Research on the Dynamics of Farmers' Social Consciousness and Rural Life

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The purpose of this research is to reveal the dynamic relationship between the rice farmers' social consciousness and the rapidly changing processes of rural and agricultural environments of Japan. For this purpose we have conducted the field surveys in Fukui and Yamagata Prefectures.(1) In the case of Fukui we have reviewed the trends of rice farming and off-farm working during the last three decades. Through this review we have found the positive sides of part-time family farming as well as the negative ones.(2) In the case of Yamagata we have made the intensive interviews with the various types of rice farmers to find the contemporary characteristics of their attitudes toward farming, off-farm working, family life, and agricultural policies. The most remarkable point is that they have differentiated their attitudes toward farming corresponding to their self-reflections on the significance of agriculture and family life.(3) In the these survey we have made good use of the theories and methods of Chicago Sociology and Symbolic Interactionism.