/" ">UCSD Data Collection
"http://stats.bls.gov/" Bureau of Labor Statistics
"http://ts2.ciesin.org/plue/geocorr Mable/Geocorr Home Page
"http://wally.rit.edu/pubs/starts/wml/carl.html" RIT On-Line -- Start: CARL UnCOVER
"http://web.fie.com/" Federal Information Exchange Home Page
"http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/aces/aces160.shtml?/gao/index.html" General
Accounting Office Reports
"http://www.acenet.auburn.edu/" 835293903" Alabama Cooperative Extension System
"http://www.acenet.auburn.edu/programs/anr/nass/bultn_html Alabama Ag Statistics
Home Page
"http://www.acenet.auburn.edu:70/1s/programs/anr/agwasteAgricultural Waste Database
"http://www.acls.org/ls-cao.htm" ACLS Constituent Learned Societies
"http://www.agri-aqua.ait.ac.th Welcome to WWW.Agri-Aqua.ait.ac.th Server
"http://www.ansc.purdue.edu/aquanic Aquaculture Network Information Center
(AquaNIC)
"http://www.bhamdogs.com/trackInformation.html" Birmingham - All About Birmingham
"http://www.cabi.org/links/links.htm" CABI - Useful Links
"http://www.census.gov:80/stat_abstract/profile.html" Data Maps From Census Bureau
"http://www.cgiar.org:80/centers.htm" CGIAR Research Centers
"http://www.ciesin.org/IC/cikard/CIKARD.html CIESIN Information Cooperative -
Organizational Guide - CIKARD
"http://www.coi.gov.uk/coi/depts/deptlist.html PRESS RELEASE MENU
"http://WWW.ECON.AG.GOV/" USDA Economic Research Service
"http://www.ed.gov/prog_info/SFA/StudentGuide The Student Guide
"http://www.egr.msu.edu/ISP/AfricanStudies/Plea/paper.htm#SOCIMP"
"http://www.fco.gov.uk/" Foreign & Commonwealth Office, London (tables)
"http://www.hcooke.co.uk/globaid2/auburn.htm For A Growing World: Auburn
University
"http://www.IDS.ac.uk/ids/ids.html - The Institute of Development Studies Home Page
"http://www.info.usaid.gov/resources/" USAID - International Development Resources
"http://www.kc.frb.org/publicat/heartlnd/hrtmain.htm The Rural Heartland
"http://www.lang.uiuc.edu/RelSt/Durkheim/DurkheimHome.html Emile Durkheim Home
Page
"http://www.lapop.lsu.edu/rss/" Rural Sociological Society
"http://www.lib.virginia.edu/socsci/" University of Virginia -- Social Sciences Data Center
"http://www.mannlib.cornell.edu/catalog/catalog.html" Mann Library Gateway
"http://www.nal.usda.gov/" The National Agricultural Library
"http://www.nas.edu/homepage/pubs/pubs.html" Publications and Reports
"http://www.ncg.nrcs.usda.gov/" USDA - Natural Resources Conservation Service
"http://www.ncjrs.org/topics.htm" Justice Information Center (NCJRS): Criminal Justice
Topics
"http://www.nhq.nrcs.usda.gov/OPA/FB96OPA/DelDgm.html" Program Delivery Process
Diagram--'96 Farm Bill Conservation Provisions
"http://www.nnlm.nlm.nih.gov/mar.html" Welcome to NN/LM's Middle Atlantic Region
"http://www.ns.net/fairinfonet/abc/faves.html" Favorite Web Sites
"http://www.nsf.gov/bfa/cpo/forms/start.htm" Grant Proposal Forms
"http://www.oneworld.org/oda/" ODA Home Page - March 96
"http://www.open.gov.uk/" Government Information Service
"http://www.ota.nap.edu/pdf/1993idx.html Office of Technology Assessment Archive: 1993
"http://www.pop.psu.edu/Demography/demography.html Population and Demography
Information
"http://www.powys.gov.uk/aeidl1/rural-en/welcom3.htm EU Rural Development service
page
"http://www.princeton.edu/~abelson Survey Research Center
"http://www.princetonreview.com/index.html Welcome To The Princeton Review
"http://www.reeusda.gov/new/nri/nricgp.htm NRICGP Home Page
"http://www.rurdev.usda.gov/nrdp/new.html NEW on the NRDP Web Site!
"http://www.snymor.edu/~drewwe/njc/njcmain.htm" Not Just Cows: A guide to
Internet/Bitnet Resources in Agriculture
"http://www.ttu.edu/~aecovl/" The World Wide Web Virtual Library: Agricultural
Economics
"http://www.ucm.es/OTROS/isa/index.html International Sociological Association Home
Page
"http://www.undp.org/" UNDP - United Nations Development Programme
"http://www.unesco.org/" The UNESCO Web
"http://www.uni-hohenheim.de/~www490a/sympos/program.html International
Development Conference Program
"http://www.usda.gov/about.htm About USDA
"http://www.usda.gov/whatsnew.htm" What's New
"http://www.usgs.gov/fgdc-catalog/products/Geologic_Quadrangle_Maps_(GQ_Series).html" Geologic Quadrangle maps (GQ Series)
"http://www.wau.nl/" Welcome to Wageningen Agricultural University, The Netherlands
"http://www.whitehouse.gov/WH/EOP/OMB/html/circular.html OMB Circulars
"http://www.whitehouse.gov/WH/Welcome.html" Welcome To The White House
"http://www.worldbank.org/" The World Bank Home Page
"http://www.worldbank.org/html/lat/english/page/ag.htm Agriculture, Natural Resource
Management, and Rural Poverty - English
Return to Courses.
Title
Call Number
Agricultural History
American J. of Sociology
HM1.A7
American Sociological Review
HM1.A75
Annals. of Am. Academy of Pol. & Social Science
H1.A41
J. of the Community Development Society
HN1.C63
J. of Leisure Research
GV1.56
J. of Rural Studies
HT401.J68
J. of Soil and Water Conservation
(f)S622.56
Public Opinion Quarterly
HM261.A1P8
Rural History
Rural History: Economy,Society
Rural Sociology
HT401.R8
Science
(f)Q1.XS35
Social Forces
HN51.S5
Sociological Quarterly
HM1.S69
Southern Rural Sociology
HD1405.A7