Social Science Research Serving Rural America.

N

35

Farm Foundation, Chicago, IL.
Cooperative State Research Service (USDA), Washington, DC.

Community Development; Experiment Stations; Program Descriptions; Research and Development; Research Projects; Research Utilization; Rural Areas; Rural Development; Rural Education; Social Science Research; Social Scientists

This collection of articles provides an overview of some of the recent social science research projects performed by state agricultural experiment stations. The examples highlight social science's contribution to problem-solving in rural business, industry, farming, communities, government, education, and families. The following programs are discussed: (1) the Transition Programming Model, an agricultural budgeting program serving financially struggling farmers in Illinois; (2) California social scientists' efforts to help create farmers' markets in urban areas; (3) a grape and wine-production farm initiated with support from Washington State University; (4) the Wisconsin Experiment Station's survey that helped guide community development in Belleville; (5) community-development studies in other rural areas; (6) a Virginia research study on the effects of educational spending on student performance and economic development; (7) the Texas Assessment Modeling System that projected the impact of a planned coal-fired electricity generation plant in Fayette County, Texas, and surveyed state crop damage in North Dakota; (8) Nevada research that documented the problem of indigent health-care costs for Humboldt County, and helped pass state legislation; and (9) a research study in Missouri examining how farm families cope with changes relating to the national farm crisis--a study that was used by Congress in drafting parts of the Food Security Act of 1985. The document also contains brief descriptions of social science research projects in other states, and numerous black and white photographs illustrate the text. (TES)

1991

ED324158