Rural communities have experienced dramatic demographic, social, and economic transformations over the past 30 years. Historically characterized by close links between natural resources and social, cultural, and economic structures, few of today's rural communities remain heavily dependent upon traditional extractive industries like ranching,…

Examines how information about rural life in social work literature can be integrated into a more complete understanding of rural social work. Explains how this understanding should effect the education of those who will be rural social workers. (Author)

Reviews two recent publications about the revival of rural population growth through net migration into nonmetropolitan areas, focusing on nonmetro population changes, age, educational attainment, labor force participation, occupational and industrial changes, income changes, and housing. Lists 34 relevant publications addressing general…

Rural sociology confronts a continuing crisis of identity because of its failure to develop a sociology of agriculture. Despite an initial focus on agriculture, rural sociology became deflected to the analysis of rurality. Several neo-Populist and neo-Marxist developments in the sociology of agriculture hold promise for a revised rural sociology.…

Reviews themes developed in the literature on urban-rural migration and articulates emerging research questions that relate to the concept of quality of life. Addresses the implications of quality of life considerations for the decision making of urban-to-rural migrants. Explores changes produced by migration-induced population growth in rural…

Examines the need to reconsider spatial conceptualizations and categories such as urban-rural and core-periphery in light of two recent trends: migration out of cities and the geographic redistribution of economic activities. Suggests that these trends and related policy issues would be better articulated in a regional or local economy framework.…

Examines and explains unexpected population trends since 1970: substantial rural and small-town growth, regional shifts to the South and West, lower birth rates, increased life expectancy, smaller household size, and population growth from immigration. Illustrates how demographic events offer classic examples of the difficulty of predicting human…

The nine chapters in the book focus on the 1970s' metropolitan to nonmetropolitan migration stream and address both population patterns and processes and the impacts and policy issues associated with the resulting population redistribution in the Midwest. Peter A. Morrison places the Midwest in the national context of changing population structure…

Presents a collective behavior model for examining the population turnaround (urban to rural migration) of the 1960s/1970s as a specific form of mass movement. Specifies the value-added process that produced this particular episode at this particular point in social history. Explores factors influencing decline in turnaround migration. (Author/MH)

Findings from current literature form the basis for this examination of five critical elements of change and development within the local community setting which impact on agriculture: population, employment, land, water, and environment. Renewed rural population growth during the 1970's has reversed small farm trends but placed strains on local…

Discusses implications of population turnaround, reverse migration for societal polarization, human resources based economy, and rural/urban segmentation on the new socioeconomic role of rural areas. Identifies an interrelated public policy model composed of local community, human resources, technical inputs, and integrating institutions to…

An examination of trends in the service industries, as determined by U.S. Bureau of the Census figures (1970-77), reveals it to be the fastest growing sector in the economy, both nationally and rurally. Employment in this sector increased 24% nationally and accounted for 74% of the net gain in nonmetropolitan employment; growth was at least 65%…

The recent, widespread trend toward rural migration can create disturbances in the organization of the host community by overloading community services and by creating conflict between oldtimers and newcomers. To obtain information about community disturbances and migration in Michigan, questionnaires were sent to a random sample of 21,792…

This report measures the amount of black migration from and to the nonmetropolitan parts of the United States south from 1965-70 and 1990-95. It considers trends both within the south and with the rest of the nation. For perspective, comparisons are made with the movement of the non-black population, more than 90 percent of which is white. In the…

A number of potential consequences are discussed (problems of social integration, fiscal effects, land utilization issues) and the analytic utility of a social systems perspective is examined. Understanding the reversal phenomenon and its sociocultural impacts, it is suggested, represents a formidable research challenge for rural sociologists.…