Justifiably concerned about power dynamics between researchers and participants in participatory research, much of the literature proposes guidelines for including participant voices at every step of the research process. We find these guidelines insufficient for dealing with constraints set up by the social organizational structures in which…

Poor people make use of a variety of contextually relevant resources to pursue their livelihood strategies, and there is wide empirical evidence that opportunities and constraints for accessing these may vary considerably for women and men, particularly in the rural areas of developing countries. In this article, micro-evidence from a case study…

The article deals with the place of tradition in the development of rural societies, focusing specifically on symbolic contents and institutional organization of traditions. An earlier version of this article was presented at the Seventh Congress of the European Society for Rural Sociology, Munster, Germany, August 10-12, 1970. (Author/FF)

Analysis of data from Saudi Arabia indicates that, despite great departures from typical patterns of urbanization seen in the West, there is a strong association between urbanization and the division of labor as predicted by ecological theory. Contains 38 references. (Author/SV)

For 23 longitudinal studies of U.S. boomtowns, the ratio of increase in crime to increase in population averaged about 3.0, indicating a faster increase in crime than in population. Promising explanations focus on changes in community social structure and informal social controls, particularly density of acquaintanceship. Contains 74 references.…

Rural regions include places where food sources are not evenly distributed, leading to areas of concentration and food desert--places where few or no grocery stores exist. Individuals are hypothesized to depend on personal connections and the civic structure of where they live to help them solve the problem of food insecurity. We find that…

Overview of the origins, development, rapid diffusion, and current usage of the concept of social capital in the literature. Focuses on three approaches to operationalizing the concept: those of James Coleman, Pierre Bourdieu, and Robert Putnam. Discusses social capital as a resource, as goal-oriented, and as a contributor to social control and…

A model of the impact of structural advantage and disadvantage on infant mortality rates was developed and fitted to county-level data. Advantage and disadvantage had significant direct effects on infant mortality in urban areas but had smaller indirect effects in rural areas, being mediated by rates of teenage childbearing and low birth weight.…

Interviews with 70 administrators in small Montana towns revealed that most civil administrators were women, while most legal and educational administrators were men. Gender and administrative position were related to attitudes toward social problems and effects of migration on community. Rural women may be selected for particular administrative…

Situational obstacles stemming from cultural and economic circumstances (migrant status, time away from school for work, etc.) were observed to have at least as much influence on the Mexican American child's educational and occupational aspirations as the more commonly stressed family interaction variables such as parental aspiration and emphasis…

Tests theoretical model suggesting that ratio of nonwhite to white rural population engaged in farming in Virginia can be determined by assessing extent to which black farm operators had access to land, labor, capital, and social status. Finds changing social forces of production have decreased the proportion of black farmers. (LFL)

Supporting a "structural relational" view of small business success, data from 423 small business owners in Iowa suggest that links between owner characteristics, social relational processes, business structure, and success operate differently depending on urban-rural location and owner sex. Female owners had more professional training…