Abstract
In a previous chapter, we suggested that the human ecological perspective can facilitate explanation of significant aspects of the structure of agriculture in the United States and external phenomena that impact America’s agriculturally dependent rural areas. In this chapter, we present two empirical analyses that derive from the human ecological perspective. The first examines the impact of the internationalization of agriculture on the rural United States. The second explores the implications of use of irrigation technology for the structure of agriculture and agriculturally dependent rural communities in the Great Plains. We have drawn these particular examples largely from our previous research (Murdock et al. 1991; Albrecht and Murdock 1986b), because they provide an apt demonstration of the utility of the human ecological perspective. Nevertheless, they represent only preliminary steps toward establishing a more complete human ecology of United States agriculture.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Albrecht, Don E., & Murdock, Steve H. (1984). Toward a human ecological perspective on part-time farming. Rural Sociology, 49, 389 - 411.
Albrecht, Don E., & Murdock, Steve H. (1985b). The consequences of irrigation development in the Great Plains, Department of Rural Sociology Technical Report 85-I. College Station, TX: Texas Agricultural Experiment Station.
Albrecht, Don E., & Murdock, Steve H. (1986). Natural resource availability and social change. Sociological Inquiry, 56, 381 - 400.
Beale, Calvin L. (1979). Demographic aspects of agricultural structure. In Economics, statistics and cooperatives service, structure issues of American agriculture (pp. 80-85), Economics, Statistics, and Cooperative Service Agricultural Economic Report 438. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Beale, Calvin L. (1980). The changing nature of rural employment. In D. L. Brown & J. W. Wardwell (Eds.), New directions in urban-rural migration (pp. 37 - 49 ). New York: Academic Press.
Berardi, G. M. (1981). Socio-economic consequences of agricultural mechanization in the United States: Needed redirections for mechanization research. Rural Sociology, 46, 483 - 504.
Buttel, F. H. (1985). Biotechnology and genetic information: Implications for rural people and the institutions that serve them. The Rural Sociologist, 5, 68 - 78.
Buttel, F. H., Kloppenburg, Jr., J., Kenney, M., & Cowan, J. T. (1983). Genetic engineering and the restructuring of agricultural research. The Rural Sociologist, 3, 132 - 144.
Casey, J., Lacewell, R. D., & Jones, L. L. (1975). Impact oflimited fuel supplies on agricultural output and net returns: Southern high plains of Texas, MP-1175. College Station, TX: Texas Agricultural Experiment Station.
Duncan, Otis D., Scott, W. R., Lieberson, S., Duncan, B., & Winsborough, H. H. (1960). Metropolis and region. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Eberstein, Isaac W., & Frisbie, W. Parker. (1982). Metropolitan function and interdependence in the U.S. urban system. Social Forces, 60, 676 - 700.
Frisbie, W. Parker. (1984). Data and methods in human ecology. In M. Micklin & H. M. Choldin (Eds.), Sociological human ecology (pp. 125 - 178 ). Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Frisbie, W. Parker, & Clarke, C. J. (1979). Technology in evolutionary and ecological perspective: Theory and measurement at the societal level. Social Forces, 58, 591 - 613.
Frisbie, W. Parker, & Kasarda, J. D. (1988). Spatial processes. In Neil Smelser (Ed.), Handbook of modern sociology (pp. 629 - 666 ). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Frisbie, W. Parker, & Poston, Jr., Dudley L. (1976). The structure of sustenance organization and population change in nonmetropolitan America. Rural Sociology, 41, 354 - 370.
Gibbs, Jack P., & Martin, Walter T. (1959). Toward a theoretical system of human ecology. Pacific Sociological Review, 2, 29 - 36.
Hamilton, H. C. (1939). The social effect of recent trends in the mechanization of agriculture. Rural Sociology, 4, 3 - 19.
Hawley, Amos H. (1950). Human ecology: A theory of community structure. New York: Ronald Press. Hawley, Amos H. (1971). Urban society: An ecological approach. New York: Ronald Press.
Heaton, T. B., & Brown, D. L. (1982). Farm structure and energy intensity: Another look. Rural Sociology, 47, 17 - 31.
Johansen, H. E., & Fuguitt, G. V. (1984). The changing rural village in America: Demographic and economic trends since 1950. Cambridge, MA: Ballinger.
Kloppenburg, J., Jr. (1984). The social impacts of biogenetic technology in agriculture: past and future. In G. M. Berardi & C. C. Geisler (Eds.), The social consequences and challenges of new agricultural technologies (pp. 291 - 321 ). Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Kloppenburg, J., Jr. (1988). First the seed: The political economy ofplant biotechnology, 1492 - 2000. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.
Lagrone, W. F. (1979). The Great Plains. In L. P. Shertz (Ed.), Another revolution in U.S. farming? (pp. 335-361). Agricultural Economic Report No. 441. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economics, Statistics, and Cooperatives Service.
Mattila, John M., & Thompson, Wilbur R. (1955). The measurement of the economic base of the metropolitan area. In J. P. Gibbs (Ed.), Urban research methods (pp. 329 - 348 ). Princeton, NJ: D. Van Nostrand.
Murdock, Steve H., Bockman, Kenneth, Hwang, Sean-Shong, & Hamm, Rita R. (1991). International dimensions of post-1980 internal migration in the United States: The role of sustenance specialization and dominance. Sociological Inquiry, 61, 491 - 504.
Murdock, Steve H., Hogue, Md. Nazrul, & Bockman, Kenneth. (1993). Determinants of 1980 to 1990 net migration in Texas counties: The role of sustenance specialization and dominance in international ecosystems. Rural Sociology, 58, 190 - 209.
Namboodiri, Krishnan. (1988). Ecological demography: Its place in sociology. American Sociological Review, 53, 619 - 633.
Paarlberg, D. (1980). Farm and food policy: Issues of the 1980s. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
Petersen, Trond. (1991). In Peter V. Marsden (Ed.), Sociological methodology: 1991 (pp. 263 - 290 ). Oxford, England: Basil Blackwell.
Sauvant, Karl P. (1986). International transactions in services: The politics of transborder data flows. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Sloggett, G. (1979). Energy and U.S. agriculture: Irrigation pumping, 1974-77, Agricultural Economic Report No. 4367. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economics, Statistics, and Cooperatives Service.
Stone, M. P. (1977). Effects of center pivot irrigation on land use, land tenure, and settlement patterns on a selected Great Plains landscape, the Holt table portion of Holt County, Nebraska. Ph.D. dissertation. Manhattan, KS: University of Kansas, Department of Geography and Meteorology.
Tuma, Nancy B., & Hannan, Michael T. (1984). Social dynamics: Models and methods. London: Academic Press.
United Nations. (1985). 1983 international trade statistics yearbook. New York: Department of International Economic and Social Affairs Statistical Office.
United States Bureau of the Census. (1987). County business patterns, 1974-1985 technical documentation. Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office, Data User Services Division.
United States Department of Commerce. (1986). United States trade: Performance in 1985 and outlook. Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office.
Wu, Lawrence L., & Tuma, Nancy B. (1991). In Clifford Clogg (Ed.), Sociological methodology: 1990 (pp. 141 - 180 ). Oxford, England: Basil Blackwell.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1998 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Murdock, S.H., Albrecht, D.E. (1998). An Ecological Investigation of Agricultural Patterns in the United States. In: Micklin, M., Poston, D.L. (eds) Continuities in Sociological Human Ecology. The Springer Series on Demographic Methods and Population Analysis. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-9841-8_16
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-9841-8_16
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-4757-9843-2
Online ISBN: 978-1-4757-9841-8
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive