Rural and Community Sociology

A Graduate Area Specialization in NCSU's
Department of Sociology and Anthropology

Nonmetro and Metro Counties in the U.S. (Source:Ronald C. Wimberley and Libby V. Morris, 1997, The Southern Black Belt: A National Perspective, Lexington: TVA Rural Studies Press.)

At what time in our nation's history were there the most rural people?

It is now! According to recent censuses, over 60 million Americans are rural. Although the percentage of rural people keeps going down, their numbers keep going up.

Still, rural people and communities usually lag behind their metropolitan counterparts in socioeconomic and life conditions. This is especially the case for the people and places of the U.S. South and its Black Belt and Appalachian subregions.

The Southern Black Belt in National Perspective.

And, at no time have so many consumers relied so much upon the natural resources of rural areas, or upon so few farmers who produce our food and fiber.

While many rural areas and communities are agricultural, most are not. Rather, they are natural resource areas. They contain forests, mining, fishing, recreation, and related manufacturing. Environmental issues play a major role in rural areas for they supply and renew the environmental resources essential for both urban and rural society to exist.

Rural and community quality-of-life, along with family and individual well-being, continue to be research and policy issues for the United States and globally. So, too, is the basic social necessity to produce and distribute food and natural resources for rural and urban consumers. While agricultural policy is important for rural and urban farming regions, rural policy must reach beyond agriculture.

Our graduate area in rural and community sociology addresses these sociological issues through research, theory, policy development, and application.

Job Placements of Rural and Community Sociology Graduate Students Include:

Professor, Ohio State University
Assistant Professor, NC A&T State University
President, sociological consulting firm in Washington, D.C.
Program Analyst, U.S. General Accounting Office
Program Director, U.S. General Accounting Office
Professor, Appalachian State University
Research Director, South Carolina Department of Natural Resources
Research Analyst, NC Governor's Sentencing Commission
Chair, Department of Research Methodology, St. Louis University
Educational Analyst, Research Triangle Institute
Program Director, NC Rural Economic Development Center
Research Associate Professor, UNC-Chapel Hill
Professor, East Carolina State University
Associate Professor, North Carolina State University
Professor, University of Florida
and many others

Faculty in Rural and Community Sociology

Feinian Chen

Associate Professor
Ph.D., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2001
317 1911 Bldg, (919) 513-7405, email: feinian_chen@ncsu.edu
Curriculum Vitae

Current research focus: Family and life course, Demography, Aging, Research methods and statistics, Gender and inequality.

Publications:

• Chen, Feinian. 2005. Employment Transitions and the Household Division of Labor in China. Social Forces. Forthcoming.
• Chen, Feinian. 2005. Family Context and Transition to First Birth in Contemporary China. In Dudley L. Poston, Jr., Chiung-Fang Chang, Sherry L. McKibben, Carol S. Walther, and Che-Fu Lee (editors), Fertility, Family Planning, and Population Control in China. London: Routledge Publishers. Forthcoming.
• Chen, Feinian. 2005. Residential Patterns of Parents and Their Married Children in Contemporary China: A Life Course Approach. Population Research and Policy Review 24: 125-148.
• Chen, Feinian. 2004. The Division of Labor between Generations of Women in Rural China. Social Science Research 33: 557-580.
• Curran, Patrick, Kenneth Bollen, Feinian Chen, Pamela Paxton, and James Kirby. 2003. The Finite Sampling Properties of the RMSEA: Point Estimates and Confidence Intervals. Sociological Methods and Research 32: 208-252.

William B. Clifford

Professor
Ph.D., University of Kentucky, 1969
308 1911 Bldg, (919) 515-9000, email: william_clifford@ncsu.edu
Curriculum Vitae

Current research focus: Demography, Ecology, Environmental Sociology.

Publications:

• A Case Study of the Socioeconomic Impacts of Technology Transfer on a Philippine Company: Eliminating Aflatoxin in Peanut-Based Products, with Robert L. Moxley, C.F. Galvez and M. L. Francisco. Paper presented at the annual meetings of the Southern Association of Agricultural Scientists and the Southern Rural Sociological Association, Orlando, Florida, February, 2006.
• NC Farm Operators’ Adoption of Nutrient Management Practices, with Thomas J. Hoban and Alyssa Wittenborn. Final report for the NC Division of Water Quality, 319 Grant Contract EW05043, January, 2006.
• The Adoption of New Peanut Nutrition Technology in the Philippines: A Socioeconomic Impact Assessment, with Robert L. Moxley, C. Jicha, and others. Paper presented at the 4th annual meetings Hawaii International Social Science Conference, Honolulu, Hawaii. June, 2005.
• Vitamin A Fortification of Peanut Butter in the Philippines: Socioeconomic Impacts on Families, with F. Galvez, L. Francisco, R. Moxley, L. Palomar, M. Aquino and K. Jicha. Final report for P-CRSP grant No. RC710-013/4092104 submitted to the University of Georgia P-CRSP Management Program Office, Griffin, Georgia, September, 2004.
• Socioeconomic Impact Assessment of Vitamin A Fortification, with Robert Moxley, Carl Jicha and others. Paper presented at the annual meetings of the Rural Sociological Society. 2004.
• Environmental World View and Behavior: Consequences of Dimensionality in a Survey of North Carolinians, with J.E. Nooney, E. Woodrum, and T.J. Hoban. Environment and Behavior, 35 (6): 763-779, 2003.
• Environmental Behavior: What are the Religious Effects?, with Eric Woodrum and Thomas J. Hoban. Paper presented at the annual meetings of the Southern Sociological Society. 2003.

Thomas J. Hoban

Professor, Iowa State University, 1986
313 1911 Bldg, email: tom_hoban@ncsu.edu
Curriculum Vitae

Current research interests: Applied Sociology, Community, Environmental Sociology,
Social Change, Social Movements.

Edward L. Kick

Professor, Ph.D., Indiana University at Bloomington, 1980
316 1911 Bldg, (919) 513-0282, email: elkick@ncsu.edu
Curriculum Vitae

Current research focus: Global and Community, Development, Crime, Political, Organizations, Environment.

Publications:

• Jorgensen and Edward Kick (eds.). (2006). Globalization and the Environment. Leiden, England: Brill Academic Publishers.
• Thomas Burns and Edward Kick. (2006). The Sociological Tradition. Under contract with Allyn and Bacon.
• Kick, Edward L., Byron Davis and Jeffrey Kentor. (2006). A Cross-National Analysis of Militarization and Inequality. Forthcoming in Summer in Journal of Political and Military Sociology.
• Davis, Byron and Edward L. Kick. (2006). Changing Scores, Composites, and Reliability Issues in Cross-National Development Research. International Journal of Comparative Sociology.
• Jorgensen, Andrew and Edward L. Kick. (2006). Issues in the Global Environment: Political-Economic Approaches. Forthcoming in Globalization and the Environment, Andrew Jorgensen and Edward L. Kick (eds.) Leiden, England: Brill Academic Publishers.
• Thomas Burns, Edward Kick and Byron Davis. (2006). Theorization and a Cross-National Analysis of Deforestation. Forthcoming in Globalization and the Environment, Andrew Jorgensen and Edward L. Kick (eds.) Leiden, England: Brill Academic Publishers.
• Kick, Edward L., James C. Fraser, and Byron Davis. (2006). Performance Management, Managerial Citizenship, and Worker Commitment: A Study of the United States Postal Service. Economic and Industrial Democracy, 27:137-172.
• James Fraser and Edward Kick. (2005). Understanding Community Building in Urban America. Journal of Poverty 9:23-43.
• Andrew Jorgensen and Edward Kick. (2003). Globalization and the Environment. Journal of World-Systems Research 9:202-204.
• Thomas Burns, Edward Kick and Byron Davis. (2003). Theorizing and Rethinking Linkages Between the Natural Environment and the Modern World System: Deforestation in the Late 20 th Century. Journal of World-Systems Research 9:357-390.
• James Fraser, Jonathan Lepofsky, Edward Kick and J. Patrick Williams. (2003). The Construction of the Local and the Limits of Contemporary Community-Building in the United States. Urban Affairs Review 38(3): 417-445.

Stephen C. Lilley

Associate Professor and Associate Head, University of Georgia,
226 1911 Bldg, (919) 515-2659, email: steve_lilley@ncsu.edu
Curriculum Vitae

Current research interests: Demography, Applied Sociology.

Publications:

• Lilley, Stephen. IPM Practices in Public School Systems of North Carolina. Cooperative Extension and Urban IPM Committee, North Carolina State University.
• Cubbage, Frederick W., P.B. Aruna, W. Gardner, H.L. Allen, S.C. Lilley, R. Williamson, E. Sills, S. Warren, J. Bettis, M. Ducey and W. Hubbard. Development of Decision Support Systems for Improvement of Silvicultural Practices on Farm-Based Nonindustrial Private Forests of the Southeastern United States. A Final Report Prepared for the Southern Region SARE Program, SARE Grant Number LS 98-91, Subaward 5911754.
• G. Nalyanya and S. Lilley. Pest Control Practices in North Carolina Public Schools, Report submitted to the US Environmental Protection Agency.
• Stephen Lilley. An Assessment of the Limitations of Grower Adoption of Current and Emerging IPM Practices in North Peanut Production, report submitted to the NCSU IPM Center.
• Stephen Lilley. Reducing Health Risks Among Minority Populations in Rural North Carolina, report submitted to the North Carolina Soybean Producers Association, Inc.
• Michael Linker, Stephen Lilley and Larry Elworth. Evaluating Grower Adoption of a Rootworm Risk Index in Peanuts, report submitted to the NCSU IPM Center.
• Michael Linker, Stephen Lilley and Larry Elworth. A Marketing Approach to Increase Use of the Rootworm Advisory in Peanuts, report submitted to the NCSU IPM Center.

Robert L. Moxley

Professor
Ph.D., Cornell, 1970
326 1911 Bldg, (919) 515-9011, email: Robert_Moxley@ncsu.edu
Curriculum Vitae

Current research focus: adoption/diffusion processes and socioeconomic impacts; community development and rural viability

Publications:

• Moxley, R.L. and K.B. Lang (2006). The Importance of Social Context Influences on New Farm Technology Sustainability: Community and Sub-community Characteristics in Jamaica . Technology in Society, Vol. 28:1.
• Moxley, R.L., G. Thompson and D. Jordan (2005). Peanut CRSP Technology Adoption Rates: Report on a Survey of N.C. Peanut Farmers, in Proceedings of the American Peanut Research and Education Society, Vol. 37.
• Moxley, R.L., A.R. Librero, and D. Alston (2002). A Study of Philippine Farming Communities: Adoption of New Technologies and Structural Influences on Sustainability, in the Proceedings of International Conference on Impacts of Agricultural Research and Development, an electronic publication (disk) by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT)

Michael D. Schulman

Professor
Ph.D., Wisconsin, 1975
333 1911 Bldg, (919) 515-9016, email: Michael_Schulman@ncsu.edu
Curriculum Vitae

Current research focus : globalization and rural restructuring; labor market transformation

Publications:

• Runyan, C.W., J. Dal Santo, M. Schulman, H. Lipscomb, T. Harris. (2006). Work Hazards and Workplace Safety Violations Experienced by Adolescent Construction Workers. Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine. Forthcoming
• Runyan, C., Michael D. Schulman, and Myduc Ta. (2006). "Adolescent Employment: Relationships to Injury and Violence. Chapter (pp. 163-90) in Karen Liller (ed.), Injury Prevention for Children and Adolescents: Integration of Research, Practice, and Advocacy,. Washington : American
• O’Connor, T., D. Loomis, C. Runyan, J. A. dal Santo, and M. D. Schulman. (2005). Adequacy of Health and Safety Training Among Young Latino Construction Workers. Journal of Occupational and Industrial Medicine 47: 272-77.
• Runyan. C., J. M. Bowling, M. D. Schulman, and S. S. Gallagher. (2005). Potential for Violence Against Teenage Retail Workers. Journal of Adolescent Health 36: 267.e1-67e6.
• Schulman, Michael D., and Doris Slesinger. (2004). Health Hazards of Rural Extractive Industries and Occupations. Pp. 49-60 in Glasgow, Morton, and Johnson (eds.), Critical Issues in Rural Health. Ames, IA: Blackwell Iowa State University Press.
• Runyan, C. W., J. Michael Bowling, and Michael D. Schulman. (2004). Safety of Youth Employment: A National Study of Parents and Teens. Final Report to National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health. November.
• Costello, Theresa, Michael D. Schulman, and Regina Luginbuhl. (2003). Understanding the Public Health Impacts of Farm Vehicle Public Road Crashes in North Carolina, Journal of Agricultural Safety and Health 9 (1):19-32.
• Anderson, Cynthia D., Michael D. Schulman, and Phillip J. Wood. (2003). Place, Race, and State: Sustaining the Textile Security Zone in a Changing Southern Labor Market. Pp. 31-54 in Falk, Schulman, and Tickamyer (eds.), Communities of Work. Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press.
• MacMillan, Marybe, and Michael D. Schulman (2003).. Hogs and Citizens: A Report From the North Carolina Front. Pp. 219-239 in Falk, Schulman, and Tickamyer (eds.), Communities of Work. Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press.
• Runyan, C. W., Michael D. Schulman, and C. Hoffman.(2003). Understanding and Preventing Violence Against Adolescent Workers: What Is Known and What is Missing? Clinics in Occupational and Environment Medicine 3: 711-20.
• Falk, William, Michael D. Schulman, and Ann Tickamyer editors. (2003). Communities of Work: Rural Restructuring in Local and Global Contexts. Athens: Ohio University Press.
• Schulman, Michael D. Things My Mentor Never Told Me. (2003). ASA Footnotes 31 (1): 5.
• Schulman, Michael D. (2003). A Testimonial to the Value of Undergraduate Research Mentoring. The Rural Sociologist 23 (3): 24-25.
• Schulman, Michael D., Carol Runyan, J. Michael Bowling, Janet Dal Santo, Linda Treiber, and Hester Lipscomb. (2003).Teenage Construction Workers: Hazards, Experiences, and Work Organization. Presentation at the National Occupational Injury Research Symposium, Pittsburg, PA. October.

Charles R. Tittle

Professor; Goodnight-Glaxo Wellcome Chair
Ph.D. in Sociology, University of Texas, Austin, 1965
365 1911 Bldg, (919) 513-4319; email: charles_tittle@ncsu.edu
Curriculum Vitae

Current Research: My research is aimed toward developing theories to explain criminal and deviant behavior, using integration of current theories and by elaborating and testing hypotheses from existing theories. One line of present research with that objective draws on common survey data collected in Russia , Greece , and the Ukraine . Another line of research elaborates the idea of self-control, developing the notion of collective self-control. Measures of collective self-control are then used to predict rates of homicide and suicide in cities in the United States as well as changes in those rates over a three-decade time period.

Publications:

• Tittle, Charles R. and Thomas Rotolo. 2006. Population Size, Change, and Crime in U.S. Cities. 2006. Journal of Quantitative Criminology.
• Welch, Michael R., Charles R. Tittle, and Harold G. Grasmick. 2006. Christian Religiosity, Self-Control, and Social Conformity. 2006. Social Forces 84:1605-23.
• Tittle, Charles R. and Ekaterina V. Botchkovar. 2005. Self-Control, Criminal Motivation, and Deterrence: An Investigation Using a Russian Sample. Criminology 43: 307-353.
• Tittle, Charles R. 2004. Refining Control Balance Theory. Theoretical Criminology 8: 395-428.
• Tittle, Charles R., David A. Ward, and Harold G. Grasmick. 2004. Capacity for Self-Control and Individual’s Interest in Exercising Self-Control. Journal ofQuantitative Criminology 20: 143-172.

Randall J. Thomson

Current research focus: comparative methodology; housing; international students

Publications:

• Housing and Community Integration. (2002). International Conference on Social Science. Honolulu , HI .
• Technology Transfer and Bain Drain: A tracer study. (2002). International Conference on Social Science. Honolulu , HI .
• Review of Dan A. Chekki (ed.) (1999). Research in Community Sociology, vol. 8: American Community Issues and Patterns of Development. Contemporary Sociology 28(5):585-586
• Peanut CRSP Human Resource Development (with R. Moxley) in Impacts & Scientific Advances Through Collaborative Research on Peanut: Proceedings. (1997). J.H. Williams, et al. (eds.) Griffin , Georgia : University of Georgia , CRSP Management Office.
• R. Thomson and R. Moxley, 1994. Socioeconomic Impacts of Peanut CRSP Graduate Training Efforts. Research Report 94-01. Griffin, GA: AID Peanut CRSP, University of Georgia.
• R. Thomson and B. Newman. 1989. Economic Growth and Social Development: A Longitudinal Analysis of Causal Priority. World Development 17 (4): 461-71.

Ronald Wimberley

William Neal Reynolds Distinguished Professor
338 1911 Bldg, (919) 515-9026, email: ronald_wimberley@ncsu.edu
Curriculum Vitae

Current research interests: Methodology, The South, Rurality, Spatial Environment, Applied.

Publications:

• Wimberley, R., L. Morris, and G. Fulkerson. 2007 World Population Takes a Turn. The News and Observer (May 23): 15A.
• Wimberley, R. C., and L. V. Morris. 2006 The Poor Rural Areas That Must Support The Cities of the Future. Sociation Today. 4(Fall, No. 2). WWW.ncsociology.org/sociationtoday.
• Wimberley, R. 2006 Sociology with a Southern Face–and an Agenda. The Southern Sociologist 38(Summer, No. 1): 1-5.
• Wimberley, R. C. 2005 The World Is Still Round and Sociology Is Still Flat. The Journal of Professional and Public Sociololgy. 1(December, No. 1). WWW.GeorgiaSociology.org.
• Wimberley, R. C. 2004 Sociology Out Front. Footnotes 32(February, No. 2): 7.
• Beaulieu, L. J., G. D. Israel, and R. C. Wimberley. 2003 Promoting Educational Achievement: A partnership of Families, Schools, and Communities. Pp. 273-289 in Challenges for Rural America in the 21st Century. David L. Brown and Louis Swanson, Eds. University Park: Rural Studies Series (refereed) of the RSS and the Penn State Press.
• Wimberley, R. C., and L. V. Morris. 2003 U.S. Poverty in Space and Time. Sociation Today 1(No. 2, Fall). WWW.ncsociology.org/sociationtoday.
• Wimberley, R.C., B.J. Vander Mey, B.L. Wells, G.D. Ejimakor, L.L. Burmeister, C.K. Harris, M.A. Lee, E.L. McLean, J.J. Molnar, G.W. Ohlendorf, T.J. Tomazic, and G. Wheelock. 2003 The Globalization of Food and How Americans Feel About It. Southern Perspectives 6(No. 2, Winter): 1-9.
• Wimberley, R. C., and L. V. Morris. 2002 The Regionalization of Poverty: Assistance for the Black Belt South? Southern Rural Sociology 18(1): 294-306.
• Morris, L.V., R.C. Wimberley, D. Eaker, D. Lynn, J. McKissick, W. Hill, A. Hopkins, and D. Bachtel, Contributors. 2002 Dismantling Persistent Poverty in the Southeastern United States. Athens, Georgia: Carl Vinson Institute of Government, University of Georgia. Posted as www.cviog.uga.edu/poverty/final/report.pdf.
• Wimberley, R. C., C. K. Harris, J. J. Molnar, and T. J. Tomazic, Eds. 2002 The Social Risks of Agriculture: Americans Speak Out on Food, Farming, and the Environment. Westport, Connecticut: Praeger.
• Wimberley, R. C. 2002 Social, Agricultural, and Environmental Interdependence. Pp. 1-13 in The Social Risks of Agriculture. Edited by R.C. Wimberley, J.J. Molnar, C.K. Harris, and T.J. Tomazic. Westport, Connecticut: Praeger.
• Wimberley, R. C., A. Thompson, and L. M. Lobao. 2002 Public Perceptions of Government’s Role in Agriculture and Farming. Pp. 15-30 in The Social Risks of Agriculture. Edited by R.C. Wimberley, J.J. Molnar, C.K. Harris, and T.J. Tomazic. Westport, Connecticut: Praeger.
• Wimberley, R. C., and A. Thompson. 2002 Agriculture's Social Risks and Directions. Pp. 117-124 in The Social Risks of Agriculture. Edited by R.C. Wimberley, J.J. Molnar, C.K. Harris, and T.J. Tomazic. Westport, Connecticut: Praeger.

Pictured are some Professor Ron Wimberley's current and former sociology students, graduate assistants, and Southern Sociological Society (SSS) committee appointees after his presidential address at the 2007 meeting of the SSS. From left to right are Christine Armstrong, NCSU graduate student; Macon Parker, NCSU graduate student and Research Assistant (RA); Scott Storm, NCSU graduate student; Jonathan May, NCSU doctoral student; Dr. Linda Lobao, NCSU doctoral alumnus, former RA, and Professor at Ohio State University; Professor Ron Wimberley; Dr. Ruth Heuer, NCSU doctoral alumnus, former RA, and Research Scientist at RTI International in North Carolina; Dr. Linda Treiber, NCSU doctoral alumnus, Co-Chair of the SSS Program Committee, and Assistant Professor at Kennesaw State University in Georgia; Dr. Leslie Hossfeld, NCSU doctoral alumnus, SSS Committee Member, and Assistant Professor at UNC-Wilmington; Dr. Donald Woolley, NCSU doctoral alumnus, former RA, Co-Chair of the SSS Program Committee, and Research Scientist in the Department of Psychiarty at Duke University; Dr. Shannon Davis, NCSU doctoral alumnus, former Teaching Assistant, SSS Committee Member, and Assistant Professor at George Mason University in Virginia.

Professional Leadership Experience of Rural and Community Sociology Faculty

• One is a former president of the Rural Sociological Society.
• Two have been presidents of the Southern Rural Sociological Society
• One has been the editor of the journal, Southern Rural Sociology
• Two have been editors of The Rural Studies Series, the refereed book series of the Rural Sociological Society
• One serves on the USDA Advisory Committee on Biotechnology
• Two hold William Neal Reynolds Professorships at NCSU
• One is the senior member of the USDA Advisory Committee on Agricultural Statistics and was chair of the Census Advisory Committee on Agricultural Statistics for the U.S. Department of Commerce
• Two have received the Rural Sociological Society's Award for Excellence in Instruction
• One holds the Goodnight-Glaxo Wellcome Chair in Social Sciences
• Many hold national and professional awards for their research and contributions toward a better society.
• All hold committee appointments and chairs plus other offices across their many professional associations, and they are linked with sociology and rural sociology opportunities across the United States and globally

Faculty Interests

Besides their teaching interests, the department's rural and community sociology faculty conduct many types of research and outreach projects. Here are some of them:

• Public attitudes on environmental quality
• The globalization of our food supply
• Rural poverty
• Biotechnology and food safety
• Work hazards of rural youth
• Quality of life in the Black Belt South
• National evaluation of the Rural Clean Water Program
• Community structure, solidarity, and competitiveness
• Technology transfer
• Pest management
• Social impacts of peanut technologies in Jamaica, the Philippines, and Thailand
• Career choices of youth
• Rural drug and alcohol abuse
• Environmental impacts of farm animal waste
• Rural development
• Demographic trends and change
• Rural health care
• Nonmetropolitan labor markets
• Changes in agricultural structure
• Privatization of Russian lands
• Urbanity, rurality, and crime

U.S. Counties with Highest Poverty

(Source: Ronald C. Wimberley and Libby V. Morris, 1997, the Southern Black Belt: A National Perspective, Lexington: TVA Rural Studies Press.)

The Graduate Program

• Sociology 509: Population Problems
• Sociology 513: Community Organization and Development
• Sociology 533: The Community
• Sociology 756: Sociological Analysis of Agricultural Development
• Sociology 757: Sociology of U.S. Agriculture
• Sociology 758: Rural Sociology
• Sociology 762: Urban Ecology
• Sociology 810: Special Topics in Sociology (E.g., Community and Crime)
• And a related course, Anthropology 560, Urban Anthropology

Ph.D. Area Concentration

For a Ph.D. area in rural and community sociology,Rural Sociology (Sociology 758) plus two other courses are required. One suggested combination is Rural Sociology and Population Problems (Sociology 509) and Sociology of the Community (Sociology 533). Other combinations may be developed from the courses offered during one's degree program with emphasis on different topics within the rural and community area.