Sociology Definition - The systematic study of human society and social interaction.

A society is a large social grouping that shares the same geographical territory and is subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations.

Sociological Imagination The ability to see the relationship between individual experiences and the larger society. Private v. Public Issues

Stereotypes

Rural Sociology Examining the relationships among non-metro. populations. Behaviours Traditions Trends Climate Constructs

Rural Sociology Rural sociology is a field of sociology associated with the study of social life in non-metropolitan areas. It is the scientific study of social arrangements and behaviour among people distanced from points of concentrated population or economic activity.

Rural Sociology In contrast to rural sociology, urban sociology is the study of urban social life. Agribusiness is one focus of rural sociology and much of the field is dedicated to the economics of farm production. (Coffey, 1982)

Rural Sociology Other areas of study include rural migration and other demographic patterns, environmental sociology, amenity-led development, public lands policies, so-called "boomtown" development, social disruption, the sociology of natural resources, rural health care and education polices, etc..(Coffey, 1982)

Rural Sociology Sociologists define "rural" as those areas which are not urban in nature. The line between urban and rural is quite arbitrary, although rural sociologists in America often use the U.S. Census Bureau's definition of rural as being an area of fewer than 1000 people per square mile.

Rural Sociology The 2000 Census reported that rural America was home to nearly 21% of the U.S. population (59,274,000 people). Recent research has examined the "rural" and the "urban" as linked parts of a dialectical discourse

Rural Sociological Society (RSS) By this time pretty much everybody knows that 2012 is the 75th Anniversary of the founding of the Rural Sociological Society and that our meetings will be held in the same hotel where the RSS was launched in 1937.  75th Anniversary Meeting in Chicago at the Palmer House Hilton http://ruralsociology.org/

Rural Sociology What you may not realize is that 2012 is also the 150th Anniversary of the founding of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the federal agency that has primary responsibility for the quality of life in rural America.