Most incoming undergraduates have little or no idea what sociology is all about, and many have never heard of the field at all. Here's a brief description of the field of sociology, and of why many students in the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences are interested in studying sociology and rural sociology.
Sociology is the application of the scientific method to studying how societies are organized, how societies change, and how social organization and social changes affect individuals, groups, and communities. Sociology is uniquely suited to exploring how factors such as new technologies, changing cultural values, shifting political systems, and fluctuations in economies are affecting our lives. The goal of sociological theory and research is to both explain and predict major changes in economic organization, politics, and cultural values, and to understand how these changes affect all of us as individuals and citizens, as members of families and communities, and as members of the global community.
Rural sociologists focus on a specific set of issues (see below) that are of interest to many students in the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences. The perspective of rural sociology provides a broad view of how forces such as new technologies, globalization, changing social values, public policies, and the rise of new social movements (for example, environmental, gender, farm, and ethnicity/cultural identity movements) are related to each other, and how these forces affect rural people and communities. In addition, rural sociologists study local and practical issues such as rural community development, land use conflicts, the application of demographic methods to community planning, and the design of more locally oriented food systems.
Rural sociology is a branch of sociology that focuses on a number of fascinating and critically important issues-such as social influences on environmental conservation and natural resource consumption, the changing distribution of population across rural and metropolitan communities, the changing role of women workers in rural industries, why there are conflicts over new technologies such as genetically modified organism crops (often called "GMOs" or "GM foods"), and the degree to which progress is being made in the development of low-income countries, to name just a few.
Rural sociologists study rural people and the multitude of issues that pertain to rural (or relatively non-urbanized) areas, as well as issues, such as urban sprawl and loss of farmland, that involve relationships between urban and rural groups. The University of Wisconsin Department of Rural Sociology places major emphasis on the study of human influences on natural resources and environmental quality (what we call "environmental sociology"). Other topics stressed by Wisconsin rural sociologists include the changing rural and urban populations of Wisconsin, patterns of poverty and well-being among rural minorities, and the social impacts of new technologies. A growing emphasis is the study of the implications of globalization for rural people, for the environment, and for the well-being of low-income countries. Not surprisingly, rural sociology also includes the study of farm people and the organization of agriculture (what we call the "sociology of agriculture"). Note that while Americans often perceive that farming is no longer a very important part of modern society, food and agriculture account for about 20 percent of the nation's economic activity. And across the world today about half of its people are engaged in agriculture. Other rural sociologists study the non-farm part of the food system (what we call "food systems") and issues such as what factors shape peoples' choices of foods and diet.
The Rural Sociology Major prepares students for jobs in which they can make contributions to addressing important social issues.
The Rural Sociology Major leads to careers in which young people can do positive things to address important issues that affect communities and people in our state, the nation, and the world. Examples of the jobs taken by recent B.S. graduates are: (1) Legal Advocate, Walworth County Association for the Prevention of Family Violence, (2) Director of Policy Development, Wisconsin Farmers Union, (3) Survey Research Supervisor, Wisconsin Survey Research Center, UW-Madison; and (4) Natural Resources Research Scientist, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. Other Rural Sociology majors have double-majored in another field (such as education, nursing, or wildlife ecology) and have gone on to take positions in related professions such as elementary school teaching, health care, and natural resources management. In addition, many Rural Sociology graduates go on to graduate study in sociology or a related field, or go to professional schools such as law or social work.
The Department of Rural Sociology has a large number of courses open to freshmen. The Department teaches an introductory-level rural sociology course (RS 140) each fall semester, plus five or so 200-level courses that are open to first-year students and have no prerequisites. Be sure to take a Rural Sociology course in your area of interest, and while you are doing so you might think about majoring in Rural Sociology.
In addition to Rural Sociology 140, Introduction to Rural Sociology and Development-a fall-semester course that surveys rural social issues in developing countries as well as the U.S.-the Department of Rural Sociology regularly teaches five 200-level courses that are open to first-year students: Rural Sociology 215 (Gender and Work in Rural America); Rural Sociology 222 (Food, Culture and Society); Rural Sociology 230 (Agriculture and Social Change in Western History); Rural Sociology 248 (Environment, Natural Resources, and Community); and Rural Sociology 266 (People and Places: The Demography of Rural America). In addition, a new 200-level course entitled Technology and Society will be taught for the first time in 2002-03. The new Technology and Society course will be of particular interest to students in the agricultural-technology-oriented majors (such as agronomy, plant pathology, or animal sciences), the natural resource majors (such as forest ecology and management and wildlife ecology), and the basic biology majors (biology, biochemistry, genetics, and bacteriology).
Contact us at:
Department of Rural Sociology
University of Wisconsin-Madison
1450 Linden Drive, Room 350,
Madison, WI 53706
www: http:// www.drs.wisc.edu
email: web @ drs.wisc.edu
phone: 608-262-1510
fax: 608-262-6022
We will be pleased to send a brochure, a summary of the requirements of the major, biographical sketches of the rural sociology faculty, and a sample first year curriculum.
