De invloed van veranderingen in de landbouw op de samenleving in ontwikkelde en in ontwikkelingsgebieden

Samenvatting

An account of the 1st World Congress of Agri'al Sociol, held simultaneously with the 4th Congress of the European Society for Ru Sociol at Dijon (France) in Aug 1964. The organizer of the congress, M. Cepede of Paris Nat'l Instit of Agronomy, presented the theme of the gathering. Following the scheme of C. Zimmermann, he held that there are at least 3 diff types of Ru society; Ru sociol dealt with their interrelations. The contributions to the congress dealt with 4 special themes. (1) Demographic changes & their influences on soc structures. J. A. Beagle (Michigan) presented his views on the influence of the growth of pop in the US on the patterns of Ru & Ur occup; J. Poirier, J. Pautard & J. W. Lapierre all dealt with Madagascar: the difficulties for patriarchal societies through a relative increase of youth; problems created by the introduction of new techniques & org'al forms; difficulties of individual parcelling of lands traditionally held in common. (2) The influence of agri'al changes on values & aims. F. Petrini (Sweden) noted a falling religiosity accompanying technological improvement; Fukutaki (Japan) contrasted prewar conditions, when the gov was influenced by physiocratic ideas, & the postwar yrs when complete modernization of agriculture became the aim. (3) The functional changes in agri'al societies. Here the issue was whether the polarization Ur/Ru was a static or a dynamic one. H. Williams (Swansea) presented the problem theoretically; R. Stavenhagen (Brazil) outlined the possibilities of studying diff types of 'folk society' by the method of 'comparative statics.' (4) The influence of agri'al changes on pol. H. Mendras (Paris) tried to explain the apparent paradox that agri, as it becomes a relatively less important part of the economy, has an ever larger influence in nat'l & internat'l pol, by the growing politization of the peasants. The final session of the congress was devoted to the role & function of agri'al sociol. It was defined as an applied sci with 3 phases: (a) description of practical problems; (b) sociol'al investigation of the data; (c) practical application of these investigations. G. T. Castillo (Philippines) presented a practical application of this theoretical scheme to problems of an underdeveloped country. I. Langnas.