The State of Rural Sociology as Presented in Four Periodicals – Rural Sociology, Sociologia Ruralis, Journal of Rural Studies, Eastern European Countryside

Abstract

This article is an analysis of differences and similarities between four English-language journals on rural sociology. The comparison covered topics discussed in about 600 articles published in the journals in the years 1995–2010 and the regional affiliation of their authors. In the comparison, all articles and texts on empirical research published in this period in Eastern European Countryside were considered. In total, 141 texts were published in this annual journal. Out of the three other journals (Rural Sociology, Sociologia Ruralis, Journal of Rural Studies) 50 articles for each of three periods: 1995–1996, 2002–2003, 2008–2009, were selected.
Results of the comparison show that the journals have strictly regional profiles, and that present rural sociology does not seem to be the science on social phenomena in world-wide rural areas. Rural sociology used in the four studied journals does not develop the knowledge that would be useful in solving problems of the rural population. In the three journals under study (Rural Sociology, Sociologia Ruralis, Journal of Rural Studies) almost exclusively sociology of rural areas in Western Europe and Northern America was developed, and their contributors were almost always authors from the two regions. The fourth journal – Eastern European Countryside – was concerned, adequately to its title, with rural phenomena in Central and Eastern Europe.