Technology and Social Change in Rural Areas: A Festschrift for Eugene A. Wilkening

ISBN-13: 9780367289669 / Angielski / Twarda / 2019 / 266 str.

Gene F Summers

Opis

The possibility of nuclear war, the failure of the Green Revolution, the capabilities of genetic engineering, and other actual and potential effects of technological innovations have created demands for a more humane application of technology. Addressing this issue, Technology and Social Change in Rural Areas is a clear assessment of the current state of affairs. The book begins with a discussion of the changing paradigms of technology adoption and diffusion, the dynamics of public resistance, and the question of social responsibility in an age of synthetic biology. In subsequent sections, the contributors assess the revolutionary effect of technology on agriculture worldwide and conclude that radically new public policies are essential; expose the transformations of rural life and communities that result from the localized effects of technology and its use as a weapon in world-system politics; and critically examine the appropriate technology movement. The essays are presented to honor Professor Eugene A. Wilkening for his many pioneering and lasting contributions to the study of technology and rural social change. The book includes an intellectual biography of Professor Wilkening written by his long-time colleague and friend, William H. Sewell.

Spis treści

Other Titles in This Series -- Eugene A. Wilkening: A Biographical Note -- Record of Achievements -- Introduction -- Adoption and Diffusion -- The Diffusion-Adoption Process in Agriculture: Changes in Technology and Changing Paradigms -- Public Protests Against Technological Innovations -- Biotechnology and Unnatural Selection: The Social Control of Genes -- Technology and the Structure of Agriculture -- Technology and U.S. Agriculture -- Beyond the Family Farm -- European Social Theory and the Agrarian Question: Towards a Sociology of Agriculture -- Policy Evolution and Current Crisis in Polish Agriculture -- Technology and Rural Life -- Agricultural Technology and Agrarian Community Organization -- Changes in the Social and Spatial Structure of the Rural Community -- Farm Family and the Role of Women -- The Appropriate Technology Movement -- Soft Tech/Hard Tech, Hi Tech/Lo Tech: A Social Movement Analysis of Appropriate Technology -- Soft Energy and Hard Labor? Structural Restraints on the Transition to Appropriate Technology -- Economic Effects of Technology in Agriculture in Less Developed Countries

O autorze

Gene F. Summers is professor of rural sociology, University of Wisconsin—Madison. His work on community changes associated with the restructuring of national economies has resulted in two books, Industrial Invasion of Nonmetropolitan America and Nonmetropolitan Economic Growth and Community Change.