Purpose: Agricultural extension services in poor countries often identify opinion leaders based on criteria such as wealth and social status. We explore the effectiveness of this top-down approach by analysing the role of so-called model and nodal farmers in the diffusion of malt barley in a highland community in Ethiopia. Research approach: We…

This teaching note describes my multiyear experience with interventions designed to enhance student engagement and learning through various teaching techniques, most notably active and collaborative learning through local case studies. While other aspects of this course had been successful, I was disappointed in the level of engagement--the…

This paper examines voluntarism as a response to the challenges faced by people growing old in rural communities that are themselves being transformed in fundamental ways, both socially and demographically. Informed by evolving theorisations within the rural aging and geographies of voluntarism literatures, we outline the key processes in space…

This paper explores the role of various social ties in building trust and providing opportunities for information acquisition and knowledge exchange (IAKE). Social capital is used as a vehicle to explore the relationships between farmers and their advisors using bovine tuberculosis (bTB), a major disease facing the English cattle industry, as a…

This dissertation examines the various ways that teachers in two school districts in rural northern Wisconsin participate in professional development. This case study research analyzes interview data with two teachers, their administrators, and a Cooperative Educational Service Agency professional using a critical sociocultural framework in order…

In his presidential address, Jess Gilbert argues that big states, in alliance with social scientists, can work to democratize society. He points to two fascinating examples--the involvement of rural sociologists with local citizens for policy planning in the New Deal and similarly their role in the Farm Security Administration's Resettlement…

Drawing from ethnographic case studies, this article considers issues of women's access to education by exploring the literacy experiences of four women in rural Mexico. Ironically, as physical access to education in this area has increased, women's literacy experiences have become more complex, rather than more libratory. Formal literacy, as it…

Ongoing demographic, social, economic and cultural changes point to the dynamic and continually changing contexts of rural areas in Ireland and Northern Ireland. However, the influence of such changes on the lives of older people remains under-explored, particularly the question of how older people perceive, connect to and engage in their…

"Rural stress" and "farming stress" are terms that have become commonly appropriated by British health-based academic disciplines, the medical profession and social support networks, especially since the agricultural "crises" of B.S.E. and Foot and Mouth disease. Looking beyond the media headlines, it is apparent that…

Due to the difficulties inherent in staffing rural schools it is increasingly common for beginning teachers to fill school leadership roles early in their careers. The accelerated progression of some teachers impacts on the overall nature of leadership in rural schools and creates unique pathways, generally different from those available to…

This paper draws on the comparative and qualitative data from a triple case study carried out in three semi-rural early childhood education centres in Canada, India, and South Africa. The primary objective of this four year study was to provide in-depth understanding of the ways in which policy, practice, and culture intersect in semi-rural…

The literature notes that natural disasters, including wildfires, that damage human settlements often have the short-term effect of "bringing people together." Less recognized is the fact that such events can also generate social conflict at the local level. This study examines the specific sources of such social conflict during and after…

Focusing on the concept of "commodity chains" within the food industry, this paper analyses the term's widespread and variable usage in both academic and policy-orientated work. Despite recent criticisms, the concept has retained its popular appeal alongside competing metaphors such as networks, circuits and assemblages. Examining the…

Storytelling is a performance medium which is enhanced by the qualities indigenous to small towns: collective memory and common history. A type of narrative peculiar to small towns, the community-wide anecdote, is one example of storytelling. The transmittal of such tales is termed "endemic performance" because the retelling of the tales…

In North America and elsewhere it is frequently asserted that changes in rural society have led to an economic and social "decoupling" of agriculture from the wider rural community. Casual analysis of contemporary media reporting and popular discourse would suggest that interactions between the two spheres are as often characterized by…