CONTEMPORARY DEVELOPMENTS IN RURAL LIFE IN EUROPE

Summary Contemporary Developments in Rural Life in Europe Running through a great deal of discussion in contemporary rural sociology in Europe is to be found the question: “Will there be a genuine rural‐urban difference in the Europe of the future?” It is against the background of an ever‐developing urban‐industrial society that what is called rural society is increasingly studied. In America an analogous development has led rural sociologists to formulate a new interpretation of rural life, in which the key concept is urbanised social organisation, in the sense that rural people as well as urban are said to live in the same essential pattern of social organisation. Should this tendency be carried to its logical extremes, there would be little future for a specifically rural sociology or rural life in Europe. It is for this reason that a good deal of heart‐searching is going on in the ranks of European rural sociologists at the present time. There is a real danger that rural sociology could become almost exclusively a descriptive and adaptative excursus in the processes of an urbanising society. If this danger exists it is due in large measure to a lack of an adequate conceptual apparatus such as would ensure due definition and orientation to studies. This situation is reflected in a noticeable concentration on micro‐social as against macro‐social studies, with the result that rural sociologists are far from certain as to what indeed is, rural society as such. The reasons for this situation are connected with the pragmatic origins of rural sociology, both in America and Europe, and with a general reaction to the exaggerated conceptualisation and systematisation of earlier theoretical sociology. There is need for a renewed effort at an understanding of the meaning and nature of rural society as such. In particular, the question should be asked whether it is possible to develop a progressive rural society, yet one that is not characterised by an urban social organisation in the specific city sense? In undertaking this task, rural sociology should place more emphasis than has been customary on an understanding of rural life and society through an understanding of rural people. This calls for the use of the techniques of social psychology, anthropology, etc. as well as those of strict sociology. It calls also for the bestowing of more attention than is usual on the ‘guiding images’, ‘goals’, and ‘values’ of different rural societies in different parts of Europe.