A realist approach is developed to enable a detailed interpretation of the process of village appraisals at the national and local level, focusing upon the wider national structures and the ways these are shaped by the distinctive characteristics of individual localities and the people and groups who live there. This study focuses on the county of Northamptonshire, which has a long history of self-help and where village appraisals have been taken up with particular enthusiasm.;Given the shift towards local governance in the past two decades, and a growing emphasis on individual and community responsibility and procedures such as the village appraisal which mobilize local skills and resources and empower rural communities from the structures of government, the study involves a detailed investigation of the relationships which currently exist between the statutory authorities and local communities with specific reference to the village appraisal. Further research using participant observation of over 30 steering group meetings in three case-study villages, supported by a survey of over 300 households and 40 interviews with parish councillors and steering group members, gave detailed insights into the means by which local people were availed of the opportunity to participate in the village appraisal process and to shape its content and structure.;The key conclusions indicate that significant tensions are evident in the attitudes of local government agencies, particularly in how they might participate in the village appraisal process and what forms that participation should take. At the local level, the notion of participation, seen as an integral part of rural life, is shown as illusory with most villages and villagers choosing not to become involved. As a result most appraisals are conducted by small elites within the village, often with the token involvement of the population through a questionnaire survey.

Orientador: Marcelo Siqueira Ridenti / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-18T04:05:51Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Santos_Robsondos_D.pdf: 2298399 bytes, checksum: b49a2cc49a0b9edfa1b2f7a70ca3ddd0 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011 / Resumo: Entre 1945 e 1964, a literatura brasileira comporta uma variedade significativa de romances de temática rural. Tal problemática irrompe nos textos expressando os processos sociais de lutas no campo, as relações e valorações peculiares ao contexto rural, as conseqüências da industrialização e as dualidades em relação à urbanização. As narrativas do rural na literatura exprimem as distintas opções estéticas e políticas dos escritores brasileiros desafiados pelas dinâmicas entre o mundo rural e o urbano em um momento chave da modernização. A partir da análise de nove romances escritos no período, a pesquisa buscou reconstruir as disputas, posições e opções narrativas que se revelam nos conteúdos das obras, que desenvolvem representações plurais sobre o mundo rural. A tese indagou como o rural irrompe nas obras escolhidas e como isto se associa aos processos sociais "exteriores" ao universo literário, como as ideologias, a política, as ciências sociais. A partir daí, a investigação apreendeu as formalizações literárias distintas feitas então sobre o rural. Isto foi possível a partir da construção sociológica de tipologias para a análise dos romances, denominadas narrativas da limitação e narrativas da revolução. Estas tipologias permitiram entender a correlação entre a experiência de cada autor e as condições políticas, econômicas e intelectuais que caracterizavam o período, haja vista que as obras analisadas foram tomadas como sínteses de pensamentos e formas de reconstrução do mundo social. Elas possibilitaram também nomear e interpretar com mais especificidade as diferenças entre as obras / Abstract: Between 1945 and 1964, Brazilian literature encompasses a significant variety of rural-themed novels. The thematic appears in the texts expressing social processes of struggle in the countryside, relationships and values peculiar to the rural context, the consequences of industrialization and the ambivalence towards the processes of urbanization and modernization. Narratives of "the rural" in literature express the distinct aesthetic and political choices of Brazilian authors, challenged by the dynamics relating the rural and the urban world in a key moment in Brazilian modernization process. Based on the analysis of nine novels written in the period, the survey sought to rebuild the disputes, positions and narrative options revealed by the oeuvres' contents, which build pluralistic representations on the countryside. The thesis inquired how the countryside erupts in the selected works and how this could be associated with social processes beyond the literary world such as ideologies, politics and social sciences. Thereafter, the investigation tried to capture the different literary formalizations created then regarding the countryside. This was made possible by the sociological construction of a typology for the novels' analysis. The use of two types, named "limiting narratives" and "narratives of the revolution", allowed us to understand the correlation between the experience of each author and the political, economic and intellectual context that characterized the period, considering that the analyzed works were treated as synthesis of thoughts and ways of rebuilding the social world. Through this typology we were also able to characterize and nominate with greater specificity the differences between the oeuvres / Doutorado / Trabalho, Cultura e Ambiente / Doutor em Sociologia

Food hubs, a new model of values-based agro-food enterprise, are promoted by their advocates as a means to simultaneously improve the livelihoods of small and mid-sized farmers, increase the social and environmental sustainability of the food system, and supply the ever increasing consumer demand for health, local food. Noting the contradictions embedded in the promise of simultaneously generating both social values and economic value, this study explores how goals of promoting positive social, economic, or environmental change are achieved and/or inhibited when implemented though marketbased activities. Through a series of three in-depth case studies of food hubs in the Southeastern United States, the three papers compiled in this dissertation investigate how food hubs work to realize abstract non-financial goals (e.g. ‘helping family farmers’, ‘promoting sustainable food systems’) through the mundane work of food aggregation and distribution. Particular attention is paid to the experiences of mid-sized farmers who participate in food hubs, and the historic, material, and subjective processes that influence the development of food hubs and their many stakeholders. Highlighting the tensions and negotiations inherent to the hybrid social-and-monetary work of food hubs, I assert the need for an analytical framework that can account for the more-than-financial dimensions of economic and ethical praxis. To that end, I draw on the theories of J.K. Gibson-Graham to suggest that food hubs are best understood as a form of post-capitalist enterprise situated within a community agro-food economy, wherein reciprocal and interdependent relationships are forged between new economic subjects through deliberate and ongoing negotiation of care via the process and outcomes of diverse economic activity.

This thesis explores the relationship between social networks and economic life in rural Zambia. The motivation for the study lies in the crucial role played by social context and social networks in exchange behaviour in rural sub-Saharan Africa, and inherent difficulties in formalising market transactions in this context within a standard neoclassical economics framework. The study examines the role of social networks in rural production systems, focusing on crop market participation. It is based on analysis of findings from social network research conducted by the author in three predominantly Bemba villages in Northern Province, Zambia. Data collected using quantitative and qualitative methods are used to map social networks of individuals and households. Variables are constructed capturing network characteristics, and incorporated into transactions cost models of ommercialisation. The overarching question is: do social networks play a role in determining farming success in settings with little variability between households on assets and endowments – land, labour, inputs – and where markets are incomplete or missing? Do social networks mediate market and resource access, helping to explain socio-economic differences between households? The research finds rural life is characterised by diverse networks with multiple, overlapping functions. Much economic exchange takes place on reciprocal or kinship bases, rooted in social norms and reflecting community structures. How social networks are measured matters. Different network attributes are important for different people, and relationships between networks and outcomes depend on the measure used. Controlling for endogeneity, estimation results suggest larger networks have a negative effect on crop incomes whereas having a greater proportion of kin in the network has a positive effect, implying that in this context strong ties are key. Qualitative research suggests the nature of people's networks and their positions within them play an important role in the command over labour: “the famous always get their work done".

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2008. / Title from first page of PDF file (viewed Aug. 8, 2008). Available via ProQuest Digital Dissertations. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 231-236).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin, 1965. / Extension Repository Collection. Typescript (photocopy). Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 195-203).

In this thesis, I explore how white producers of U.S. agriculture’s top commodity—cattle—understand participation in government farm programs. As such, the central research question guiding this research is: how do white Mississippi cattle producers portray their decisions to pursue (or not pursue) government farm programs? Specifically, I offer insights into how farmers reconcile tension between being independent/self-sufficient and accepting government subsidies. Using data from 289 hours of participant observation at agricultural events and 33 interviews with producers, I examine sociologically how these understandings of farm program participation relate to producers’ ideological notions of “success” and how race and gender shape these understandings.

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