Suchergebnisse

Rural sociology has recently developed a new research agenda focussing on the sociology of agriculture. This has led to a revitalization of a field of research that had lost its way since the decline of the rural-urban continuum in the 1960s. The crisis that occurred in rural sociology in the 1970s is discussed in relation both to this theoretical vacuum and to the failure to achieve a policy impact. It is argued that the sociology of agriculture offers a potentially successful means of overcoming this crisis, but some of the difficulties in utilizing this approach are also discussed. Observations are made on the institutional setting of rural sociology and on whether it is compatible with the development of a critical sociology of agriculture.

This article provides a comprehensive review of developments in transportation research relevant to sociological inquiry about urban transportation and its consequences for urban structure, both spatial and social. Recent research has gone beyond initial observations about the linkages between transportation use and the spatial form of cities to further detail its impacts upon residential segregation, decentralization, and inequalities in mobility access. Historical case studies of local transit firms and politics, industrial organization of the transportation industry and its impact upon transportation policy, and national and local studies of the political economy of urban transporation have advanced a comparative research framework for understanding the institutional forces that constrain transportation choices and technical development. Finally, social psychological research, through laboratory experimental studies, field studies, and time-budget analysis, has just begun to examine the impacts of transportation upon social interaction in the family and community. This literature review concludes with proposed research questions for future investigations.

The history of the concept of values is reviewed from its beginnings in the 19th century to the present. Work on values rose to preeminence under Talcott Parsons and his associates during 1950-1965, Nevertheless, the theory they produced was flawed: It lacked sophisticated empirical support, imposed preordained categories on reality, and was formulated at an unresearchable level of abstraction. Alternative theories of values fared only somewhat better. More vibrant is the long tradition of (nonParsonian) empirical studies in various subject areas (e.g. achievement, religion). This body of work, however, is ad hoc in nature: The data produced are essentially noncomparable and do not advance the concerns of value theory. The recent work of Kohn (on class and values) and Rokeach (on general value systems) has begun to remedy the situation. It is suggested that value analysis of the future can only solve past ditficulties if (a) it develops grounded theory and research methods—i.e, hypotheses and techniques tied, from the outset, to the values of real populations; (b) it undertakes simultaneous multitechnique observations of the same population; and (c) it carefully tests some of the important hypotheses from value theory abandoned since the 1960s