FROM A RURAL SOCIOLOGY CRISIS TO AN AGRICULTURAL SOCIOLOGY EMERGENCE: REMARKS BASED ON THE NORTH AMERICAN EXPERIENCE

Abstract

This paper introduces the main features of the Sociology of Agriculture, a still narrowly-defined academic field born especially in the United States in recent years. The article intends to describe its theoretical and methodological framework and also the agenda of relevant themes researchers informed by Sociology of Agriculture have preferred to investigate. It is divided into three sections: firstly, it discusses the birth of a tradition rooted on "community studies" (based upon the conventional rural-urban continuum), wich was followed by "diffusionist theories", in particular after the Second World War, and the ensuing crises of conventional "rural sociology", in the seventies and afterwards. A second section summarizes the emergence of research efforts and theoretical discussion embodied under this new perspective, as an alternative route to analyze social processes in agrarian domains. A especial focus is directed to its academic and institutional origins and the political context that favoured its development in recent years. A final section investigates the "new political economy" that is claimed to be the founding premises of Sociology of Agriculture. To conclude, the article discusses some challenges faced by the short history of this new approach and its possible implications for a sociology interested in social process in Brazilian agrarian areas.