The Migration of Young Adults 1950-1963: South Dakota Counties, State Economics Areas and States in North Central Region

South Dakota was the second most rural state in the North Central Region1 in 1960 with 61 percent of the state \u27s population living in rural areas. Only North Dakota, with 65 percent rural population, surpassed South Dakota within the North Central Region. Throughout the United States, rural areas have been experiencing a definite loss of people through out-migration. South Dakota is no exception. Even though the state gained four percent in population from 1950 to 1960, there was a total net out-migration of slightly over 14 percent. There were 121,736 more births than deaths in South Dakota between 1950 and 1960. This natural growth produced a potential population of 774~476 for 1960, yet only 680,51 were living in the state in that year. Thus, the population grew only 27 ,774 instead of a possible 121,736. Out-migration accounted for this difference between the potential and the actual population increase. The net out –migration from South Dakota for the decade numbered 94,279.2 This figure is based on the estimated migration of the total population with no concern for variation with respect to different age groups or sex. Inasmuch as a general principle in population theory contends that migration is selective on the basis of both age and sex, the question arises as to which age groups and which sex have experienced the highest rates of population movement during the 1950-1960 decade. Our knowledge of population trends suggests that the highest rates of migration for the more rural states would be expected to be in the young adult segment of the population

Sociology of rural life

From fox-hunting to farming, the vigour with which rural activities and living are defended overturns received notions of a sleepy and complacent countryside. Alongside these developments, the rise of the organic food movement has helped to revitalize an already politicized rural population. Over the years 'rural life' has been defined, redefined and eventually fallen out of fashion as a sociological concept - in contrast to urban studies, which has flourished. This much-needed reappraisal calls for its reinterpretation in light of the profound changes affecting the countryside. First providing an overview of rural sociology, Hillyard goes on to offer contemporary case studies that clearly demonstrate the need for a reinvigorated rural sociology. Tackling a range of contentious issues, this book offers a new model for rural sociology and reassesses its role in contemporary society. Providing an overview of rural sociology, this title calls for the reinterpretation of rural life in light of the profound changes affecting the countryside. It offers case studies that demonstrate the need for a reinvigorated rural sociology. Tackling contentious issues, it presents a model for rural sociology and assesses its role in society. Sam Hillyard is Lecturer in Sociology, School of Applied Social Sciences, Durham University

Assessing Introductory Rural Sociology

This article reports on the results of an assessment of an introductory rural sociology course offered at two land-grant universities, which are very different in size. These institutions are North Carolina A&T State University and The Ohio State University. The authors use similar assessment tools, including an embedded pre and post test of knowledge gained, students’ written comments to open-ended questions administered at the end of term about the quality of the class and the instructors, and the traditional, standardized Student Evaluation of Instruction, an instrument used across many universities. In addition, at OSU, a small group diagnostic of students enrolled in introductory rural sociology was independently conducted by personnel from the university’s Center for the Advancement of Teaching. The results indicate that knowledge is gained, although post test results for some multiple choice questions were disappointing. Students’ written comments indicate that there was much about a sociological perspective applied to rural societies, communities, and peoples that they find interesting and about which they learned something. As well, students were uniformly positive about the way the courses were taught and graded. However, they were critical of the textbooks adopted by the instructors for both versions of the course, which they found inadequate because they were not rural-oriented in their content. The primary recommendation is for a follow-up assessment of various rural sociology courses and specific practices used by rural sociology instructors that include as many universities as possible, despite challenges this presents to development of a standardized methodology

Creating Entrepreneurship in Rural Sociology

Southern rural sociology finds itself at an important political, social, and economic juncture. Given present funding constraints, land grant university faculty working in rural sociology must assume a more entrepreneurial posture if the discipline in to survive the challenges that confront it. The emergence of the importance of policy analysis to the agenda of contemporary southern politics provides a market window for rural sociologists to contribute to the maintenance and enhancement of rural sociology in the region and to the present and future quality of life in the South. This paper examines these issues and proposes an entrepreneurial model for the discipline

Sociology of Rural Life

From fox-hunting to farming, the vigour with which rural activities and living are defended overturns received notions of a sleepy and complacent countryside. Alongside these developments, the rise of the organic food movement has helped to revitalize an already politicized rural population. Over the years 'rural life' has been defined, redefined and eventually fallen out of fashion as a sociological concept - in contrast to urban studies, which has flourished. This much-needed reappraisal calls for its reinterpretation in light of the profound changes affecting the countryside. First providing an overview of rural sociology, Hillyard goes on to offer contemporary case studies that clearly demonstrate the need for a reinvigorated rural sociology. Tackling a range of contentious issues, this book offers a new model for rural sociology and reassesses its role in contemporary society.Providing an overview of rural sociology, this title calls for the reinterpretation of rural life in light of the profound changes affecting the countryside. It offers case studies that demonstrate the need for a reinvigorated rural sociology. Tackling contentious issues, it presents a model for rural sociology and assesses its role in society.Sam Hillyard is Lecturer in Sociology, School of Applied Social Sciences, Durham University

Energy and the Rural Sociological Imagination

Energy is the lifeblood of any society. It drives a society’s material culture and the reproduction of that culture. It is essential for the production of food, shelter, clothing, and for transportation, trade, and communication. This article makes the case for a rural sociology of energy. Relative to the impact that energy issues have for rural places and people, energy, as a subject area, has been understudied by rural sociologists and is infrequently represented in the journals devoted to rural sociology and rural studies. Energy production and distribution activities such as coal mining, uranium mining, hydroelectric dams, wind farms, nuclear, biomass and ethanol production facilities, transmission lines, pipelines, shale gas development, and other energy related activities clearly have major implications for rural life. These activities affect power relations in local areas, landscape and amenity values, labor markets, economic development, income, poverty, health, mobility, and many other thematic areas that are common in rural sociology and rural studies. This article presents an analysis of energy related content to the major journals where rural sociologists publish, including Journal of Rural Social Science (formerly Journal of Southern Rural Sociology), Rural Sociology, Sociologia Ruralis, Journal of Rural Studies, the Journal of Rural and Community Development, and Society & Natural Resources. Some speculation is offered on historical reasons for the lack of attention to energy issues. The article ends with an invitation to turn our collective sociological imaginations toward an explicit rural sociology of energy across several themes and through several specific research questions

The State of Rural Sociology as Presented in Four Periodicals – Rural Sociology, Sociologia Ruralis, Journal of Rural Studies, Eastern European Countryside

This article is an analysis of differences and similarities between four English-language journals on rural sociology. The comparison covered topics discussed in about 600 articles published in the journals in the years 1995–2010 and the regional affiliation of their authors. In the comparison, all articles and texts on empirical research published in this period in Eastern European Countryside were considered. In total, 141 texts were published in this annual journal. Out of the three other journals (Rural Sociology, Sociologia Ruralis, Journal of Rural Studies) 50 articles for each of three periods: 1995–1996, 2002–2003, 2008–2009, were selected. Results of the comparison show that the journals have strictly regional profiles, and that present rural sociology does not seem to be the science on social phenomena in world-wide rural areas. Rural sociology used in the four studied journals does not develop the knowledge that would be useful in solving problems of the rural population. In the three journals under study (Rural Sociology, Sociologia Ruralis, Journal of Rural Studies) almost exclusively sociology of rural areas in Western Europe and Northern America was developed, and their contributors were almost always authors from the two regions. The fourth journal – Eastern European Countryside – was concerned, adequately to its title, with rural phenomena in Central and Eastern Europe