COURSE MANUAL

Rural Sociology and Development

SOC421

University of Ibadan Distance Learning Centre

Open and Distance Learning Course Series Development
Version 1.0 v1
Distance Learning Centre, University of Ibadan, Ibadan.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner.

ISBN: _

General Editor: Prof. Bayo Okunade

University of Ibadan Distance Learning Centre

University of Ibadan,
Nigeria
Telex: 31128NG
Tel: +234 (80775935727)
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: www.dlc.ui.edu.ng
Contents ii

Contents
About this course manual 1
How this course manual is structured .................................................................................................................... 1

Course Overview 3
Welcome to Rural Sociology and Development SOC 421 ............................................................................... 3

Getting around this course manual 6

Margin icons ....................................................................................................................................................................... 6

Study Session 1 7
The Field of Rural Sociology ........................................................................................................................................ 7
Introduction .......................................................................................................................................................... 7
Terminology .......................................................................................................................................................... 7
1.1 On the Idea of Rural Sociology ......................................................................................................... 7
1.1.1 What is Rural? .............................................................................................................................. 7
1.1.2 What is Rural Sociology? ......................................................................................................... 9
1.2 Scope and Importance of Rural Sociology ..................................................................................... 10
1.3 The Method of Rural Sociology........................................................................................................... 11
1.3.1 Methodological Approach to the Study of Rural Sociology ................................... 11
The Scientific Method in Rural Sociology ..................................................................... 11
1.3.2 Theoretical Models in Rural Sociology ........................................................................... 12
Evolutionary Model ................................................................................................................ 13
Functional Model..................................................................................................................... 14
The Conflict Model .................................................................................................................. 15
1.4 Characteristics of Rural Life................................................................................................................. 15
Study Session Summary ............................................................................................................................................. 16
Assessment ...................................................................................................................................................................... 16
Bibliography .................................................................................................................................................................... 17

Study Session 2 18
Rural Population in Nigeria ...................................................................................................................................... 18
Introduction ....................................................................................................................................................... 18
2.1 The Rural Population .............................................................................................................................. 18
2.1.1 Age-Sex Structure of the Nigerian Rural Population ................................................ 18
2.1.2 Sex Ratio in Rural Nigeria .................................................................................................... 19
2.1.3 Marital Status in Rural Nigeria .......................................................................................... 20
2.1.4 Size of Household in Rural Nigeria .................................................................................. 21
2.2 Vital Processes in Rural Nigeria ......................................................................................................... 22
 Study Session Summary ............................................................................................................................................. 24
Assessment ...................................................................................................................................................................... 24
Bibliography .................................................................................................................................................................... 25

Study Session 3 26
Differences and Relationship Between Rural and Urban Societies ......................................................... 26
Introduction ....................................................................................................................................................... 26
3.1 Rural and Urban Areas Differentiated............................................................................................. 26
Study Session Summary ............................................................................................................................................. 32
Assessment ...................................................................................................................................................................... 32
Bibliography .................................................................................................................................................................... 32

Study Session 4 33
Rural Poverty and Economic Reform ................................................................................................................... 33
Introduction ....................................................................................................................................................... 33
4.1 Rural Poverty ............................................................................................................................................. 33
4.1.1 Definitions of Poverty ............................................................................................................ 33
4.1.2 Forms of Poverty in Rural Areas ....................................................................................... 35
1) Lack of Infrastructure ...................................................................................................... 35
2) Insufficient Access to Markets ..................................................................................... 35
3) Lack of Non-motorized Load-Carrying Wheeled Vehicles ............................... 36
4) Opening up of Economies to International Trade ............................................... 36
5) Education and Social Service Inadequacies ........................................................... 36
4.2 Economic Reforms and Rural Poverty Eradication in Africa ........................................... 37
Poverty and the Institutional Framework of Economic Reforms in Rural Africa ... 38
Study Session Summary ............................................................................................................................................. 42
Assessment ...................................................................................................................................................................... 43
Bibliography .................................................................................................................................................................... 43

Study Session 5 44
Rural Social Institution ............................................................................................................................................... 44
Introduction ....................................................................................................................................................... 44
5.1 Overview of Rural Social Institutions .............................................................................................. 44
5.1.1 Family ........................................................................................................................................... 45
5.1.2 Education .................................................................................................................................... 45
5.1.3 Political Institutions ............................................................................................................... 46
5.1.4 Religious Institutions ............................................................................................................. 46
5.1.5Economic Institutions (Occupation) ................................................................................ 47
Study Session Summary ............................................................................................................................................. 48
Assessment ...................................................................................................................................................................... 48
Bibliography .................................................................................................................................................................... 49

Study Session 6 50
Social Structure of Pre-Capitalist Agricultural Societies .............................................................................. 50
Introduction ....................................................................................................................................................... 50
6.1 Social Structural Arrangement of Pre-Capitalist Agricultural Societies ..................... 50
6.2 The Roots of Modernity in Rural Sociology ............................................................................. 51
Contents iv

Study Session Summary ............................................................................................................................................. 52

Assessment ...................................................................................................................................................................... 52
Bibliography .................................................................................................................................................................... 53

Study Session 7 54
Women in Rural Societies ......................................................................................................................................... 54
Introduction ....................................................................................................................................................... 54
7.1 Women in Rural Societies ............................................................................................................... 54
The Traditional Rural Women ...................................................................................................... 54
Post-Independence Rural Women .............................................................................................. 56
7.2 A Focus on Women Farmers................................................................................................................ 57
Study Session Summary ............................................................................................................................................. 59
Assessment ...................................................................................................................................................................... 59
Bibliography .................................................................................................................................................................... 59

Study Session 8 60
Colonialism and European Capitalism on Rural Societies in Africa ........................................................ 60
Introduction ....................................................................................................................................................... 60
8.1 Theoretical Explanations of Colonialism on Third World ...................................................... 60
Modernization Theory...................................................................................................................... 61
Dependency Theory........................................................................................................................... 61
Study Session Summary ............................................................................................................................................. 66
Assessment ...................................................................................................................................................................... 66
Bibliography .................................................................................................................................................................... 66

Study Session 9 67
Rural Sociology Research Method and Ethics................................................................................................... 67
Introduction ....................................................................................................................................................... 67
Terminology ....................................................................................................................................................... 67
9.1 Research Designs in Rural Sociology ............................................................................................... 67
9.2 Research Methods in Rural Sociology........................................................................................ 68
9.2.1 The Case Study Research Method..................................................................................... 69
9.2.2 Survey Research....................................................................................................................... 69
9.2.3 Observational research ......................................................................................................... 69
9.2.4 Correlational Research.......................................................................................................... 70
9.2.5 Experimental research .......................................................................................................... 70
9.2.6 Cross-cultural Research ........................................................................................................ 71
9.2.7 Research with Existing Data, or Secondary Analysis ............................................... 71
9.3 Ethics in Rural Sociological Research .............................................................................................. 72
Study Session Summary ............................................................................................................................................. 73
Assessment ...................................................................................................................................................................... 73
Bibliography .................................................................................................................................................................... 73

Study Session 10 74
Social Processes in Rural Societies ........................................................................................................................ 74
Introduction ....................................................................................................................................................... 74
10.1 Social Processes and Rural Societies ............................................................................................. 74
 10.1.1 Social Processes in Rural Societies................................................................................ 74
Co-operation ......................................................................................................................................... 75
Competition........................................................................................................................................... 75
Conflict .................................................................................................................................................... 76
Acculturation and Assimilation .................................................................................................... 76
Study Session Summary ............................................................................................................................................. 77
Assessment ...................................................................................................................................................................... 78
Bibliography .................................................................................................................................................................... 78

Study Session 11 79
Politics and Local Government ............................................................................................................................... 79
Introduction ....................................................................................................................................................... 79
Terminology ....................................................................................................................................................... 79
11.1 Power Relations at the Local Level ................................................................................................ 79
11.1.1 The Marxian Class Theory................................................................................................. 79
11.1.1 The Elitist Theory ................................................................................................................. 80
11.1.2 The Pluralist Theory ............................................................................................................ 81
Study Session Summary ............................................................................................................................................. 83
Assessment ...................................................................................................................................................................... 83
Bibliography .................................................................................................................................................................... 84

Study Session 12 85
Environmental Issues and Sustainable Development ................................................................................... 85
Introduction ....................................................................................................................................................... 85
Terminology ....................................................................................................................................................... 85
12.1 What Constitute the Natural Environment................................................................................. 85
12.1.1 Theoretical Analysis of Environmental Issues ......................................................... 86
12.1.2 Environmental Problems in Nigerian Rural Communities ................................. 87
12.2 The Concept of Sustainable Development .................................................................................. 88
Study Session Summary ............................................................................................................................................. 89
Assessment ...................................................................................................................................................................... 90
Bibliography .................................................................................................................................................................... 90

Study Session 13 91
Community Organization and Development..................................................................................................... 91
Introduction ....................................................................................................................................................... 91
Terminology ....................................................................................................................................................... 91
13.1 The Concept of Community Organization ................................................................................... 91
13.2 Community Development .................................................................................................................. 92
13.2.1 Steps in Community Development ................................................................................ 93
13.2.2 A critique of concepts (Initiative, Felt-Needs, Self-Help and Citizen
Participation) in Community Development ............................................................................ 95
Initiative ................................................................................................................................................. 95
Felt-Needs .............................................................................................................................................. 96
Self-Help ................................................................................................................................................. 96
Citizen Participation .......................................................................................................................... 97
Contents vi

Study Session Summary ............................................................................................................................................. 97

Assessment ...................................................................................................................................................................... 97
Bibliography .................................................................................................................................................................... 98

Notes on Self Assessment Questions 99

References 102
 About this course manual

About this course manual

Rural Sociology and DevelopmentSOC421 has been produced by
University of Ibadan Distance Learning Centre. All course manuals
produced by University of Ibadan Distance Learning Centre are
structured in the same way, as outlined below.

How this course manual is

structured
The course overview
The course overview gives you a general introduction to the course.
Information contained in the course overview will help you
determine:
If the course is suitable for you.
What you will already need to know.
What you can expect from the course.
How much time you will need to invest to complete the course.
The overview also provides guidance on:
Study skills.
Where to get help.
Course assignments and assessments.
Margin icons.

We strongly recommend that you read the overview carefully

before starting your study.

The course content

The course is broken down into Study Sessions. Each Study
Session comprises:
An introduction to the Study Session content.
Study Session outcomes.
Core content of the Study Session with a variety of learning
activities.
A Study Session summary.
Assignments and/or assessments, as applicable.

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 SOC421 Rural Sociology and Development

Bibliography

Your comments
After completing Rural Sociology and Development we would
appreciate it if you would take a few moments to give us your
feedback on any aspect of this course. Your feedback might include
comments on:
Course content and structure.
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Your constructive feedback will help us to improve and enhance
this course.

2
 Course Overview

Course Overview

Welcome to Rural Sociology

and Development SOC421
Rural sociology is generally considered as a field of sociology
associated with the study of social life in rural areas. It is a
progressive field, actively promoting positive social, economic,
cultural and environmental change in rural areas. Rural sociologists
are concerned with handling challenges faced by communities,
particularly those in rural areas. Global economic restructuring and
the devolution of government services have produced an
environment in which rural sociologists are required to think and
act in innovative ways.
Just like general sociology and all the other sciences, it is also the
immediate goal of rural sociology to acquire knowledge about
society, in order to improve human's adjustment to life by
developing objective knowledge concerning social phenomena
which can be used to deal effectively with social problems. The
practical value of the study of rural sociology is widely recognized.
As long as the villages and the rural society continue to assume
importance, the rural sociology will also continue to acquire
importance. In this course, the value of rural sociology to
undergraduate students can be understood in the following light:
(i) Nigeria, and even the entire world, is more rural than urban.
This means that more than two-third of the population of
the world live in villages and rural areas. Consequently, it is
these villages and rural areas that form the basis of society.
Rural sociology is therefore inevitable for the study of the
majority of the population.
(ii) Humans are born out of land and their entire culture
depends on land. Land has been the part of and parcel of
human life. This also means that the type of land in an area
significantly determines conditions of life within that area
and society; likewise the opportunities and life chances that
would be available for human development. It is in rural
sociology that this intimacy between land and humans is
adequately explicated, even though economists and political
scientists have also recognized the close relationship
between humans and land.

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 SOC421 Rural Sociology and Development

(iii) Cities normally grow out of towns and villages. Hence, no

city can come into existence all of a sudden without having
a rural background; meaning that a village, when improved
and thickly populated, becomes a town or city. Thus, it is
the village population that forms the source of urban life.
(iv) Lastly, rural progress, rural reconstruction or improvement
of rural societies is only possible when the people have
correct idea about the rural way of life and problems. Rural
sociology therefore brings more light as regard the rural
psychology; and this provides clearer understanding of the
rural people and their society.

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SOC421 Rural Sociology and Development

Getting around this course manual

Margin icons
While working through this course manual you y will notice the
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manual.
A complete icon set is shown below. We suggest that you
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Activity Assessment Assignment Case study

Discussion Group Activity Help Outcomes

Note Reflection Reading Study skills

Summary Terminology Time Tip

6
 Study Session 1The
The Field of Rural Sociology

Study Session 1

The Field of Rural Sociology

Introduction
Broadly speaking, the field of rural sociology is suitably described
as that branch
branch of sociology that is primarily concerned with the
study of the social and cultural factors affecting the lives of people
in rural or agrarian communities. This means that rural sociology is
concerned with the social processes and the entire system of
interpersonal
erpersonal and group relationships entailed
entailed in rural life.
life In
specific terms, rural sociology is interested in understanding those
factors which influence rural people’s decisions and actions. For
instance, it is interested in understanding the effect of culture
c on the
acceptance or rejection of innovations by farmers, their re-actions
re
to social and political changes in the society and the methods by
which they adapt to these changes. In this Session, we shall attempt
to define what is rural; consider the importance
importance and scope of rural
sociology; and also examine the methodological approach to the
study of rural sociology as well as the features of rural life.
Learning Outcomes
When you have studied this session, you should be able to:
1.1 define and use the term ‘rural’.
1.2 describe the importance and scope of the field of rural sociology.
Outcomes 1.3 identify and discuss the methodological approaches to the study
of rural sociology.
1.4 identify and explain the features of rural life.

Terminology
Rural sociology A systematic
ystematic study of rural society, its institutions,
activities, interactions and social change.

1.1 On the Idea of Rural Sociology

1.1.1 What is Rural?
To most people, the differences between villages and towns or

7
SOC421 Rural Sociology and Development

cities are so obvious to demand any further serious debate.

According to them, the towns or cities constitute places where all
the good things of life prevail in abundance while the villages are
described as places with opposite attributes.
In broad terms, most people do not define a rural or urban area in
terms of the number of people who live in such an area as such;
instead, they define these areas in terms of the presence or absence
of social amenities and infrastructure. In defining a rural or urban
area, census figures have been used traditionally to differentiate
rural from urban areas. Nonetheless, the fact that there is no
consensus on the figures has made the use of census definition
somewhat problematic. In Nigeria for instance in 1953, the then
colonial government described an urban area as any compact
settlement that has a population of at least 5000 persons. This
description changed in 1963 and 1991 censuses respectively. In
these censuses, an urban area was defined as an area with a
population of 20,000 or more inhabitants. By implication, this
means that any area that has a population that is less than 20,000 is
considered as rural.
Traditionally, the various groups that made up Nigeria had their
own description and definition of both urban and rural. Among the
traditional Yoruba and some ethnic groups in northern Nigeria such
as the Hausa, Nupe, and Fulani, the rural area refers to that area
that is a temporary and most often a mobile farming settlement. In
contrast, the town or urban area refers to the place where the
permanent family house was located, where the dead were buried,
where marriages and other important ceremonies take place. It is
believed that to a large extent, the existence of some formalized
and centralized community government among these ethnic groups
accounts for this kind and pattern of social organization. In this
study session, the term ‘rural’ is defined in terms of an area of
settlement in which half or more than half of the adult working
population is engaged in farming or agriculture.
ITQ

Question
______________have been used traditionally to differentiate rural
from urban areas.
A. The number of men in the area
B. The number of settlements in the area
C. Census figures
D. Mortality rate
Feedback
What option did you chose? Alright, let us discuss each of the
options. In the course of this section, we noted census figures, and
8
 Study Session 1The
The Field of Rural Sociology

not the number of men or settlements in the area (the latter applies
to the Yoruba definition), or mortality rate. The right option is C.

1.1.2 What is Rural Sociology?

S
Examine the
the definitions of rural sociology as given be different scholars:
"Rural sociology is the sociology of rural life in the rural environment" -
Sanderson
In its
its broadest sense, "Rural sociology is that study of human relationships
relat in
Activity
rural environment". - Bertand
"The sociology of rural life is a study of the rural population, rural social
organisation and the social processes comparative, in rural society". - F.
Stuard Chapin

"Rural sociology is the science of rural society...It is the science of laws of the
th
development of rural society". - A. R. Desai
Can you attempt a definition of rural sociology? Write your answer here:

Discussion
It is clear from the above mentioned definitions that rural sociology studies
the social interactions, institutions and activities and social changes that take
place in the rural society. It studies the rural social organisations, structure
and set up. It provides us that knowledge about the rural social phenomena.
We now discuss further.

The term ‘rural sociology’ is made up of two concepts: rural and

sociology. In its simplest form, rural sociology implies the
sociology that is limited to the study of various aspects of rural
society. Rural sociology studies the rural life and the development
in rural life. Rural sociology
sociology is the science, which studies the
structure and functioning of rural society. Different sociologist and
social thinkers have defined rural sociology in different
ways.According to Sanderson, rural sociology is defined as ‘the
sociology of rural life in the rural environment’. Bertrand on his
part had defined rural sociology as the study of human relationship
in rural environment. F Stant Chapin viewed rural sociology as the

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SOC421 Rural Sociology and Development

study of rural population, rural social organization and the social

processes operative in rural society. In supporting this view T. L.
Smith believed that some investigators study social phenomena that
are present only in or largely confined to the rural environment,
that is to persons engaged in agricultural occupation. He then refers
to such sociological facts and principles as are derived from the
study of rural social relationships as rural sociology. In another
definition, A. R. Desai had defined rural sociology as the science of
rural society; the laws of the structure and development governing
rural society.In broad terms, rural sociology can be said to mean
the study of life in rural environment which systematically studies
rural communities to discover their conditions and tendencies in
order to formulate and discover principles of their progress or
development. Rural sociology is therefore the study of rural
environment and social facts and social interactions that are found
in rural society. As a scientific study it studies the social
organizations, structures and set up in rural society. It provides the
knowledge about the rural social phenomenon which helps in
making contribution to the development of rural societies.

ITQ

Question
Going by our discussion, one of the following does not give a
definition for rural sociology.
a. Thomas Hobbes
b. Stant Chapin
c. R. Desai
d. T.L. Smith
Feedback
If you chose option B, it means you may need to go through this
section again because his definition of rural sociology is discussed.
This also applies to options C and D whose definitions are vital to
this course. The only option that is odd here is A.

1.2 Scope and Importance of Rural Sociology

It is necessary to point out that the field of rural sociology was not
formally established as a distinct specialization outside the
discipline of sociology until about the early decades of the 20th
century. The need to establish this distinct field of study came as a
result of the sincere concern of some people about the seriousness
of the social problems inherent in the lives of people living in rural
America for instance at the time. These concerned people were not
really sociologists by training but belonged to different
specializations like religion, economics and philosophy. These
10
 Study Session 1The Field of Rural Sociology

people were concerned with the need to employ formal studies to

find solutions to America’s agricultural problems. Thus, unlike
general sociology which laid emphasis and is more interested in the
generation of social theories through basic research; rural sociology
emerged based on the basic interest and the orientation of the
application of sociological knowledge to practical social problems.
The field of rural sociology therefore emphasized empirical field
research more than theory construction. It paid particular attention
to rural people in terms of patterns of interaction and social
organization among the rural people. Even though rural sociology
seems to be interested in practical problems; modern rural
sociologists are currently utilizing and contributing to the theories
of the general discipline of sociology. Nonetheless, the general
focus and concern of rural sociology still remains that of solving
practical problems at the rural level.

1.3 The Method of Rural Sociology

1.3.1 Methodological Approach to the Study of Rural
Sociology
In broad terms, rural sociology studies humans as they function in
rural group situations. The discipline of sociology within which
rural sociology emerged is considered to be a science to the extent
to which it develops a body of organized verified knowledge which
is based on scientific investigations. The discipline is also regarded
as a science to the extent that it uses the scientific method in its
investigation. The scientific method in this sense is based on
verifiable evidence, that is concrete factual observations can be
experience sensually, that is with the use of the five human senses.
Science therefore deals with facts. The rural sociologist, just like
the general sociologist and scientist is skeptical in his or her
approach. This means that the person seeks empirical information
concerning what is regular and constant in the society and such a
person is not satisfied with mere rumours or hearsay. The person is
objective and tries to eliminate bias or prejudice while conducting
any investigation. The person is rational in attempts to tie
observations together into coherent theories of human development
within a social context.
The Scientific Method in Rural Sociology
In adopting the scientific method, rural sociologists usually follow
the following steps:
(i) Observation of the society and the identification of a
problem or problems worthy of investigation.
(ii) Formulation of hypotheses. A hypothesis is described as
a guess about the relationship that might exist between
two or more variables. This guess may be based on

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SOC421 Rural Sociology and Development

common sense, past experience or intuition. In scientific

research, a hypothesis must have some theoretical
background.
(iii) Formulation of a research design. This refers to a plan
or guide for data collection and interpretation.
(iv) Collection of data. This involves specifying the relevant
population from which data would be collected,
developing an instrument for collecting the data and
arranging for and collecting the relevant data.
(v) Classification of data. This involves the arrangement of
the data into manageable categories to facilitate
analysis.
(vi) Data analysis. This involves using basic statistical
techniques to quantify the data in such a manner that
allows for meaningful conclusions to be drawn. This is
usually done with reference to stated objectives and
hypotheses of the study.

ITQ

Question
The first method in the scientific method is _______________
a. Data analysis
b. Formulation of research design
c. Data collection
d. Observation
Feedback
What option did you choose? The right option cannot be A
because this is the last step in scientific method. It also cannot be
B because you can only formulate your design after you must have
formulated your hypothesis it also cannot be option C which
comes after research design formulation. The right option is D.
YOU NEED TO OBSERVE THE PHENOMENON before your
inquiry began. I hope you got it right? Good!

1.3.2 Theoretical Models in Rural Sociology

Theoretical models here refers to the broad system of explanation
not founded on prior research findings but largely on untested and
mostly unproven assumptions about reality. Just like in general
sociology, the most relevant theoretical models in rural sociology
include the evolutionary, conflict and structural-functional models.
Notably, all theoretical models in sociology strive to explain ways
in which social life is organized and ordered as well as ways in
which change comes into society. Social order and social change
are therefore the central concerns of the sociologist. In explaining
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 Study Session 1The Field of Rural Sociology

social order and social change, the various schools of thought have
asked similar questions but provided different answers. Likewise,
these schools of thought have laid emphasis on different aspects of
the general problems of sociology and the essential differences
among the various theoretical camps can be traced to the difference
of their respective area of emphasis.
Evolutionary Model
This model was propounded by earlier 19th century sociologists
such as Auguste Comte, Herbert Spencer, Vilfredo Pareto. They
tend to be more interested in explaining how societies change over
a period of time rather than how society achieves order. To
Auguste Comte, societies develop and change within three
historical stages – theological, metaphysical and scientific. Each of
these stages according to him represents advancement in human’s
knowledge of the natural and social world. To Herbert Spencer, the
development of human society can be likened to the evolutionary
development of biological organisms from simple to complex
stages as earlier enunciated by Charles Darwin. He also believed
that just as biological organisms are made up of different
interdependent organs and parts – an interdependence which is
indispensable for the holding together of the organism as a system,
so also the human society is made up of different institutions which
discharge the essential functions of regulation,
production/distribution, and sustenance. This idea of the
functionality of the various institutions of society indeed became
the foundation upon which the functionalist theory was established.
Other evolutionists like Pareto had postulated the cyclical theory of
societal change, that provides that societies start as simple
communities, develop to higher complex societies and then decline
or return to ruins.
Later evolutionary theorists such as Ferdinand Tonnies (1855-
1936) viewed societies as evolving from community-type structure
(Gemeinschaft) to urban-type structure (Gesellschaft). In the same
vein, Emile Durkheim (1858-1917), another evolutionist, has
viewed societies as evolving from small communities with minimal
division of labour and in which members are held together by a
mechanical solidarity, that is solidarity based on sameness, to
larger, more differentiated societies in which members are held
together by an organic solidarity, (that is solidarity based on
differences and interdependence). Even among contemporary
sociologists, the evolutionary model is still in vogue. The diffusion
theory for instance that categorizes societies on the basis of the
degree of application of modern technology into traditional and
modern segments; and the modernization theory which views all
human societies as undergoing a parallel series of transformation
from pre-industrial to industrial, are some contemporary versions

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SOC421 Rural Sociology and Development

of the evolutionary model. However, it is now clear that all

societies need not pass through the same stages of development.
The evolutionary model has been used to rationalize class
differentiation in society. To the earlier evolutionist, social change
is guided by natural laws rather than by planned human
intervention. But with western education, this idea has since been
dispelled. Advancements in technology, industrialization and
globalization have all combined to break caste and class boundaries
in most closed societies. In the same vein, it has become evident
that directed social change is not only possible but more efficient
and rational.
Functional Model
This model likens society to a living organism with each part being
indispensable to the survival of the entire system - meaning that
each part or structure of the system has and performs some
‘functions’. The functional model holds that the society is always
striving to maintain its stability or equilibrium through constant
exchanges with its specialized structures (institutions) and sub-
structures.
The functional model looks at society in terms of a social system
made up of various social institutions or subsystems. Hence,
society is seen as a complex whole made up of parts that are
separate and yet inter-dependent or interlocking. Ralph Dahrendorf
(1959) had pointed out that the functional model holds that:
(i) Every society as a relatively persistent, stable structure of
elements.
(ii) Every society has well integrated structure of elements
(iii) Every element in a society has a function; i.e, renders a
contribution to its maintenance as a system
(iv) Every functioning social structure is based on a consensus of
values among its members.
Functionalist sociologists emphasize on what maintains society,
and not really at what changes society. Talcott Parsons Parsons
(1902–1979), a leading functionalist, saw society in its natural state
as being stable and balanced. That is, society naturally moves
toward a state of homeostasis. To Parsons, significant social
problems, such as union strikes, represent nothing but temporary
rifts in the social order. According to his equilibrium theory,
changes in one aspect of society require adjustments in other
aspects. When these adjustments do not occur, equilibrium
disappears; thus, threatening social order. Parsons' equilibrium
theory incorporates the evolutionary concept of continuing
progress, but the predominant theme is stability and balance.
Critics argue that the functional model minimize the effects of
change because all aspects of society contribute in some way to
society's overall stability. They also argue that the model ignore the
14
 Study Session 1The Field of Rural Sociology

coercive use of power by the ruling class in society to maintain an

illusion of stability and integration.
The Conflict Model
This model is interested in the dynamics of social change than on
social order. The model maintains that society's wealthy and
powerful people usually ensure the status quo in which social
practices and institutions favourable to them are allowed to
continue. According to this model, change plays a vital role in
remedying social inequalities and injustices.

Although Karl Marx accepted the evolutionary argument that

societies develop along a specific direction, he did not agree that
each successive stage presents an improvement over the previous
stage. Marx noted that history proceeds in stages in which the rich
and ruling class always exploit the poor and weak. According to
conflict model, slaves in ancient Rome and the working classes of
today share the same basic exploitation. Karl Marx, in his work
Das Kapital (1867) upheld that it is only by socialist revolution led
by the proletariat (working class) that society will move into its
final stage of development: a free, classless, and communist
society.

The conflict model, especially Marx's view of social change is

proactive; it does not believe that people should remain passive in
response to exploitation or other problems in material culture.
Instead, it presents tools for individuals wishing to take control and
regain their freedom. Unlike functionalism and its emphasis on
stability, Marx holds that conflict is desirable and needed to initiate
social change and rid society of inequality. Critics of Marx note
that conflict theorists do not always realize that social upheaval
does not inevitably lead to positive or expected outcomes.

1.4 Characteristics of Rural Life

There are three basic characteristics that describe the rural life.
These are:
1. The rural area as a community: The rural area as a
community represents a feature that fosters the area as a
community that satisfies all the needs of members of that
given rural area. This also means that members of the rural
area as a community have a sense of unity and a feeling of
amiability towards each other.
2. The rural area as an institution: The development of a rural
area is indeed influenced considerably by the life of the area
itself; in this way, a given rural area is a primary institution.

15
SOC421 Rural Sociology and Development

3. Religiosity: Faith in religion and universal power is usually

found in the life of rural areas. Also, since the t major
occupation in rural areas is agriculture which involves
dependence on nature. Rural dwellers usually worship
forces of nature. Consequently, the life of the area is
expressed in the joint family system, where the family has a
strict control and administrative powers over the individual.
All the members of the family share the burden of the
family occupation. In this way of working together, the
villagers maintain a sense of cooperation among
themselves. In the life of rural dwellers, group feeling
occupies an importantt place. Community members are
expected to respect the judgment and obey the orders of
their elders and the elders who usually have control over the
individual.

Study Session Summary

So far, rural sociology had
had been discussed in this session as that
branch of sociology that is concerned with the social processes and
the entire system of interpersonal relationships involved in rural
Summary life. Rural areas were defined as farming communities and
settlements with less than 20,000 persons in population. Like
Li other
branches of sociology, rural sociology is a science of society and it
uses the scientific method in its studies. Although the
preoccupation of most sociologists is on rural problems, they also
apply and contribute to sociological theory. For a developing
dev
nation like Nigeria, striving to attain development, rural sociology
is indispensable in equipping change agents with sociological
concepts and ideas needed in rural social change and development.
There are three characteristics of rural life which are rural life as a
community, as an institution, and religiosity.

Assessment
SAQ 1.1 (tests learning outcomes 1.1, 1.2, and 1.3)
Discuss the scope and methodological approaches adopted in rural
Assessment
sociology?
SAQ 1.2 (tests learning outcomes 1.4)
Identify and discuss the three features of rural life.

16
 Study Session 1The Field of Rural Sociology

Bibliography

Ekong, E. Ekong. 1988. Rural Sociology: An Introduction and

Analysis of Rural Nigeria. Uyo: Dove Educational Publishers.

John, D. E and Warner, W. K. 1965. Contemporary Issues in

Reading
Rural Sociology. The Wisconsin Sociologist, vol.4(4)

Durkheim, E. 1964. Rules of Sociological Method. Free Press

Gilletee, 1963. Rural Sociology. New York: Macmillan

Giddens, A. 1990. The Consequences of Modernity. Cambridge:

Polity Press.

http://www.sociologyguide.com/rural-sociology/ retrieved Nov.,

2016.

17
SOC421 Rural Sociology and Development

Study Session 2

Rural Population in Nigeria

Introduction
In the last study session, we discussed the idea of rural life and
a
rural sociology as a course. In this session, we shall be examining
the rural population in Nigeria.
Learning Outcomes
When you have studied this session, you should be able to:
2.1 discuss the rural population in Nigeria.
2.2 identify and discuss the
he vital processes in rural Nigeria.
Nigeria
Outcomes

2.1 The Rural Population

Discussions on the rural population in this section will be centred
on age-sex
age sex composition; sex ratio; marital status and household
size in rural areas in Nigeria.

2.1.1 Age-Sex
Age Structure of the
he Nigerian Rural
Population
From available census statistics as shown during the 1991 and 2006
national censuses, the population of rural Nigeria can be described
as being ‘young’. According to the 1991 census, the Nigerian rural
population also has slightly
slightly more (1.02%) females than males. The
median age for rural residents is put at 17.13 years. Specifically,
the median age for rural female is 17.94 years; while that for males
is 16.23 years. It is worthy to note that these observations have
implications for dependency ratio (that is, the ratio of the
differences in the number of children (0-14),
(0 14), plus those aged
person (65 and above), and adults of working age (15-64). (15
Dependency ratios are useful as crude indicators of potential levels
of economic, physical
physical and social supports needed by persons in
these broad age groups. According to the 1991 census, the overall
dependency ratio for the country is 93.2 - this means that for every
100 persons of working age (15-64
(15 64 years), there are 93 children and
elderly persons who depend upon them. It was also shown that the
dependency ratio is higher in the rural areas (97.6) than in urban
18
 Study Session 2Rural Population in Nigeria

areas (85.6). Again, economic dependency ratio for Nigeria (this is

the number of non-producers of goods and services per 100
persons, ages 10-64 years, who are gainfully employed) was put at
234 dependents for every 100 gainfully employed persons - the
same ratio for rural areas which is 286 per 100 persons, and 219 per
100 persons for urban areas. When looked at critically, the
dependency ratios have a bleak implication for farming and the
future of agriculture in Nigeria. More energetic persons in their
economically productive years will have to be retained in rural
areas in order for them to continue agricultural production through
government policies which would make agriculture a rewarding,
prestigious and attractive enterprise.

ITQ

Question
According to the census figures, the median age for the rural
resident is _________________.
a. 16.23
b. 17.13
c. 17.94
d. None of the above

Feedback
Are you sure you did not pick the wrong option here? Let us
analyze the options for us to know whether you are right or wrong.
Option A represents the median age for the rural male resident;
option C represent the median age for the rural female resident.
Option B however represents the median age of rural residents.
Option D is out of the picture because the answer is in one of the
options. Thus, the right option is B.

2.1.2 Sex Ratio in Rural Nigeria

Sex ratio refers to the number of males per 100 females in the
population. According to the 1991 census results, sex ratios by five
year age grouping in rural Nigeria indicates high ratios for people
below 15 years and people 45 years and above. It also shows that
from age 60 and above, there are more males in rural areas than
females. However, there is a deficit of males between the age
brackets 15-19 to 40-44 in rural areas. These brackets are the
periods young men migrate to urban areas to go to school, learn
various trades or engage in non-farm occupations.
Studies in the rural areas of southwestern Nigeria have consistently

19
SOC421 Rural Sociology and Development

shown that there are more males of active productive age in the
rural areas than females. This is a reflection of the fact that females
play minimal roles in farming among the Yoruba people. The
scarcity of women in rural western Nigeria according to Ekong
(1988) is not really due to religious seclusion as found in the
Moslem North, but due to the concentration of women in retailed
trade in towns where they also take care of the family house while
their family husbands are always in the farm camps or rural areas.

ITQ

Question
Which of the following is not true according to the 1991 census?
a. The sex ratio across all ages is done on a five year scale
b. There is a deficit of males of age 15-19 in the rural ages.
c. There is a deficit of males of age 40-44 in the rural ages
d. There are more males of 60years and above than females
of that age bracket in the rural areas
Feedback
To answer this question correctly, you need to understand the
statistics provided in this section. Let us consider them together.
You will see that options B, C, and D are true as they are in
agreement with what we have learnt n this section. However,
option A IS NOT TRUE. Do you know why? Good! It is because
from age 60 and above, the age ratio is not done on a five-year
scale. Do you still remember that? Good!

2.1.3 Marital Status in Rural Nigeria

The Nigerian rural demographic sample survey of both 1966 as
well of that of 1991 census analyses reveal that the age at the first
marriage in rural areas is much lower in the northern part of the
country than anywhere else within Nigeria. In the north, majority of
girls are married at about 15 years of age, whilst the age at first
marriage is about 20 years in other parts of Nigeria. However, by
the age of 25 years, nearly all rural women are married.
In the same vein, rural northern males also tend to marry earlier (at
about 20 years) than their counterparts elsewhere in the country
who tend to marry at about 25 years of age or later. Around the
Mid-West and Eastern parts of the country, over 20 percent of rural
males tend to remain single till their late thirties. This may be a
reflection of the heavy demands for marriage which most often

20
 Study Session 2Rural Population in Nigeria

these men cannot afford early in life.

The number of rural widowers is usually small except among those
who are above 70 years; thus reflecting a custom of speedy re-
marriage among widowed rural men. On the other hand, the
number of widows increases after the age of 40 years thereby
indicating that most of the husbands were much older than their
wives. The number of divorced or separated rural persons is not so
high in particularly the eastern part of Nigeria; this is perhaps due
to the fact that many remarry soon after. However, divorce rate
tends to be relatively higher among rural northern young men than
the rest of the country. This may be a direct reflection of the ease of
procuring divorce in the Islamic tradition than in other religions.
Getting married is indeed a highly cherished value among rural
people in Nigeria not only because of the need for children and the
continuation of the family name, but also because in some areas,
the women form a vital source of unpaid farm labour.

ITQ

Question
Census figures show that girls in the north marry earlier than what
obtain in other regions of the country. TRUE or FALSE
Feedback
Did you chose false? If you go to the first paragraph in this
section, you will realize that this statement is true. So you are
wrong!

2.1.4 Size of Household in Rural Nigeria

The common definition of a household is usually that of the United
Nations that had defined the household as all the people living
together under one roof, eating from the same pot and recognizing
one person as the head of the household. The 1991 census
identified 94.3% of rural households as being regular households,
while 1.2% as being nomadic households in Nigeria. The number
of persons per household or the household size does not seem to
vary markedly between urban and rural Nigeria. According to the
1991 census figures, the mean size of rural households stands at
5.1%, while that of urban households is 4.7%. Further analysis
shows that 70% of households in states like Jigawa, Kebbi, Sokoto,
Bauchi and Katsina have about 5-7 persons per household.
Basically, household is said to be affected by the need for manual
labour, type of marriage (that is whether monogamy or polygamy),
and prevailing fertility rates, and other factors. These factors tend
to be more prevalent in rural areas than in urban areas, hence, this
account for the relatively larger household size in rural areas. It is

21
SOC421 Rural Sociology and Development

no surprise that about 90% of rural household income is expended

on only consumption items.

2.2 Vital Processes in Rural Nigeria

The number of people in a given place is mostly determined by
three vital events or processes. These include births, deaths and
migration. These events are known in demography as vital
processes in population change. Let us briefly look at these events
in rural Nigeria.
Fertility Rate
Fertility rate refers to the number of births per year per 1,000
women in the population of a place. The fertility rate is very high
among rural people in Nigeria. It is more pronounced among
northern women who marry quite early in life. However, fertility
tends to drop after the age of 25 years. The survey also reported
that the average number of children born to each woman who lives
through the children bearing age is 5.6 while the gross reproduction
rate is 2.7. Soyingbe (1978) for instance, in a comparative study of
urban and rural dwellers in south-western Nigeria found out that
while urban dwellers’ ideal family size averaged 4.8, those of rural
dwellers averaged 9.9.
Mortality Rate
Mortality simply refers to the number of deaths per 1,000 persons
in the population. Rural Nigeria had been shown for having a high
infant mortality rate (116 per 1,000 live births), but this declines to
a lower level among older children (14 years and above) and young
adult. The rate however rises again as from 40 years. More rural
women tend to die more than men, that is those between the ages of
10 and 40 years, which is also the active child-bearing period for
women. This directly reflects the inadequate maternity care
available in rural areas.
High fertility among rural Nigerians as earlier observed has been
explained as a counteracting behaviour to the equally high infant
mortality rate in rural areas. In this case, the people usually
rationalize their large family size with the fact that they are not sure
of how many of the children will survive eventually, hence the
more children they have, the better.
Governments across the world do influence their population growth
rates from time to time either through direct legislation or indirect
measures. Such influences had been categorized into two; that is,
pronatalist measures (these favour population increase) and
antinatalist measures (these are usually against increased
population).

22
 Study Session 2Rural Population in Nigeria

Migration
Migration refers to the movement of people from one geographical
location to another either on a temporary or permanent basis
(Ekong, 1988). Nearly all migration studies tend to conclude that
people migrate primarily for economic reasons. Michael Todaro for
instance had argued that ‘the greater the difference in economic
opportunities between urban and rural regions, the greater the flow
of migrants from rural to urban areas’. In other words, migration is
the result of the interplay between rural-urban wage differentials
and urban unemployment.
In Nigeria, it is shown that the lack of opportunities to earn ready
cash income during some period of the farming calendar has
engendered migration among Hausa farmers for instance. Most
often, rural-rural wage differential has likewise generated migration
at the rural level. This was the case in Nigeria during the colonial
era when export cash crops like cocoa and rubber were introduced
into southwestern Nigeria; this drew migrant farmers from other
parts of the country into this region.
In addition to economic motive, people also migrate to improve
their education or skills – though this is equally an economic
motive in the long run. People with higher education in rural areas
tend to move out to find commensurate employments in the towns.
Also, in rural areas with no or poor educational facilities, people
move to areas where these facilities are available.
Lipton (1976) in his study of migration from rural areas in poor
countries has observed that rural migrants appear to come from two
major economic classes. These include the very poor, landless and
illiterate group, and the relatively well off, better educated and
skilled group.
Natural Increase
Natural increase in population refers to the difference between
births and deaths per 1,000 persons in the population. With respect
to rural Nigeria, the Rural Demographic Survey of 1966 estimated
births per 1,000 population at 50.2; deaths at 26.9, and therefore
natural increase at 23.3. As at 1991, only 0.54% of the population
were foreigners and so international migration can still be regarded
as playing an insignificant role in the natural increase of Nigeria’s
rural population.

23
SOC421 Rural Sociology and Development

ITQ

Question
__________________ is not a vital process that determines
population of a place at a given time.
a. Natural increase
b. Birth rate
c. Death rate
d. Migration

Feedback
Did you notice that each of the options was mentioned in this
section? However, option A is not a vital process as it is only a
further explanation and not a vital process in population while the
others are. In other words, the odd item is A.

Study Session Summary

In this session, we discussed that rural dwellers form majority of
the Nigerian huge population. We also showed that states with
more rural populations are found in the northern parts of the
Summary country than in the southern part.
part. The rural population tends to
have more females and older males than the urban population,
although the overall population in rural areas has more young
people. The session ended with discussions on the vital processes
where it was discussed that fertility
fertility and infant mortality rates are
both high in rural areas.

Assessment
SAQ 2.1 (tests learning outcomes 2.1 and 2.2)
Discuss the rural population in Nigeria and the vital processes that
Assessment
affect them.

24
 Study Session 2Rural Population in Nigeria

Bibliography

Ekong, E. Ekong. 1988. Rural Sociology: An Introduction and

Analysis of Rural Nigeria. Uyo: Dove Educational Publishers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Nigeria
Reading
http://www.indexmundi.com/facts/nigeria/indicator/SP.RUR.TOT
L.ZS

http://www.soas.ac.uk/cedep-demos/000_P530_RD_K3736-
Demo/unit1/page_09.htm

25
SOC421 Rural Sociology and Development

Study Session 3

Differences and Relationship Between

Rural and Urban Societies
Introduction
In the previous session, we examined rural population in Nigeria.
In this session, we shall look at the differences and relationships
rel
between rural and urban communities or societies.

Learning Outcomes
When you have studied this session, you should be able to:
3.1 identify and explain the basic differences between rural and urban
communities or societies.
Outcomes

3.1 Rural and

nd Urban Areas Differentiated
The evolutionary school of thought had described rural
communities as types or societal continua. Types of communities in
this context represent a concept, idea or mental construct derived
from observable reality but not really
really conforming to such reality in
full. Ferdinand Tonnies in 1887 for instance used the typology of
Gemeinshaft and Gesellschaft to describe social relations in rural
and urban communities; Emile Durkheim in 1893 on his part used
the terms mechanical solidarity and organic solidarity to describe
social relations in rural and urban communities. Although it has
been observed that no social system could persist if relations were
either completely Gemeinshaft-like or completely Gesellschaft-like.
The table below briefly shows a typology akin to the rural-urban
rural
typology as expressed by different sociologists and social thinkers.
Table 3:1: Typology showing differences/relationship between
rural
rural-urban societies

Social Thinker Description of rural (simple) Description

escription of urban (complex)
society society
Hebert Spencer (1862) Military-despotic Industrial
Industrial-democratic
26
 Study Session 3Differences and Relationship Between Rural and Urban Societies

Ferdinand Tonnies Gemeinshaft Gesellshaft

(1887)
Emile Durkheim (1893) Mechanical solidarity Organic solidarity
Max Weber (1922) Traditional Rational
Robert Redfield (1947) Folk Urban
Howard Becker (1950) Sacred Secular
Source: Ekong, 1988
Accordingly, the following are the variant forms of differentiation
that typify rural and urban communities or societies:
1. Size of the area: Rural areas are usually smaller in size than
urban areas. Size here connotes the space or landmass that
is actually inhabited rather than the total land area owned by
the community. In terms of total land area, some rural
communities are indeed larger than some urban areas since
a great expanse of land is generally required for farming
purposes. Consequently, rural areas have a greater portion
of their total land area open and uninhabited whereas most
urban areas are crowded due to lack of open spaces.
2. Population density and composition: The population
density in rural areas (that is the number of persons per unit
area of land) is usually low, as these areas normally have
larger expanse of land with relatively small population. This
is in contrast to urban areas where a larger number of
persons occupy relatively small unit area. This summarily
explains why one can see very tall buildings in most urban
areas because of lack of land. Where a storey building is
erected in a village, this has to do more with a status symbol
than with lack of space. Apart from the density of the
population, rural populations tend to be more homogenous
than urban populations. Homogeneity here refers to the
degree to which strangers or non-natives are present or
absent in a place. Most Nigerian rural communities tend to
be homogenous, that is the inhabitants tend to come from
the same ethnic group and therefore speak the same
language; non-indigenes are easily identified. Urban
populations are on the other hand, heterogeneous with the
population consisting of people from different cultural
settings – thus, non-indigenes or strangers are not easily
identified.
3. Social Interaction: Primary group contacts tend to majorly
characterize social interaction in rural areas. The family and
in most cases the entire village tend to be the sphere within
which social interaction occurs. This type of face-to-face,

27
SOC421 Rural Sociology and Development

affective interactions occur in places of worship, the farms,

village markets, streams and other places of common
interest. On the other hand, social interactions in urban
areas entail a lot of secondary contacts.
4. Social Stratification: This refers to the manner in which the
society ranks its members into different strata or distinct
hierarchy on the bases of wealth, power or social status.
There are fewer social classes in the rural areas than in
urban areas. In other words, the difference between the
poorest and the richest in a typical rural area may not be as
great and obvious when compared with urban areas. The
caste principle appears more rigid in rural areas, whereas
the urban areas operate principally on the principle of class.
Class implies mobility while caste is more static.
5. Social Control: In rural areas, the behaviour of individuals
tends to be guided more by the internalization of societal
norms and values. Informal measures such as gossips and
banishment or ostracism are applied to effect control on
folkways violation while instant justice is demanded in
cases of the violation of mores. Urban areas tend to rely
more on formal institutions like the police, prisons, traffic
wardens, and so on, for the maintenance of law and order.
6. Standards and Levels of Living: The standard or level of
living is generally used to describe the quality of goods and
services actually consumed by an individual and his family.
This include the ownership and use of items such as
television, radio, refrigerator, gas cooker, provision of
three-square meal, having adequate clothing, cars, living in
a descent environment, and so on. When all modern
household facilities, goods and services are considered; it is
clear that people in the rural areas enjoy lower levels of
living conditions than people in urban areas.
In the Nigerian situation, the description as shown above between
rural and urban areas depicts extremities in the rural-urban poles. In
contemporary Nigeria, an area is often regarded as urban even
when such an area is not thickly populated but the area has the
following basic cultural objects or attributes: many post primary
schools, many modern hotels, many supermarkets apart from open-
air markets, pipe-borne water supply, electricity supply, many
branches of commercial banks and other industries, police and fire-
service stations, entertainment and recreation facilities, many petrol
stations, many hospitals and clinics.

28
 Study Session 3Differences and Relationship Between Rural and Urban Societies

Table 3.2 Difference between Rural and Urban Life

S/N Rural Life Urban Life

1 Environment: Close / direct Greater isolation from nature.

contact with nature. Preliminaries Predominance of manmade
influenced by natural (artificial environment).
environmental elements like rain,
heat, drought, frost, sow etc. over
which there is no control.

2 Occupation: Agriculture is the No fundamental occupation. Most

fundamental occupation. Majority of people engaged in principally in
of population is engaged in manufacturing, mechanical pursuits,
agriculture. Neighbors of trade commerce, professions and
Agriculturist are also agriculturist other non-agricultural occupations.

3 Size of Community: Size of Size of community is large in size.

community is very small in size. Urbanity and size of community are
positively co-related.

4 Density of Population: Density of Size of community is large in size.

population is lower. Density and Urbanity and size of community are
rurality are negatively co-related. positively co-related.

5 Homogeneity and heterogeneity More heterogeneous than rural.

of population: More homogenous Urbanity and heterogeneity are
in social, racial and psychological positively co-related (Different type
traits. Negative co-relation with of population is seen in cities,
heterogeneity. (Most are different places, religions, caste,
agriculturists are directly class race, community, economic
connected with agriculture). and cultural differences,
occupations and behavioral pattern
also different).

6 Social Differentiations: Low High degree of social differentiation

degree of social differentiation

7 Social Stratification: More Less rigid Urban community is

rigid Fewer economic, much more strategic than the rural
occupational, and sociopolitical with having much more economic,

29
SOC421 Rural Sociology and Development

classes. Less social stratification occupational and social political

than urban. classes.

8 Social Mobility: Mobility is less Social mobility is more intensive.

intensive. Territorial, People change occupation and even
occupational and other forms of leave places in search of new and
social mobility of the population better occupation
are less intensive. They follows
same occupation, stay in the same
village

9 Social Interaction: Less numerous More numerous contacts. Area of

contacts. The area of interaction interactions is wider, the relation are
system is narrower. More superficial and short-lived. The
professional, simple, face to face. popular are more formal and showy.
Informal, sincere relations.

10 Social Solidarity: Social Social solidarity is less stronger

solidarity or cohesiveness and than rural, dissimilarities, division
unity are more stronger / greater of labour, interdependence,
than urban. Common traits, specialization, impersonal, strictly
similarity of experiences, formal relationships results
common aims and purposes, comparatively less sense of
common customs and traditions belonging and unity.
are the basis of unity in village.
Strong sense of belonging and
unity.

11 Social Control: Social pressure Control is more by formal

by community is strong. impersonal means of laws,
Conformity of norms is more by prescribed rules and regulations.
informal social pressure.

12 Social Change: Rural social life is Urban social life is under constant
relatively static and stable. and rapid social change

13 Culture: Sacred (Religious) Secular (Non-religious) culture.

culture.

14 Leadership Pattern: Choice of Choices of leadership is

30
 Study Session 3Differences and Relationship Between Rural and Urban Societies

leadership more on the basis of comparatively less on the basis of

known personal qualities of know personal qualities of
individual, due to greater face to individual
face contacts and more intimate
knowledge of individual.

15 Group: Rural society is simple Urban society is complex multi-

Unit-group society group society.

16 Social Institutions: Most of the Numerous enacted institutions.

institutions are natural outgrowth
of rural social life. Less enacted
institutions.

17 Standard of Living: Home In urban areas such conveniences

conveniences, public utilities, and facilities are provided due to
educational recreational religious, greater density of population
medical, communication and
other facilities for living can be
provided if supported by
sufficient population base

18 Standard of living is low. Standard of living is high.

ITQ

Question
One of the following sociologists has nothing to do with the rural-
urban typology.
a. Herbert Spencer

b. Emile Durkheim

c. Barrack Obama

d. Max Weber

Feedback
Did you chose option A? REALLY, well that option is wrong.
This is because he is one of the sociologists that we mentioned in
this regard in the course of this session. We also mentioned

31
SOC421 Rural Sociology and Development

Durkheim and Weber which therefore translate to mean that

options B and D are wrong as well. The only option odd here is C
because nowhere was
was this name mentioned. The right option
therefore is C.

Study Session Summary

In this session, we noted that scholars have tended to use polar
typologies in order to demonstrate the differences between rural
and urban areas. It was emphasized that th although such
Summary categorization is useful for analytical purposes, however the polar
types of differentiation do not actually conform to what is real and
obtainable. Thus, we concluded that rural and urban communities
range on a continuum from the very rural
rural to the very urban with a
lot of combinations in between. Nonetheless, factors like
population, size of area, occupation of majority of the population,
form of social interaction, and other factors had been discussed. In
the Nigerian context, the availability
availability or provision of social
amenities can attract large populations into an area than was
erstwhile thinly populated. This can also turn the outlook of an
already thickly populated rural area into a real urban centre.

Assessment
SAQ 3.1 (tests
(t learning outcome 3.1)
Name at least four (4) things that make a rural area different from
an urban area?
Assessment

Bibliography

Ekong, E. Ekong. 1988. Rural Sociology: An Introduction and

Analysis of Rural Nigeria. Uyo: Dove Educational Publishers.

Reading

32
 Study Session 4Rural
Rural Poverty and Economic Reform

Study Session 4

Rural Poverty and Economic Reform

Introduction
In the just concluded session, we pointed out the differences in
basic forms of settlements. Relational
R tional processes in society can have
the effect of limiting or harming a particular
particular group’s social status.
In this session, we shall identify and discuss the factors of rural
society, rural economy, and rural political systems that give rise to
poverty in rural areas. In broad terms, rural poverty is often
discussed in conjunction with spatial inequality which in this
context refers to the inequality between urban and rural areas. Both
rural poverty and spatial inequality are global phenomena, but like
poverty in general, there are higher rates of rural poverty in
developing countries
countri than in developed countries. Hence,
eradicating
radicating rural poverty through effective policies and economic
growth remains a challenge for the entire international community.
community
Learning Outcomes
When you have studied this session, you should be able to:
4.1 discuss the idea of rural poverty.
4.2 describe
escribe the institutional framework of economic reforms in
Outcomes rural Africa

Outbursts of social inequality are usually grounded in issues that are

concerned with access to education, health care, quality housing,
hou traveling,
transportation, and other social goods and services. On the other hand, rural
poverty refers to the type of poverty that is found in rural areas.
Note

4.1 Rural Poverty

4.1.1 Definitions of Poverty
Poverty in its most general sense is defined as the lack of
necessities of life (Ekong, 1988). Basic goods and services such as

33
SOC421 Rural Sociology and Development

food, shelter, medical care, and safety are generally thought to be

necessary to humans based on shared values of human dignity.
However, what is deemed to be a necessity to one person may not
uniformly be a necessity to others. Needs may be relative to what is
possible and are based on social definition and past experience
(Sen, 1999). Valentine (1968) says that “the essence of poverty is
inequality. In slightly different words, the basic meaning of poverty
is relative deprivation.” A social (relative) definition of poverty
allows community flexibility in addressing pressing local concerns,
while objective definitions allow tracking progress and comparing
one area to another.
The most common “objective” definition of poverty is the
statistical measure established by governments as the annual
income needed for a family to survive. The “poverty line” was
initially created in 1963 by Mollie Orshansky at the U.S.
Department of Agriculture based on three times her estimate of
what a family would have to spend for an adequate but far from
lavish diet. According to Michael Darby (1997:4), the very
definition of poverty was political, aimed to benchmark the
progress of poverty programmes for the War on Poverty.
Regardless of how we look at the “science” of poverty, or what
O’Connor calls the “knowledge of poverty,” it is essential to retain
focus on the fact that the definition of poverty and the policies
addressing it are all shaped by political biases and values. It is this
disparity of status and interest that make poverty research an
inescapably political act: it is an exercise of power, in this case of
an educated elite to categorize, stigmatize, but above all to
neutralize the poor and disadvantaged through analysis that
obscures the political nature of social and economic inequality
(O’Connor 2001:12).

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 Study Session 4Rural Poverty and Economic Reform

4.1.2 Forms of Poverty in Rural Areas

In a recent study of twenty-four (24) countries, it was found that
‘standards of living in rural areas almost universally lag behind
urban areas’. In terms of education, school enrollments and the
ratio of girl-to-boy enrollments, this is much lower in rural areas
than in urban areas. A similar trend was found also in terms of
access to neonatal care - as those living in rural areas had far less
access to care than their counterparts in urban areas. There were
also far more malnourished children in rural areas of Africa than in
urban areas. In broad terms, inequality and poverty between urban
and rural areas was found to be most prevalent in countries where
the adult population has the lowest amount of education. Overall,
evidence summed up to show that most people living in rural areas
experience more poverty than those living in urban areas. On the
whole, the description of inequality and rural poverty take the
following form in most rural communities in Africa:
1) Lack of Infrastructure
Rural poverty is often a product of poor infrastructure that hinders
development and mobility. Rural areas tend to lack sufficient
infrastructures such as roads that increase access to agricultural
inputs and markets. Without roads, the rural poor are cut off from
technological development and emerging markets in more urban
areas. Poor infrastructure also hinders communication, resulting in
social isolation among the rural poor, many of whom have limited
access to media and news outlets. Such isolation hinders integration
with urban society and established markets, which could result in
greater development and economic security. Moreover, poor or
nonexistent irrigation systems threaten agricultural yields because
of uncertainty in the supply of water for crop production. Many
poor rural areas lack any irrigation to store or pump water, resulting
in fewer crops, fewer days of employment and less productivity.
Both a lack of roads and insufficient irrigation systems result in
greater work intensity in many rural communities.
2) Insufficient Access to Markets
In the same vein, lack of access to markets - whether due to poor
infrastructure or productivity, limited education, or insufficient
information - prevents access to both labour and capital. In many
rural societies, there are few job opportunities outside of
agriculture, often resulting in food and income insecurity due to the
precarious nature of farming. Rural workers are largely
concentrated in jobs such as owners-cultivators, tenant
farmers, agricultural day-laborers, and livestock herders. Without
access to other labour markets, rural workers continue to work for
extremely low wages in agricultural jobs that tend to have seasonal
fluctuations and thus little income security. In addition to labour,

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SOC421 Rural Sociology and Development

the rural poor often lack access to capital markets and financial
institutions, hindering their ability to establish savings and obtain
credit that could be used to purchase working capital or increase
their supply of raw materials. When coupled with scarce job
opportunities, poor access to credit and capital, all these culminate
to perpetuate rural poverty.
3) Lack of Non-motorized Load-Carrying Wheeled
Vehicles
Numerous studies have confirmed that lack of mobility impedes
human progress and development. In spite this enormous challenge,
there is very little evidence showing how anyone is attempting to
actually address and alleviate the problem by introducing handcarts
and wheelbarrows into remote and rural areas where they would be
most beneficial.
4) Opening up of Economies to International Trade
Most macro-level economic changes are believed to be associated
with an increase in spatial inequalities. Findings of studies have
shown the link between more open trade, accompanied by other
neoliberal policies, and higher incidences of rural poverty and
spatial inequalities. In Vietnam for instance, trade liberalization has
resulted in higher poverty rates in rural areas. Evidence here
demonstrates that despite greater openness and growth, spatial
inequalities do not necessarily decrease accordingly with overall
economic growth. Moreover, the promotion of export-oriented
agriculture has been linked to decreased food security for rural
populations even in Nigeria rural communities.
5) Education and Social Service Inadequacies
In many rural societies, a lack of access to education and limited
opportunities to increase and improve one’s skillset inhibit social
mobility. Low levels of education and few skills result in much of
the rural poor working as subsistence farmers or in insecure,
informal employment, perpetuating the state of rural poverty.
Inadequate education regarding health and nutritional needs often
results in under-nutrition or malnutrition among the rural poor.
Social isolation due to inadequate roads and poor access to
information makes acquiring health care (and affording it)
particularly difficult for the rural poor, resulting in worse health
and higher rates of infant mortality. There have been noted
disparities in both Asia and Africa especially, between rural and
urban areas in terms of the allocation of public education and
health services.

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 Study Session 4Rural Poverty and Economic Reform

ITQ

Question
Social inequality or poverty in rural areas may come in the form of
all but one of the following.
a. Good road network
b. Education inadequacies
c. Poor infrastructural facilities
d. Insufficient access to markets

Feedback
I know you have chosen an option but let us see whether your
option is right or not. If you run through the forms we mentioned
in this section, you will see that options B,C, and D are part of the
forms in which rural poverty appears in. it cannot appear in the
form of a good road network. Hence the odd item is option A.

4.2 Economic Reforms and Rural Poverty

Eradication in Africa
After almost two decades of economic reforms under the structural
adjustment, poverty still persists in the African continent. In a late
1999 address to the Organization of African Trade Union Unity in
Johannesburg, Nelson Mandela once described poverty in Africa as
the 'number one problem facing the world'. Consequently, James
Wolfensohn, the then President of the World Bank, urged the 1999
Annual General Meeting of the Bank and the International
Monetary Fund to consider poverty alleviation and debt relief as
the two major foundations on which the world economic order
should be built in the 21st Century. Such high level concern
indicates the severity of the problem. As we contemplate future
efforts at tackling especially rural poverty in the continent, it is
pertinent to ask why two decades of economic reforms have so far
failed to stem the tide of poverty in Africa as a whole and in rural

37
SOC421 Rural Sociology and Development

areas in particular. In this section, we shall briefly examine the

economic reforms in the African continent that started in the 1980s
and likewise the political reforms that started in the 1990s. The
emphasis here is on two inter-linked themes, that is reforms and
institutions, and institutions and poverty. The central argument here
is that the reform efforts for poverty eradication through the
structural adjustment programme were critically flawed.
Fundamentally, flaws abound in the conceptualization of the
problems to be tackled, the policy choices made and overall; the
implementation of these policies. Above all, there was a failure to
understand the formal and informal institutional matrix within
which the reforms were being carried out especially at the rural
economy level. It is this connection between reforms, institutions,
and poverty, particularly in rural Africa, that this section briefly
explores.

Poverty and the Institutional Framework of Economic

Reforms in Rural Africa
During the 1950s and 1960s, African countries were encouraged to
follow a policy of economic growth as a means of tackling the
problem of poverty and deprivation. Accordingly, the idea was that
the benefits of growth would ultimately trickle down to the poor.
Consequently, the role of the state was central in these national
projects of societal transformation. By the 1970s, however, the
failure of this policy in sustaining economic growth and tackling
poverty was becoming apparent. Policy emphasis for poverty
eradication in the continent subsequently shifted to redistribution
with growth (RWG). The adoption of RWG ultimately led to
increased provision of social services to the poor. With this, in the
1960s and the 1970s, many African countries achieved
improvements in the provision of social services. By the 1980s,
however, the crises in many African economies led to a new

38
 Study Session 4Rural Poverty and Economic Reform

approach to tackling poverty within the overall rubric of structural

adjustment. Since the 1980s, most African countries have
undergone reforms in their economies inspired by the liberalizing
philosophy of the World Bank and the IMF. Between 1980 and
1989, about 241 structural adjustment programmes (SAPs) were
estimated to have been initiated by various African governments.
The persistence of poverty especially by 1990 in rural Africa led to
renewed efforts by the Bank to confront the problem. This renewed
interest was signaled by the publication of the World Development
Report (WDR) on Poverty in 1990 (World Bank, 1990), followed
thereafter by the publication of Poverty Assessment Reports
(PARs) on more than twenty African countries after 1990.
The strategy of the Bank, consistent with its liberalizing
philosophy, consists of three basic elements. Firstly, the pursuit of
growth through labour intensive activities which are expected to
favour the poor since labour is the one asset the poor have in
abundance. Secondly, the provisions of basic social services like
primary education and basic health coverage to the poor. Thirdly, a
safety net for the weakest members of society through targeted
transfers. In all forms, this was both a strategy for renewed growth
and poverty alleviation. A primary institutional string for this
strategy was the establishment of a market friendly macroeconomic
framework. This advocacy of the market is directly related to a
negative perception of the role of the state in managing the
economy and tackling poverty. Government policies were thus seen
to be leading to market distortions which prevent access to income-
earning opportunities for the poor. Labour-market regulations
reduce labour demand while public expenditure programmes are
not well targeted and not cost effective.
The strategy is to promote the best opportunities for earning an
income through the deregulation of markets while the
marketization of health and education through private provision

39
SOC421 Rural Sociology and Development

and user charges will improve the efficiency and reach of service
provision. The view was that supply-led service provision often
produced goods which the consumer did not want, and this was
often done in an inefficient manner. Service provision was to be
demand-led, the demand coming from the increased earning
opportunities for the poor generated by the changes in the
macroeconomic environment. Harnessing market opportunities and
incentives was perceived as the best way to tackle poverty. For the
old, disabled and those living in resource poor regions, a safety net
should be provided. Targeting is a key factor.
The central institution for this strategy is the market, particularly
the market for labour. Poverty alleviation is seen in terms of
increased opportunities for remunerative employment. The
productive use of labour is seen in utilitarian terms—labour is seen
not as a human activity but as an alienable asset. Macroeconomic
reform will make it possible for the poor to convert their labour
into effective demand for goods and services. This macroeconomic
package has so far produced disappointing results. A major
problem is the real returns to low-skilled labour in many African
economies. Hanmer et al. (1997) poignantly point out in their
assessment of the Bank's Poverty Assessment Reports, that there
was never an attempt to understand the real and concrete
relationship between the returns to unskilled labour and the
subsistence costs confronting the poor in any country in which the
policy was being implemented. A second problem is the assumed
connection between market-driven growth and public welfare. In
this regard, Hanmer et al. also pointed out that the PARs fail to
question the validity of the assertion that economic growth will
necessarily lead to poverty reduction or that private investment will
necessarily lead to the service of public objectives. For their part,
Dreze and Sen (1989), pointed out that there were massive public
welfare improvements in China at a time of moderate growth
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 Study Session 4Rural Poverty and Economic Reform

before the initiation of liberalising reforms in 1979. After 1979,

growth accelerated, but this was paradoxically accompanied by a
crisis of public provisioning and increased mortality. Growth and
improved public welfare are not necessarily related. In Africa, the
impact of market-driven growth on the ability of the poor to secure
their welfare remains problematic. One Bank document candidly
observes that:
The Bank's central operating paradigm is the 'miracle of the
market' - those who need goods and services offer prices that
stimulate others to supply them. This principle of demand organises
service delivery to the rich and powerful, whose purchasing power
or connections stimulate those services that interest them (Salmen,
1992).
Of course, it cannot be argued that the market has no role to play
either in the reform of African economies or in the alleviation of
poverty. Dreze and Sen (1989) pointed out the role of 'extensive
pre-capitalist regional systems of exchange' in pre-colonial East
Africa and the Sahel in safeguarding societies against threats to
subsistence. And no observer of the predatory excesses of the post-
colonial African state can deny the vital importance of market
signals in the proper management of macroeconomic life. The
problem is the particular way the market has been privileged in the
reform process as a miraculous panacea for Africa's economic
woes. In the current African context, it would seem that
unquestioning belief in the miracle of the market has been just as
harmful to the poor as excessive state intervention.
The second institutional plank of the reform process is the
provision of a safety net. Those who cannot avail themselves of the
new opportunities offered by the market are supposedly to be taken
care of by the provision of this safety net. Though there is the
passing acknowledgement of the responsibility of governments in
aiding distressed communities in times of insecurity (WDR, 1990),

41
SOC421 Rural Sociology and Development

the core institutions underwriting this safety net are expected to be

local communities
communities (individuals, families, and community based
organizations).

ITQ

Question
In this session, the
t concept of market is used to refer to
_____________
_____________.

Feedback
What is the Answer you gave to this question? I know that some
of you might be swayed to think
think market in this regard refers to the
point where one buys and sell. If that is your answer, you are
wrong. Market here refers to the forces of demand and supply.
supply

Study Session Summary

The concepts of social inequality and rural poverty
povert were discussed
in this session.
session. Social inequality was described in terms of the
relational processes in society that have the effect of limiting or
Summary
harming a particular group’s social status. On the other hand, rural
poverty refers to the type of poverty that is
is found in rural areas.
Over
Overall, it was shown in the session that there
t are far more
malnourished children in rural areas of Africa than in urban areas.
In the same vein, inequality and poverty between urban and rural
areas was found to be most prevalent in
in countries where the adult
population has the lowest amount of education. The lecture ended
by showing that most people living in rural areas experience more
poverty than those living in urban areas.

42
 Study Session 4Rural
Rural Poverty and Economic Reform

Assessment
SAQ 4.1 (tests learning outcomes
outcomes 4.1 and 4.2)
Describe the nature of rural poverty and institutional framework of
Assessment economic reforms in rural Africa

Bibliography

Ekong, E. Ekong. 1988. Rural Sociology: An Introduction and

Analysis of Rural Nigeria. Uyo: Dove Educational Publishers.
Publis

http://www.poverties.org/blog/poverty nigeria
http://www.poverties.org/blog/poverty-in-nigeria
Reading
http://www.un.org/en/globalissues/briefingpapers/ruralpov/pdf/ifa
http://www.un.org/en/globalissues/briefi ngpapers/ruralpov/pdf/ifa
d_rural_poverty.pdf

http://www.medwelljournals.com/fulltext/?doi=pjssci.2010.351.3
56

43
SOC421 Rural Sociology and Development

Study Session 5

Rural Social Institution

Introduction
In the previous session, we discussed rural poverty. It’s been
presented that rural poverty refers to the type of poverty that is
found in rural areas, while outbursts of social inequality are usually
grounded in issues that are concerned with accessacc to education,
health care, quality housing, traveling, transportation, and other
social goods and services. Hence, the focus of this session is to
examine rural institutions with a view to highlighting how they
effectively determine rural development.
Learning Outcomes
When you have studied this session, you should be able to:
5.1 identify the various social institutions in rural areas.

Outcomes

5.1 Overview of Rural Social Institutions

Social institutions culminate to refer to the structure and
machinery, through which a human society organizes, directs and
machinery,
executes the numerous activities required to satisfy needs of its
members. In the course of their day-to-day
day day interactions, humans
create what have been described as forms or structures in order to
enable
able them meet their needs and thus function in other ways of
life. These forms constitute the framework, channels or means
through which they function in society. Consequently, humans are
originators of forms in society, formulators of rules, regulations,
procedures, and forms or behaviour, which now governed and
controlled them. All these occur so that they can effectively
function and fulfill their different needs.
In this light, social institutions have been created by humans as
forms of social relationships
relationships in society that enable them meet their
basic needs such as stability, law and order, clearly defined roles or
authority and decision making.

44
 Study Session 5Rural
Rural Social Institution

Outbursts of social inequality are usually grounded in issues that are

concerned with access to education,
education, health care, quality housing, traveling,
transportation, and other social goods and services. On the other hand, rural
poverty refers to the type of poverty that is found in rural areas.
Tip
In this session, we shall discuss five major social institutions
institutio that
are found in rural societies. Nonetheless, these institutions are also
present in other societies; thus, they are often referred to as the
basic institutions of society. These include:

5.1.1 Family
This is the institution that provides care, protection
protec and nature of
children. The family is the basic unit of all societies. It is a basic
social group and system, and it is the most important universal
social institution. The family is usually described as a kinship
group linked by blood and marriage and and occupying a common
household. A household in this sense is not the same with a family.
A household refers to all persons occupying the same house, and
include relatives as well as lodgers. The family as a social group is
made up of a man, his wife or wives
wives and children living under a
common roof, interacting and influencing the behaviour of each
other in a more intimate manner than with others who do not
belong to that family.

The study of the family is important to rural sociologists because

the family has a great influence on the personality of individuals; it
is a basic social as well as economic unit. It assists individuals in
the adoption of innovations and most farmers in rural areas are
heads of families and households. The extension agent and all those
involved in change at the rural level need to be conversant with the
variations in family organization that exist in the country in order
to design appropriate strategies for reaching family members with
their innovations.

5.1.2 Education
This
his institution
institution imparts knowledge, skills and society acceptable
attitudes and values. Education as an activity entails the process of
transmitting and acquiring the socially approved aspects of cultural
heritage. The process of socialization or culture learning is believed
to begin informally in the family, the community and then formally
in schools. There are different forms of formal educational facilities
in rural Nigeria. These include (a) informal out-of
out of-school education
offered to rural families by experts. ThisThis type of education is
commonly known as extension education, (b) semi-formal
semi literacy
education organized for adults who had no opportunity to acquire

45
SOC421 Rural Sociology and Development

formal education at earlier age; this type is often called adult

education. (c) formal education offered at the primary and
secondary levels to rural children and adolescents. At the primary
level, two main types of education can be identified in Nigeria: the
western type and the koranic type of education. Until recently, most
parts of rural northern Nigeria had only koranic schools whereas
western-type of schools have always predominated in the south.

5.1.3 Political Institutions

These include traditional structures that provide for law, orders,

and settlement of disputes among community members.

5.1.4 Religious Institutions

Religious institutions are known for prescribing sacrifices, prayers
and worship as a part of relation with the divine, consisting of God
and the ancestors. In rural Nigeria and in most African societies,
life is regarded as a continuous interaction between the sacred and
the profane. This means that every creature is held to have a
separate soul matter, thus, virtually every social activity has its
religious significance. Beliefs provide the necessary channel by
which people orient themselves to their environment in ways they
find satisfying. In other words, it is through people holding beliefs
that they find meanings to their lives, explain their frustration and
justify their actions or inactions. People often cling to their beliefs
because they derive emotional satisfaction from them. The holding
of a similar set of basic beliefs by a group of people also forms the
foundation of co-operative existence and interdependence.
Traditional rural communities especially in Nigeria exist and
maintain their identities based on the ancestral history of the
founders of such communities. Similarly, families remain as single
units based on their belief in commonness of identity and interests.
This type of primary belief may be objectified in external symbols
such as community or family shrines, totems and other objects of
common worship. The entire system of behaviour and social
relationships which build up around belief systems may constitute
an institution. What people believe determine how they think, view,
act and shape their world generally.
Religious beliefs and practices in rural communities in Nigeria can
be divided into two categories. These include the indigenous
religious beliefs and practices and the foreign religious beliefs and

46
 Study Session 5Rural Social Institution

practices, this category consist of Christian and Muslim religious

beliefs and practices.

5.1.5Economic Institutions (Occupation)

Economic institutions in rural societies provide basic physiological
needs of the body which include food, shelter and clothing.
Farming is assumingly the dominant occupation in rural areas. It is
the economic institutions that have the responsibility of
arrangement of relationships between people for the sustained
production, distribution and consumption of goods and services
within a given culture. The basic factors of production in any
economy have been identified as land, labour, capital and
entrepreneurship. According to Karl Marx, among the different
factors of production, labour is the most crucial; as it is labour that
produces capital and entrepreneurship.

In this section, we shall briefly look at the various occupations and

the prevailing systems of farming in rural Nigeria and to also
examine the roles of the government in boasting the rural economy.
According to the Concise Oxford Dictionary, the term ‘occupation’
refers to ‘temporary or regular employment, business, calling, or
pursuit’. However to the sociologist, occupation involves a
complex of activities which:

(i) is differentiated from other complex activities and is

performed regularly;
(ii) provides goods and services to other persons in the
society;
(iii) constitutes a regular means of support; and
(iv) requires appropriate training, entitling the individual to
pursue the occupation specifically as an occupation, that
is, to perform its functions regularly for the benefit of
others in exchange for means of support.
It is worthy to note that the greater proportion of economic
activities in Nigerian rural areas depend directly or indirectly on the
exploitation of the land. This means that rural dwellers are
principally occupied in farming, animal husbandary, fishing,
hunting, food processing and other cottage activities. So far,
occupations in rural areas are not all farm-oriented. Other forms of
secondary industrial and service occupations abound in Nigerian
rural areas. Some of these occupations include carpentry, weaving,
carving, leather works, pottery, saw milling, bicycle and
motorcycle repairing, native doctoring, bricklaying, dressmaking,
retailed trading, etc. even though there are many of these non-farm
activities and occupations in rural areas, it can be seen that the level
and intensity of these activities and occupations is usually over-

47
SOC421 Rural Sociology and Development

shadowed by agricultural activities.

ITQ

Question
--------- is not a social institution
nstitution in the rural area.
a. Church
b. Mosque
c. Building
d. Labour unions

Feedback
Whichever the option you must have chosen, it will be important
that we remind you that the church and mosque are both religious
institutions. Oh you just exclaimed! Well, none of options A and B
is correct. Labour unions are economic institutions (they can fall
under political as well) so it will be wrong to choose option D. I
can see that someone also picked that. Anyways, the right option
and the option which is not a social institution
institution is C because a
building is only an architectural structure and not a social
institution.

Study Session Summary

Social institutions were described in this session as the structure
and machinery, through which a human society organizes, directs
and executes the numerous activities involved in the satisfaction of
Summary human needs. The session discussed the family, education,
political, religious and economic institutions, highlighting how
they effectively determine rural development.

Assessment
SAQ 5.1 (tests learning outcome 5.1)
Mention and describe the role of rural social institutions in rural
Assessment
development?

48
 Study Session 5Rural Social Institution

Bibliography

Ekong, E. Ekong. 1988. Rural Sociology: An Introduction and

Analysis of Rural Nigeria. Uyo: Dove Educational Publishers.

http://www.nou.edu.ng/uploads/NOUN_OCL/pdf/pdf2/AEM%20
Reading
202%20MAIN%20TEXT%20222.pdf

http://www.sociologyguide.com/basic-concepts/Social-
Institutions.php

http://agriinfo.in/?page=topic&superid=7&topicid=589

49
SOC421 Rural Sociology and Development

Study Session 6

Sociall Structure of Pre-Capitalist

Pre Capitalist
Agricultural Societies
Introduction
Tendencies to expansion and resulting problems are common to all
societies. However, their specific location and the impact on the
development of individual societies as well as the ways in which
each society copes with them vary greatly. The social structure of
pre--capitalist
capitalist agricultural societies varies widely, from primitive
social structural pattern to the differing literate patterns. In this
study session, we shall discuss the social structure
structure of pre-capitalist
pre
agricultural societies in terms of examining the different categories
of pre-agricultural
pre agricultural societies and also the roots of modernity in rural
sociology.
Learning Outcomes
When you have studied this session, you should be able to:
6.1 critically analyze the social structural arrangement of pre-
pre
capitalist agricultural societies.
Outcomes 6.2 explain the roots of modernity in rural sociology.

6.1 Social Structural Arrangement of

of Pre-Capitalist
Pre
Agricultural Societies
It is worthy to note that that the social structure of pre-capitalist
pre
agricultural societies, like the social structure of all other societies,
is not stationary or changeless. On the contrary, the social structure
of pre-capitalist
pre capitalist agricultural societies was continuously changing.
Although
though the processes of the change were of different scope,
dimension, and import. The change principally impinged on
existing patterns of social life and cultural traditions, while at the
same time opening up new social and cultural horizons, and vistas
off participation in new institutional and cultural orders. Notably,
even within the different pre-capitalist
pre capitalist agricultural societies, the
scope and nature of the new vistas that were thus opened up, vary
greatly in different situations within the different societies;
s likewise

50
 Study Session 6Social Structure of Pre-Capitalist Agricultural Societies

the reactions to these changes and the ways of solving the

concomitant problems which they present to the members of the
society. The social structural arrangement in pre-capitalist
agricultural societies had been distinguished into three basic
categories; these include:
(i) Small-scale social-structural framework
This consists of membership and the structure of roles and of the
organization of the various social groups and communities.
(ii) Limited institutional framework
This consists of the incorporation of the various new outside
groups, like administrative or merchant groups, that have variations
with the central sphere.
(iii) Central institutional framework
This category is concerned with the overall or central institutional
framework as evident in the creation of tribal federations which
have broader political and religious frameworks, with new levels of
differentiation and social complexity. This social structure also
emphasized the establishment of new societal centres and of new
relations between the centres and the periphery – the broader strata
of society.

ITQ

Question
The structural arrangement of pre-Capitalists agricultural societies
can be divided into ___________ categories.
a. Two
b. Three
c. Four
d. five

Feedback
From what we have studied in this group, it will be wrong to say
the classification is into two, four, or five categories. We studied
here that we have only three basic categories. The right option is
B. I HOPE YOU GOT THAT RIGHT? Wonderful!

6.2 The Roots of Modernity in Rural Sociology

It is worthy to note that much of the social theory underlying
‘traditionality’ and ‘modernity’ flows from the ideas of Max Weber
and Emile Durkheim. Durkheim in his work The Division of
Labour in Society differentiated between two basic types of

51
SOC421 Rural Sociology and Development

societies,
soci eties, of which each of these societies is founded on distinct
forms of social cohesion. According to him, traditional societies
were held together by ‘mechanical solidarity’ based on group
similarity, with their members adhering to a rigid pattern of
traditional norms and values. By contrast, modern societies
traditional
developed more specialized functions and institutions, thereby
facilitating the rise of ‘organic solidarity’ and prompting increasing
social differentiation. Weber, like Durkheim, sought to explain theth
key factors, particularly those connected with industrialization;
these were the factors which according to Weber were responsible
for making ‘modern’ Western societies distinct from others. In his
work, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, he
concentrated on the emergence of a Protestant ‘work ethic’ and
frugality based not in economics, but in religious structures against
waste and extravagance. In addition, he stressed the appearance of
rationalization; a cultural process that he believed was peculiar to
Western society.

ITQ

Question
____________is
____________ is the author of the book, The Division of Labour in
Society.
Feedback
What option did you fill in? That’s great! Your option will be
correct if you enter Emile Durkheim. His name was mentioned
earlier in this section.

Study Session Summary

In this session,
session, we have discussed the social structure of pre- pre
capitalist agricultural societies in terms of examining the different
categories of pre-agricultural
pre agricultural societies and also the roots of
Summary modernity
odernity in rural sociology.

Assessment
SAQ 6.1 (tests learning outcomes 6.1 and 6.2)
Describe the form of the social structure in pre-capitalist
pre
Assessment
agricultural societies and its connection to the roots of modernity
in the discourse of rural sociology?
s

52
 Study Session 6Social Structure of Pre-Capitalist Agricultural Societies

Bibliography

Ekong, E. Ekong. 1988. Rural Sociology: An Introduction and

Analysis of Rural Nigeria. Uyo: Dove Educational Publishers.

John, D. E and Warner, W. K. 1965. Contemporary Issues in

Reading
Rural Sociology. The Wisconsin Sociologist, vol.4(4)

53
SOC421 Rural Sociology and Development

Study Session 7

Women in Rural Societies

Introduction
The fact that there are anatomical and physiological differences in
the make-up
make up of males and females has been of little controversy;
however, how these differences have shapedshaped social relationships
between the sexes have been of immense interest to scholars.
Studies across human societies have entrenched that social
organizations had been characterized by some degree of male
domination, that is, ‘rule of the father’ also known
kno as patriarchy.
This has given rise to the tendency where the male sex is believed
to be superior to the female. In this study session, we shall examine
the ideological underpinning of the treatment of women in Nigerian
rural communities.
Learning Outcomes
omes
When you have studied this session, you should be able to:
7.1 explain the contributions of women in the development of their
respective societies.
Outcomes 7.2 the experience of women farmers

7.1 Women in Rural Societies

The examination of rural women in Nigeria will be discussed under
two sub-headings:
sub women in pre-colonial,
colonial, colonial and
independence periods, known also as women in traditional society;
and women in post-independent
post periods.

The Traditional Rural Women

The traditional economy depended largely
largely on women and their
value to the society was recognized, respected and protected
through established traditional institutions. These were equally
expressed in folklores, idioms and symbolism. The traditional
Yoruba man for instance marries many wives. A woman’s status in
the family compound is actually determined by the date of marriage
into the compound. Hence, the woman is junior to all men born
before this date and thus, she call these men ‘her husband’ or by
other nicknames if distantly related. Women
Women in the traditional

54
 Study Session 7Women in Rural Societies

Yoruba society are usually traders and this sex-role had given them
more autonomy economically and a higher degree of mobility to
and from distant markets than women of other traditional societies
in Nigeria. The husband is expected to provide the initial capital for
his wife to start her trade or craft, but she keeps the profits. Trade
in food stuffs and clothes are for women while men sell meat and
cash crops like cocoa, palm kernel and oil. Where a woman assists
the farming husband to harvest cocoa for example, she is paid
directly or indirectly for it. Likewise, if the woman uses her
husband’s crop, she buys it from him. The men do not usually trust
their wives to market their surplus produce for them.
Levine (1971) had shown that Yoruba women are expected to be
economically independent, quick to divorce their husbands if they
find a more advantageous match and they are generally difficult to
control. Some traditional cults such as the Gelede even require the
male priests to wear female clothing and/or hair style. The
prevalence of ritual transvestism among the Yoruba further
underlines the dominant status of the females in the Yoruba
traditional society. The men therefore experience intense relative
deprivation, distrust and hostility toward their women.
In broad terms, gender relations in Nigerian rural societies during
the traditional era took the following form:
1. The traditional Nigerian society was by and large,
patriarchal.
2. Polygyny was dominant with plurality of wives often
augmenting the husband’s power in the marital relationship.
3. Women are valued for their monthly functions hence barren
women were likely to be dispensed with more readily. Each
wife with her children constituted a separate unit of
production whether the woman was a farmer or a trader.
4. Except in Muslims dominated areas, women were generally
free to form and join local associations.
5. Whatever men did, constituted the norms or were
considered superior to the ‘supplementary’ contributions
made by women. Men therefore felt threatened whenever
women tended to have the upper hand socially or
economically. They were often accused of being witches or
sexually immoral.
6. Women rarely had direct rights to land ownership. Their
access to land was contingent on their marriage to land-
owning husbands. However, a woman who wanted to farm
could make arrangements to borrow land on annual basis.
7. Marriage is a cultural institution and there is no known

55
SOC421 Rural Sociology and Development

Nigerian culture in which the process of marriage is

expected to be initiated by the woman even in seemingly
matriarchal societies. This reality therefore imposes on the
man the responsibility of being the protector and leader of
his family.
8. Dissolution of marriage was easy. A woman was expected
to put more efforts than the man in keeping her marriage.
9. On the death of a man, his wife was free to stay on with her
children, be married to the husband’s brother or be married
to an outsider. She could not however inherit her husband’s
estate.
10. There is no culture where women are regarded as superior
to men. All religions (both traditional and foreign) usually
recognize and uphold the superiority of the man over the
woman as a divine prescription.
11. Although women had problems, particularly those arising
from polygynous marriage, they appear to have accepted
their gender roles. They perceived and defined their lot in
terms of their cultures.

Post-Independence Rural Women

In this section, we shall briefly consider the common factors that
have underpinned the changing position of women in post-
independence Nigeria. These summarily include colonization
which has led to the exposure of Nigerian cultures to the influences
of European and American cultures; formal western education of
both males and female; monetization of the traditional economy;
Christian and Islamic religious practices overriding traditional
value systems leading in most cases, to value-dualism as coping
strategy; the introduction of the civil service, the professions, the
industries and private sectors thereby varying available occupations
in the society beyond farming for subsistence. These factors and
many others have brought the persistence of some traditional sex
roles to question and underlined the need to identify and redress
inherent inequalities.
From the discussion so far, it is clear that rural women form a
substantial proportion of the nation’s population and cannot
therefore be ignored. They contribute directly to the gross domestic
product (GDP) of the nation and particularly to agricultural
production and the overall national food security.

56
 Study Session 7Women in Rural Societies

ITQ

Question
Women play little or no vital tole in rural societies. TRUE or
FALSE.
Feedback
I AM NOT SURPRISED THAT YOU CHOSE FALSE. This is
expected given that throughout this section, we did not cease to
praise the role of women in the development of their society.
hence you are right that the statement above is FALSE.

7.2 A Focus on Women Farmers

Women in developing countries, including Nigeria, actually work
longer hours than men, in housekeeping, childcare, fetching fuel-
wood and water, and in the fields ( FAO 1985; Schultz 1989;
Collier1987; Birdsall and McGreevey 1983; World Bank 1989a,
1989f, 1989r). According to FAO, women contribute up to three-
fourths of the labour required to produce the food-consumed in
Africa. Furthermore, it is revealed that African women also provide
about 90 percent of the labour for processing food crops and
providing household water and fuel-wood. Likewise, they
contribute about 80 percent of the work in food storage and
transport from farm to village; 90 percent of the work in hoeing and
weeding; and 60 percent of the work in harvesting and marketing
(FAO 1985). Women in Africa typically work up to 16 hours per
day, due to their diverse and numerous responsibilities (Kaul
1989). The poorer the household, the larger the share of total output
generated from the unrecognized labour of women, and possibly
the higher the percentage contribution of women's income to family
income. Maternal health and the amount and the quality of the time
women have available for child care is shown to influence the size
and the quality of the population through the effects on fertility and
mortality rates and the health and education of children (Schultz,
1989).
While cultural diversity makes generalizations difficult, it is
evident that African women's greater direct responsibility for the
food security and welfare of their households than is typical in Asia
and Latin America derives in part from the practice of polygamy.
Men have offspring from a number of wives; often several semi-
autonomous households operate in a common compound. Each
wife's interest tends to revolve around the welfare of her own
children. Whether men or women command the factors of
production (through the right to cultivate land, ability to mobilize
labor and technology, and access to information, services, and

57
SOC421 Rural Sociology and Development

infrastructure) influences the nature, source, size, and distribution

of income within the family, as well as the resultant patterns of
consumption, savings, and investment.
The importance of focusing on female farmers is accentuated by
the rising numbers of households which are female headed and may
consequently be comprised of only female farmers and their
dependents. This trend is of particular concern as female-headed
households are among the poorest (Sadik 1989; Youssef and Hetler
1983) and report lower per capita income than those headed by
men (Schultz 1989). In some countries, including Nigeria, Kenya
and Malawi, the poorer the household, the more likely it is to be
headed by a woman (World Bank 1989). Although there is a wide
variation of the definition of the term ‘household head’; female-
headed households include households headed by single mothers,
divorced or widowed women, that is women whose husbands have
deserted them (de jure) and those headed by women whose
husbands are away for an unspecified amount of time, including
migrant-labourers, or whose husbands make only a marginal
contribution to the maintenance of the household due to disability,
unemployment, etc. (de facto) (Youssef and Hetler1983). As
female-headed households are not homogenous in character, it is
worthy to point out here that policies devised to address their needs
must take into account the specific social, economic, and political
conditions and constraints which they face.
ITQ

Question
Women in Africa typically work up to ___ hours per day.
a. 24
b. 12
c. 10
d. 16
Feedback
What option did you choose? Option A, B, and C are wrong
because none of them reflects what we have studied earlier in this
section. According to what we studied in this section, the right
option is D.

58
 Study Session 7Women
Women in Rural Societies

Study Session Summary

This session discussed the anatomical and physiological
differences between males and females; describing how these
differences has shaped social relationships
relationships between the sexes. We
Summary ended the session with a discussion focused on women farmers
and households headed by females. It was recommended that
policies devised to address challenges of patriarchy needs to take
into account the specific social, economic, and political
politic conditions
and constraints which women face.

Assessment
SAQ 7.1 (tests learning outcomes 7.1 AND 7.2)
Discuss the role of women in rural societies, with special mention
Assessment
of women farmers?

Bibliography
Hindess, Barry and Hirst, Q. Paul. 1975. Pre-Capitalist
Capitalist Modes of
Production. Contributors: London: Routledge and K. Paul.
http://www.vanguardngr.com/2012/01/a-brief-note
http://www.vanguardngr.com/2012/01/a note-on-the-
condition
ondition-of-rural-areas-in-nigeria/
Reading
http://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/html/10.11648.j.ss.2015
0405.11.html

59
SOC421 Rural Sociology and Development

Study Session 8

Colonialism
ialism and European Capitalism on
Rural Societies in Africa
Introduction
Before the advent of the Europeans and colonialists into what is
now known the African continent, or the Third World in general; it
is worthy to note that societies that were in existence
exist at that time
had organized and structured ways of conducting their lives and
their relations with other societies and peoples. With the coming of
the Europeans (colonialism/imperialism), a lot of political,
economic and cultural changes have occurred within the social
structure of various African societies, particularly the Nigerian
society. It is the effects of these changes on the politics, economy
and the general way of life of rural societies in
in Africa that we shall
discuss in this study session.
Learning
earning Outcomes
When you have studied this session, you should be able to:
8.1 provide theoretical explanations to effects of colonialism and
European capitalism on rural societies in the Third World.
Outcomes

8.1 Theoretical Explanations of Colonialism on Third

World
Since the 1950s, different theoretical orientations have emerged to
explain the effects of colonialism on post-colonial
post colonial Third World
societies. The concern of these theories is how Third world
countries, especially in the African continent, could
cou be transformed
and made more productive. In broad terms, colonialism has come
to mean many things to a wide range of actors and vested interests.
Each of this perspective gives a unique explanation of the effects of
colonialism on Third World societies. Nonetheless, the dominant
position of colonialism and imperialism sees the world from the
perspectives of the so-called
so called ‘Eurocentric’ or ‘Economic North’
position, that is, perspectives that portray African societies from the

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Study Session 8Colonialism and European Capitalism on Rural Societies in Africa

dominant political and economic interests prevalent in Europe,

Japan and North America (Aina, 1997; Slater, 1995). Two
theoretical orientations that have attempted to explain colonialism
in Third World societies: Modernization theory and Dependency
theory will be discussed briefly.

Modernization Theory
Moore (1964) had described what modernization is all about. He
described modernization as “…a total transformation of a
traditional or pre-modern society into the types of technology and
associated social organization that characterizes the ‘advanced’
economically prosperous and politically stable nations of the
Western World”. This theory suggests that all societies have to
follow essentially the same path towards progress and political
stability. The position of the theory is well illustrated by W.W.
Rostow’s (1960) five stages of economic growth. That is all
societies pass through: a traditional stage; pre-conditions for take-
off stage; a take-off stage; a drive to maturity stage; and then
finally to an age of high mass consumption.
Generally, modernization theorists usually ignore the international
context of change and exploitation, for example, theorists here do
not believe that phenomena like colonialism and imperialism are
important in understanding and explaining the underdevelopment
and the stagnant economic growth in most part of the Third World,
especially in Africa.

Dependency Theory
A notable scholar of the dependency theory is Andre Gunder
Frank. He had described modernization theory as “empirically
invalid, theoretically inadequate and politically ineffective”
(Harrison, 1988). Frank introduced the concept of
‘underdevelopment’ to explain the impact of colonialism in relation
to developing countries with their advanced counterpart. With
particular interest of Chile, Frank argued that the
underdevelopment of Third World societies was a product of
centuries (four) of capitalist development and of the internal
contradictions of colonialism and capitalism. Dependency theorists
based their argument on a single international model with two
spheres or sides, that is, the core and periphery, which interact in an
unequal relationship. According to dependency theorists, the core
countries of the North grow wealthy by exploiting the
subordinating the resources, markets, and labour of the peripheral
countries of the South. According to them, the poverty and
underdevelopment of Third World countries is mainly due to the
unequal structure of the international system.

61
SOC421 Rural Sociology and Development

Socially, a basic character of colonialism is the fact that the

Europeans largely ignored the social effects of colonialism and
imperialism on the African people. When the new ‘borders’ and
‘boundaries’ of Africa were drawn at the Berlin Conference, of
which Africans never had any input, the Europeans drew the lines
according to what they wanted, and not what the African people
had already established. The effect of this was that many ethnic and
religious groups, and even sometimes families, were split up,
causing mass havoc and chaos. The social impacts of colonialism
are probably the most widespread. In addition, the following are the
other social effects of colonialism on African societies and
cultures:
(i) Enlarged Differences in Standard of Living: Even though
there were in fact very large differences of wealth and
ownership of cattle in most traditional African societies for
example before the advent of colonialism; nonetheless,
differences in standards of living were small. For instance,
a rich man, even the chief, slept in the same kind of hut,
slept on a mat on the ground, ate the same food, wore the
same clothes (most times skins) as other poor members of
the community. In another instance, even the chief or rich
man’s wife was expected to do the same tasks and work as
a poor man’s wife. In pre-colonial Africa, wealth gave
greater status, greater security and more influence, but did
not involve significant differences in standards of living.
The prevailing value system then revered rich people who
share their wealth – this is actually what gave these rich
men influence. Anyone who was a kin (family
relationships were maintained on a vastly broader scale
than what it is in an imperial society) have a right to
request help if they needed it and society generally
regarded it as an obligation on the part of the rich to
provide it.
(ii) Social Disorder: The social effects of colonialism in
Africa can also be explained in terms of social disorder.
Since colonialism, Africans had been forced to recognize
invisible cultural boundaries that they have not been
exposed to before. European settlers moved in to various
parts of the continent and created a dominant minority.
Sometimes people within tribes would attempt to make it
seem as if they had a legitimate reason to rule or be in a
position of power when they did not. This has really
caused social disorder and cultural disarray in most part of
the continent. Furthermore, since different tribes and
peoples were forced together by the Europeans when they
carved up Africa using these invisible boundaries – this
indeed had aggravated social disharmony and tension in

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Study Session 8Colonialism and European Capitalism on Rural Societies in Africa

contemporary Africa.
(iii) Loss of Tribal Identity: Also, many tribes were forced to
learn just enough European schooling and culture to be
'civilized' in the eyes of the Europeans. In doing this, many
African tribes lost their tribal identity, that is, their
customs, belief systems, as children of the tribe grew up
knowing only what they had learned from the Europeans.
(iv) Development of a Sense of Nationalism: This can be
considered as one of the positive effects of imperialism in
Africa. In Nigeria for instance, it can be said that the
beginning of modern Nigeria is traced to 1900 when the
British established effective political control over three
separate territories, namely; the colony of Lagos; the
protectorate of Northern Nigeria; and the protectorate of
Southern Nigeria. It was at the spread of overt colonial
control that the ethnic groups in modern Nigeria came
together under a commonly felt sense of national identity.
That is they began to see themselves not as Hausas, Igbos
or Yorubas, but as Nigerians in a common struggle against
their colonial rulers. The nationalistic movement grew out
of increased activities of western education that was
instituted by the British. The educated elite became some
of the most outspoken proponents of an independent
Nigeria. These elites had grown weary of the harsh racism
they faced in business and administrative jobs within the
government. With increased activities of the western
culture during colonialism, both enlightened and
uneducated Nigerians began to grow fearful of the
increasing loss of traditional culture. They began
movements to promote Nigerian foods, names, dress,
languages, and religions. Increased urbanization and higher
education also brought large multiethnic groups together
for the first time. As a result of this coming together,
Nigerians saw that they had more in common with each
other than they had previously thought. This sparked
unprecedented levels of inter-ethnic teamwork. Nigerian
political movements, media outlets, and trade unions
whose purpose was the advancement of all Nigerians, not
specific ethnic groups, became commonplace.
(v) Changes in Consumption Pattern: Western influences,
especially in urban centres, have transformed Nigerian
eating habits in many ways. City dwellers are now familiar
with the canned, frozen, and prepackaged foods found in
most western-style supermarkets. Foreign restaurants also
are common in larger cities. Even rural Nigerians are no
more sticking with traditional foods and preparation
techniques. Food in Nigeria is traditionally eaten with
hands. However, with the growing influence of western

63
SOC421 Rural Sociology and Development

culture and imperialism, forks and spoons are becoming

more common, even in remote villages.
ITQ

Question
One of the following is the third stage a society must go through in
economic growth, according to Rostow.
a. a traditional stage
b. a take-off stage
c. a drive to maturity stage
d. an age of high mass consumption.
Feedback
Let usanalyze the options together. Option A is the first stage in
Rostow’s classification. Option C is the fourth stage while option
D is the fifth stage. The third stage is the take-off stage. Thus, the
right option is B.
Another important impact of imperialism on African societies and
culture is the dislocation of the traditional economy of the African
people. Colonialism and in recent times, imperialism, has distorted
African pattern of economic development in many different ways.
This is evidence as seen in the disarticulation in the production of
goods, markets, traders, transport, and provision of social amenities
and pattern of urbanization and so on. Colonialism and imperialism
had introduced a pattern of international division of labour which is
to the disadvantage of Africans. Africa had been assigned the role
of production of raw materials and primary products for use by
industries in developed countries. The imperial economy system
does not really allow nor encouraged Africans to go into
manufacturing. The only industries Africans were encourage to
build were those that would facilitate in the processing of raw
materials for export. The African raw materials were bought at a
very low price while manufactured goods from developed countries
were sold at expensive price. This situation largely accounts for the
current impoverishment of most Africans.There is also
displacement in the type of goods produced by Africans.
Imperialism literally compels Africans to concentrate in the
production of goods meant for export. Africans were not
encouraged to produce those goods required by the local
population. This made many Africans to abandon the production of
food items required to feed the teeming and growing population.
The effect of this is food shortage and escalation in food prices.
The present day situation where Africans now import their food is
an effect of imperialism. The point being stressed here is that
imperialism has distorted the satisfaction of local needs in terms of
food production and other requirements in preference to production
and satisfaction of foreign needs.Imperialism had also dislodged
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Study Session 8Colonialism and European Capitalism on Rural Societies in Africa

African markets and trades (Rodney, 1972). The traditional or

original African marketing centres had been distorted by
imperialism. Most of the traditional African marketing centres and
routes were formed based on local needs. At colonialism and
imperialism, these traditional marketing centres had been changed
with the introduction of new marketing centres and routes.
Colonialists and imperialists created new marketing centres and
routes where their required raw materials could be easily bought
and evacuated back home. This has led to the gradual decay or
death of most of the original or traditional marketing centres
thereby distorting African pattern of development and urbanization;
and at the same time making African trade to be mainly export-
import oriented.Imperialism has also integrated African trade and
economy prematurely into the world market and international trade
(Rodney, 1972). It is a known fact that before a local economy
fully integrates itself into the world economy or world capitalist
system, such a local economy must have developed adequately its
internal dynamics and forces of production. The consequences of
premature integration is that such economy will be hijacked by the
more advanced ones; and the vagaries in international trade will
make the country concerned a perpetual debtor. Furthermore,
premature integration cannot absorb shock from the international
market and will never enjoy trade balance or comparative
advantage. The export-import orientation pattern of African
economy introduced by colonialism and sustained by imperialism
does not allow for accelerator and multiplier effects necessary for
economy advancement and development. The raw materials
produced by Africans are not used by industries located in Africa
but abroad. Therefore, there is no organic linkage between the
agricultural sector and the industrial sector in Africa. Consequently,
the African economy cannot move forward because the surplus
profit appropriated from the economy by the colonialists and
imperialists are not ploughed back or spent within the economy.
Another area of the African society and culture that had been
severely affected by imperialism is the transport system. Both
colonialism and imperialism had distorted and disarticulated the
development of a comprehensive transport system in Africa. The
transport network developed by the colonialists and imperialists
was not to link different towns and rural areas for purpose of
effective communication and development. Instead, transport
routes were built by the imperialists to enable them to evacuate
easily the raw materials from their sources or base to the
destination point where they could be effectively exported abroad.
The transport network developed was essentially rails and seaports.
There was no good effort to develop an organized road network
which would help to improve the lives of the African people and
their interaction with their relatives in the different parts of the
continent. The distorted, disjointed, and disarticulated transport

65
SOC421 Rural Sociology and Development

system
syst em developed by the colonialists did not allow for effective
agricultural and economic integration within the different parts of
the African continent. Colonialism and imperialism can be said to
have largely contributed to the absence of economic integration
integrati and
cooperation within the African continent.

Study Session Summary

We discussed in this session that before the advent of the
Europeans and colonialists into what is now known as the African
continent, or the Third World in general; it is worthy
wo to note that
Summary societies that were in existence at that time had organized and
structured ways of conducting their lives and their relations with
other societies and peoples. We stressed that with the coming of
the Europeans (colonialism/imperialism), a lot of political,
economic and cultural changes have occurred within the social
structure of various African societies, particularly the Nigerian
Nig
society. We capped the session with a general discussion on the
effects of these changes on the politics, economy
economy and the general
way of life of rural societies in Africa that we shall discussed in
this session.

Assessment
SAQ 8.1(tests learning outcome 8.1)
Provide theoretical explanations for the effects of colonialism and
Assessment
capitalism on rural societies
societies in the Third World.

Bibliography
Giddens, A. 1990. The Consequences of Modernity. Cambridge:
Polity Press

Reading

66
 Study Session 9Rural
Rural Sociology Research Method and Ethics

Study Session 9

Rural Sociology Research Method and

Ethics
Introduction
Rural societies have indeed served as laboratory
laboratory for scholars across
academic disciplines for over a century. The inaugural issue of the
oldest American education journal for instance, Journal of
Education, examined formal agricultural education practices
Education,
(Farmer, 1838). In recent times, there have been bee variant
orientations toward rural research, differentiated in terms of
methodological approach and attentiveness to academic outcomes,
most especially. In this session,
session, we shall look at the extent to which
the different research orientations are represented
represented across disciplines
in order to identify strategies for developing stronger trans- trans
disciplinary rural research collaborations that are necessary in the
contemporary rural development climate.
Learning Outcomes
When you have studied this session,
session, you should be able to:
9.1 identify the research designs used in rural sociology
9.2 identify the research methods used in rural sociology
Outcomes 9.3 discuss the ethics of research method.

Terminology
Research The
he systematic investigation into and study of materials
and sources in order to establish facts and reach new
conclusions.

Ethics Moral
oral principles that govern a person's or group's
behaviour.

9.1 Research Designs in Rural Sociology

Sociologists in general are well known for using many different
designs and methods
methods to study society and social behaviour. Most

67
SOC421 Rural Sociology and Development

sociological research therefore involves ethnography, or field work.

This research design is known for depicting the characteristics of a
population as fully as possible.
There are three popular social research designs(models) in rural
sociological studies. These include:
• Cross‐sectionaldesign: Research here involves the study of a
number of individuals of different ages who have the same
trait, characteristic or interest at a single time.
• Longitudinaldesign: This involves the study of the same
individuals or society repeatedly over a specified period of
time.
• Cross‐sequentialdesign: This kind of research design entails
a situation where scientists test individuals in a
cross‐sectional sample more than once over a specified
period of time.
ITQ

Question
________________ is not one of the popular research designs
used in rural sociological studies.
a. Cross-cultural
b. Cross-sequential
c. Longitudinal
d. Cross-sectional
Feedback
I am sure that some of you may confuse the options because they
seem alike. It is understandable. All the same, if you carefully
observe the options, you will see that options B, C, and D are the
popular research designs that we discussed here. However, the
idea of option A is not mentioned. So did you choose option A?
Good! You are absolutely right!

9.2 Research Methods in Rural Sociology

In this section, we shall briefly discuss the popular rural
sociological research methods or procedures. These include:
the case study, survey, observational, correlational,
experimental, and cross‐cultural methods, as well as working with
available information.

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 Study Session 9Rural Sociology Research Method and Ethics

9.2.1 The Case Study Research Method

In the case study research procedure, an investigator usually
studies an individual or small group of individuals with an unusual
condition or situation. Case studies are typically clinical in scope.
The investigator most times employs self‐report measures to
acquire quantifiable data on the subject. A comprehensive case
study, including a long‐term follow‐up, can last months or years.
One of the advantages of case studies s that they usually obtain
useful information about individuals and small groups. The
disadvantage is that case studies usually apply to individuals with
similar characteristics rather than to the general population. The
high likelihood of the investigator's biases affecting subjects'
responses limits the generalizability of this method.

9.2.2 Survey Research

Survey research involves interviewing or administering
questionnaires, or written surveys, to large numbers of people. The
investigator analyses the data obtained from surveys to learn about
similarities, differences, and trends. He or she then makes
predictions about the population being studied.
As with most research methods, survey research has both
advantages and disadvantages. It advantages include obtaining
information from a large number of respondents, conducting
personal interviews at a time convenient for respondents, and
acquiring data as inexpensively as possible. “Mail‐in” surveys have
the added advantage of ensuring anonymity and thus prompting
respondents to answer questions truthfully.
Disadvantages of survey research include volunteer bias,
interviewer bias, and distortion. Volunteer bias occurs when a
sample of volunteers is not representative of the general population.
Subjects who are willing to talk about certain topics may answer
surveys differently than those who are not willing to talk.
Interviewer bias occur when an interviewer's expectations or
insignificant gestures (for example, frowning or smiling)
inadvertently influence a subject's responses one way or the
other. Distortion occurs when a subject does not respond to
questions honestly.

9.2.3 Observational research

Because distortion can be a serious limitation of
surveys, observational researchinvolves directly observing
subjects' reactions, either in a laboratory (called laboratory
observation) or in a natural setting (called naturalistic
observation). Observational research reduces the possibility that

69
SOC421 Rural Sociology and Development

subjects will not give totally honest accounts of the experiences,

not take the study seriously, fail to remember, or feel embarrassed.

Observational research has limitations, however. Subject bias is

common, because volunteer subjects may not be representative of
the general public. Individuals who agree to observation and
monitoring may function differently than those who do not. They
may also function differently in a laboratory setting than they do in
other settings.

9.2.4 Correlational Research

A rural sociologist may also conduct correlational research.
A correlation is a relationship between two variables (or “factors
that change”). These factors can be characteristics, attitudes,
behaviours, or events. Correlational research attempts to determine
if a relationship exists between the two variables, and the degree of
that relationship.
A social researcher can use case studies, surveys, interviews, and
observational research to discover correlations. Correlations are
either positive (to +1.0), negative (to −1.0), or nonexistent (0.0). In
a positive correlation, the values of the variables increase or
decrease (“co‐vary”) together. In a negative correlation, one
variable increases as the other decreases. In a nonexistent
correlation, no relationship exists between the variables.
There is a difference between correlation and causation.
Correlational data do not indicate cause‐and‐effect relationships.
When a correlation exists, changes in the value of one variable
reflect changes in the value of the other. The correlation does not
imply that one variable causes the other, only that both variables
somehow relate to one another. To study the effects that variables
have on each other, an investigator must conduct an experiment.

9.2.5 Experimental research

Experimental research attempts to determine how and why
something happens. Experimental research tests the way in which
an independent variable (the factor that the scientist manipulates)
affects a dependent variable (the factor that the scientist observes).
A number of factors can affect the outcome of any type of
experimental research. One is finding samples that are random and
representative of the population being studied. Another
is experimenter bias, in which the researcher's expectations about
what should or should not happen in the study sway the results.
Still another is controlling for extraneous variables, such as room
temperature or noise level, that may interfere with the results of the
experiment. Only when the experimenter carefully controls for
extraneous variables can she or he draw valid conclusions about the
effects of specific variables on other variables.
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 Study Session 9Rural Sociology Research Method and Ethics

9.2.6 Cross-cultural Research

Sensitivity to other peoples' norms, folkways, values, mores,
attitudes, customs, and practices necessitates knowledge of other
societies and cultures. Rural sociologists may
conduct cross‐cultural research, or research designed to reveal
variations across different groups of people. Most cross‐cultural
research involves survey, direct observation, and participant
observation methods of research.
Participant observation requires that an “observer” become a
member of his or her subjects' community. An advantage of this
method of research is the opportunity it provides to study what
actually occurs within a community, and then consider that
information within the political, economic, social, and religious
systems of that community. Cross‐cultural research demonstrates
that Western cultural standards do not necessarily apply to other
societies. What may be “normal” or acceptable for one group may
be “abnormal” or unacceptable for another.

9.2.7 Research with Existing Data, or Secondary

Analysis
Some rural sociologists conduct research by using data that other
social scientists have already collected. The use of publicly
accessible information is known as secondary analysis, and is most
common in situations in which collecting new data is impractical or
unnecessary. Rural Sociologists may obtain statistical data for
analysis from historical sources to generate their hypotheses.

ITQ

Question
Pick the odd item here.
a. the case study, survey, correlational, and experimentall
methods.
b. the case study, observational,
experimental, andcross‐cultural methods.
c. the case study, survey, experimental, and cross‐cultural
methods.
d. the case study, survey,individual and cross‐cultural
methods

Feedback
What can you say that cuts across each of the options? What cuts
across them is that they are a list of research methods in rural

71
SOC421 Rural Sociology and Development

sociological studies. Going from there, you will agree with me that
options A, B, and C all have correct list of some of the research
methods that we have discussed here. However, a look at option D
will reveal to you that there is an imputation of an item, individual,
which is not a type of research design. Thus, option D is the odd
item here.

9.3 Ethics in Rural Sociological Research

Ethics are self‐regulatory guidelines for making decisions and
defining professions. By establishing ethical codes, professional
organizations maintain the integrity of the profession, define the
expected conduct of members, and protect the welfare of subjects
and clients. Moreover, ethical codes give professionals direction
when confronting ethical dilemmas, or confusing situations.
A researcher must remain mindful of her or his ethical
responsibilities to participants. A researcher's primary duty is to
protect the welfare of the subjects. For example, a researcher whose
study requires extensive questioning of volunteers' personal
information should screen the subjects beforehand to assure that the
questioning will not distress them. A researcher should also inform
subjects about their expected roles in the study, the potential risks
of participating, and their freedom to withdraw from the study at
any time without consequences. Agreeing to participate in a study
based on disclosure of this type of information constitutes informed
consent. After the study is finished, the researcher should provide
subjects with complete details about the study. Providing details at
the conclusion of an experiment is called debriefing.

ITQ

Question
ITQ
A researcher should ____________.
a. Always protect the welfare of his research subjects
b. Generate data on his own
c. Coerce his research subjects
d. Unduly influence his research subjects
Feedback
Did you choose option A or B or C or D? WELL IT IS RIGHT
AND TRUE that the duty of a researcher is to protect the welfare
of his research subjects but it is not true that a researcher should
generate his own data, coerce his research subjects, or unduly
influence them. Thus, options B, C, and D are wrong. The right

72
 Study Session 9Rural
Rural Sociology Research Method and Ethics

option is A.

Study Session Summary

Inn this session,
session we discussed that sociologists in general are well
known for using many different research designs and methods to
study society and social behaviour. That most rural sociological
Summary research involves ethnography, or field work.. This research
rese design
is known for depicting the characteristics of a population as fully
as possible. Rural sociological methods and ethics in rural
sociological research
research were discussed in the session.
session

Assessment
SAQ 9.1 (tests
(t learning outcomes 9.1 and 9.2)
Identify and discuss research methods and designs in rural
Assessment
sociology.
SAQ 9.2 (tests learning outcome 9.3)
Discuss the ethics of research methods in rural sociology.

Bibliography
https://opentextbc.ca/introductiontosociology/chapter/chapter2-
https://opentextbc.ca/introductiontosociology/chapter/chapter2
sociological
sociological-research/
https://www.jstor.org/stable/2766195?seq=1#page_scan_tab_cont
https://www.jstor.org/stable/2766195?seq=1#p age_scan_tab_cont
ents
Reading

73
SOC421 Rural Sociology and Development

Study Session 10

Social Processes in Rural Societies

Introduction
In this session, we shall discuss main processes of the social
system, which according to Looms and Beegle include the
processes of communication, decision-making,
deci making, socialization and
social control, socio-cultural
socio cultural or systemic linkage and boundary
maintenance.
Learning Outcomes
When you have studied this session, you should be able to
10.1 explain the main social processes in rural societies.

Outcomes

10.1 Social Processes and Rural Societies

Group relationships often involve a dynamic interplay of forces in
which contacts between persons in the group result in a
modification of the attitudes and behaviour of those involved. This
situation is referred to social
social interaction. This type of interaction
entails interpersonal contact, reciprocal response and an inner
adjustment of behaviour to the actions of others. It is the social
interaction that assumes a repetitive pattern that becomes a social
process.

10.1. Social Processes in Rural Societies

10.1.1
Robert Park and Ernest Burgess have defined social process as
those ‘repetitive forms of behaviour commonly found in social
life’. Commonly identified in this category are the processes of co-
co
operation, competition, conflict,
conflict, accommodation, assimilation and
acculturation. These processes are grouped as associative and
antagonistic social processes. The associative category includes
social processes such as co-operation,
co operation, accommodation and
assimilation; on the other hand, the antagonistic types include
competition and conflict. It is worthy to note that in practice within
rural societies, these social processes are not strictly mutually
exclusive but exist as reciprocal aspects of the same social

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 Study Session 10Social Processes in Rural Societies

experience.

Co-operation
Due to human limitations in terms of time, energy, specialized
knowledge, and other resources, both individual as well as group
aspirations and goals can be more efficiently and less strenuously
attained through combined efforts of two or more individuals. This
form of social interaction in which two or more people work
together as a team to achieve common goals is known as co-
operation. People co-operate for various reasons. Co-operation can
also arise as a result of the need to attain group goals. Co-operation
is therefore an interaction which is oriented towards specific goals.
Although symbiotic co-operation exists in human interaction, co-
operation is usually classified as either informal or formal
depending upon the level of spontaneity or deliberate plan entailed.
Informal co-operation is a more or less spontaneous solidary
behaviour among members of primary groups such as the family
and neighbourhood. It entails no formal compulsion or contract but
may grow out of the need to render assistance, strengthen familial
bonds or for mere companionship. Generally, the co-operators in
this case are known to one another on an intimate, face-to-face
basis and can lay claims on each other’s assistance at any time. In
Nigerian rural societies for instance, children of the various
compounds in a given neighbourhood often co-operate in their
recreational activities and may even gang themselves up to perform
family tasks like roof renovation or bush clearing for each other in
rotation.
Formal co-operation involves deliberate and rational interaction
between persons and groups. The co-operators may not necessarily
be acquainted intimately but co-operate on contractual basis with
the expected mutual obligations being clearly spelt out in advance.
In Nigerian rural communities, the need and practice of co-
operation is well appreciated. This is evident with the proliferation
of fraternal bodies, social and religious organizations in nearly all
rural communities. Through this kind of interaction, such
communities are able to meet both individual as well as group
goals. At the primary group level, co-operation promotes
integration and solidarity. It engenders a sense of mutual moral
obligation which therefore enhances systemic linkage, making
room for efficiency based on specialization and division of labour.

Competition
Most both natural and human resources exist in limited quantities,
thus, they are scarce. Completion is the form of social interaction in
which people struggle for the possession of material and non-

75
SOC421 Rural Sociology and Development

material rewards which are in limited or scarce supply. In a

polygamous family for instance, the wives struggle and compete
for the affection of the husband; likewise in the family with many
children, the children struggle and compete for the attention of the
parent. In rural communities, people compete for traditional titles
and positions. In a formal setting, events like entrance examination,
aptitude tests, interviews, had all been instituted to eliminate
competitors to the barest minimum. Competition therefore serves to
allocate scarce resources. It also sharpens individual initiative and
may enhance productivity.
On the contrary, competition may breed hostility and acrimony on
the part of the loser toward the winner. Thus, instead of fostering
systemic linkage, competition may lead to systemic isolation.
Systems that must work together must therefore minimize
competition. Various social systems do have inbuilt mechanisms
for restricting certain forms of competition. Where completion is
allowed, the society needs to devise rules to guide those in such
competition.

Conflict
As stated earlier, competition is usually bound by rules. However,
when competition is so keen that competitors flout the rules and
now seek to weaken or eliminate each other, conflict has bound to
arise. Conflict is therefore that form of social interaction in which
the actors seek to obtain scarce reward by eliminating or weakening
other contenders or competitors. This may take the form of a
physical fight, threats, legislation or total annihilation.
In rural communities of Nigeria, conflict may arise when there is
difference of opinion between group leaders or in situations where
one group tends to be exploiting the other. Conflict between
personalities may lead to group quarrel and the division of the
village into different factions. Land dispute usually triggers conflict
at this level also.

Acculturation and Assimilation

It is worthy to note that conflicts actually arise because of the
differences which are inherent in human beings and their
interactions. Hence, permanent conflict resolution cannot be
achieved unless differences disappear completely. The process by
which group differences gradually disappear is known as
assimilation. This involves mutual cultural diffusion and reduces
group conflicts by blending differing groups into large cultural
homogenous groups. On the other hand, acculturation refers to
changes in culture arising from constant contacts with other
cultures.
Assimilation is a two-way process; it involves the learning,
76
 Study Session 10Social
Social Processes in Rural Societies

modification and acceptance of each other’s culture. The groups

involved usually contribute varying proportions of the ensuing
blend of culture. It is a group process in the long run, although it
often starts at the individual level. Assimilation occurs
oc in all lasting
relationships. For instance in marriage, people from different
family backgrounds come together and through the mutual learning
of each other’s ways of life, a distinctive blend of family life results
to the extent that the couple may now now have similar values and
attitudes. They may even turn to be looking alike. Assimilation
usually proceeds unevenly and is often incomplete. Some groups
give up their own ways of life more readily than others. However,
no cultural group ever abandons all aspects of its culture in
preference to a new culture.
Assimilation entails acculturation; nonetheless, one who is
acculturated need not necessarily be assimilated. More so, while
assimilation ensures conflict resolution, acculturation need not lead
to conflict
conflict resolution, it might lead to readjustment of relationships.
relati

ITQ

Question
Social processes
processes are grouped as either _______ and ________.
________
a. co-operative and competitive
b. conflictive and accommodating
c. associative and antagonistic
d. assimilative and acculturative

Feedback
Does this options look like all of them are right? I know many of
you will say a Yes but I believe it is because you are muddling
some things up here. If you examine the options, only one of the
options is the grouping while the others
others are only the various forms
under each group. For instance, option A are forms of the
associative and antagonistic social process groupings just as option
B. Option C are forms of the associative group. Option C is the
option that captures the groupings and
and thus the right option. How
many of you got that right? Good!

Study Session Summary

In this study session, we discussed that repetitive social interaction
or social process can either be associative or at the same time be
antagonistic. The associative
ass types like co-operation
operation enables two
Summary or more persons to achieve personal or common goals by working

77
SOC421 Rural Sociology and Development

together while accommodation and assimilation are processes that

usually lead to gradual disappearance of differences between
individuals and groups.
groups
Competition and conflict were discussed as antagonistic social
processes. While competition may be useful in sharpening
initiative, conflict may lead to destruction.

Assessment
SAQ 10.1 (tests learning outcome 10.1)
Explain the main social
social processes in rural societies?
Assessment

Bibliography
Horton, P.B. and Leslie, G.R. 1970. The Sociology of Social
Problems. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.
Crofts.
Leslie, G.R. Larson, R.F. and Gorman, B.L. 1973. Introductory
Reading Sociology: Order and Change. New York: Oxford University
Press

78
 Study Session 11Politics
Politics and Local Government

Study Session 11

Politics and Local Government

Introduction
Sociologists usually conceive of politics in a wider perspective than
other perspectives that only sees politics as the organization and
operation of the machinery of government. To sociologists, politics
operation
implies the exercise of power in any given relationship.
Consequently, all social relationships are political from a
sociological point of view. Political behaviour involves power
relationship and
and thus is not restricted to any particular
governmental arrangement, but is rather inherent in all social
situations. In this study session, we shall discuss the pattern of the
distribution of power in rural societies and the consequences of
such patterns on the life chances of rural dwellers.
Learning Outcomes
When you have studied this session, you should be able to:
11.1 discuss power relations at the local level.

Outcomes

Terminology
Power The
he capacity or ability to direct or influence the behavior of
others or the course of events

Politics The
he process of making decisions applying to all members
of each group.

11.1 Power Relations at the Local Level

We shall use the three competing theories of distribution of power
to attempt to explain power relations
relations at the local level. These
theories are: the Marxian class theory, the elitists theory and the
pluralist theory.

11.1.1 The Marxian Class Theory

Just like other Marxian analyses, Karl Marx analyzed social

79
SOC421 Rural Sociology and Development

structures in terms of the mode of production and the particular

relations of production that follow the mode of production. He had
viewed society as consisting of classes with opposed interests and
unequal economic powers. According to Marx, this economic
inequality extends to political relations; hence, class domination
and subordination are the dynamics of the Marxian conception of
political relations. In other words, those who own and control the
means of production also control political power in the society and
can be described as the ruling class. This class according to the
Marxian class theory also attempts to perpetuate its position of
dominance by controlling not only the material forces in society but
also the prevalent ideas, values and beliefs. Even though the basic
means of production in rural Nigeria, which is land, was largely
communally owned in the past, where the traditional land tenure
system tends to emphasize group survival rather than individual
economic achievement. In modern times, lands in rural
communities are individually owned, and the wealthy individuals
in the community are equally using their wealth to buy chieftaincy
titles and political influence in their respective communities.
Although this group of people may not form a ruling class in the
strictly Marxian sense, however, the power they possess is derived
directly from their wealth.

11.1.1 The Elitist Theory

While Karl Marx explained power relations from the economic
point of view, Vilfredo Pareto, an Italian social scientist, had
maintained that the concentration of power in the hands of a few
was an inevitable fact of social life. He viewed society as being
made up of a few active individuals more fitted to lead others and
the others who are more or less passive and remain to be led.
According to Pareto, it is also an inevitable fact of social life that
the few leaders or elites undergo constant change or what he called
‘circulation’. In other words, this means that new recruits from the
non-elite group constantly replace those in the elite group, or one
ruling elite group suppresses and takes over power from another
elite group in a cyclical form, thus, leading to the rise and fall of
different elite group.
Gaetona Mosca, another Italian social scientist, agreed with
Pareto’s postulation that power and the privilege to rule reside
within a minority class or group. To him, it is the law of nature that
in all societies, two classes of people exist, a class that rules and a
class that is ruled. The word ‘class’ as used here is different from
the Marxian class. Class, according to Mosca denotes a gropu. In
fact, Mosca totally rejected the Marxian idea of economic
determinism, and proceeded to explain the Paretian concept of the
circulation of elites by linking it to the influences of new ideas,
values, technology and economic forces. To him, the elites in the
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 Study Session 11Politics and Local Government

society have the superior abilities, organization and cohesion to

rule, whereas the masses are just unorganized and fragmented.

11.1.2 The Pluralist Theory

While classical theorists had tried to divide society into elites and
non-elites; or elites and the masses, thereby creating dichotomies,
more contemporary theorists have tended to reject the idea of a
dominant ruling elite. Instead, they see power in society as a result
of diversified interests in modern society. Karl Mannheim for
instance, had maintained that with the growth of the industrial
society, the elites have multiplied rather than declined. He
categorized the elites into two – an integrative elite comprising
political and organizational leaders, and a sublimative elite
comprising of moral-religious, aesthetic and intellectual leaders.
Other pluralist theorists such as Harold Lasswell and Kaplan had
viewed society as having elites who wield the greatest power, the
mid-elites who have lesser power than the real elites; and lastly the
masses who have the least power. Suzanne Keller has introduced
the concept of strategic elites who she defines as those whose
judgments, decisions and actions have important and determinable
consequences for many members of society. In her estimation, this
group comprises the political, economic and military leaders as
well as moral, cultural and scientific leaders.
In applying these theories to rural societies especially in Nigeria, it
can be found that there are presently two main types of co-existing
governments. These include the traditional village or community
government with the village head at the helm of affairs assisted by
a number of traditional chiefs who specialize in various aspects of
traditional social life. The second type of government is the local
government, also known as the third tier of modern government in
the country. This level of government has politicians and
professional administrators or technocrats in control.
Table 11.1: Bases of Power and Areas of Influence in Nigerian
Rural Communities
Community Leaders Bases of Power Major Areas of Influence
A Traditional Leaders
1. The Village Head Traditional legitimacy; Legitimizes decisions
Personal characteristics, affecting the entire
Reward power; Referent community. Ultimate
power; Expert power; arbitrator and judge, may
Coercive power have ritual functions – more
or less a generalist
2. Ward, Extended Primogeniture; Reward Decisions affecting the
family and Family power; Referent power; immediate and extended
Heads (The Village Expert power; Coercive families including the

81
SOC421 Rural Sociology and Development

Elders) power allocation of farmland and

settlement of disputes
among family members.
May also have ritual
functions on behalf of the
family
3. Diviners, Medicine- Expert power; Referent Spiritual, emotional, social
men, Rain Doctors, power; Reward power; and health problems of the
and other traditional Coercive power entire community; social
religious and cult control
leaders
4. Local associations Official positions; Matters affecting the local
leaders, i.e, Age-grade organizational influence; group
leaders, women personal characteristics,
leaders, youth leaders, Referent powers.
etc.
5. Local professional Personal characteristics; Matters affecting the
leaders, e.g, Head of expert power; years of profession and its members
the farmers, Head of experience; organizational
the butchers, etc. influence; Referent power.
B. Modern Leaders
1. The Chairman and Legitimate power assigned to Administrative matters
Secretaries of the local official position affecting the entire local
government government area
2. Other Government Legitimate power; expert Economic, social and
officers including the power; Reward power welfare matters affecting the
village school teachers entire community
3. Law enforcement Legitimate power; Coercive Maintenance of law and
officers power order in the community
4. Politicians and retired Personal characteristics; Inter- Linkage of the local
elites(e.g government personal contact; community with the larger
officials) organizational influence; society for development
Reward power; Referent purposes
power; Expert power
5. Successful business Financial control; Referent Economic life of the
entrepreneurs power; Reward power; community
Personal characteristics
6. Non-traditional Expert power; Legitimate Spiritual, emotional and
religious leaders and power; Reward power; health problems of the
local prophets Coercive power entire community; social
control.
Source: Ekong, 1988

82
 Study Session 11Politics
Politics and Local Government

ITQ

Question
_______________theory sees
_______________ ees power in society as a result of
diversified interests in modern society.
a. Marxian class
b. Elitist
c. Pluralist
d. All of the above
Feedback
Based on what we have studied in this session, it will be wrong of
you to choose options A or B. This is because their positions
po are at
variance with that advanced in this question. This is clearly the
pluralist theory position. Thus, the right option is C.

Study Session Summary

In this session,
session, the concept of politics was conceived in a wider
perspective than other
other perspectives that only sees politics as the
organization and operation of the machinery of government. We
Summary observed politics as the exercise of power in any given
relationship. Consequently, all social relationships are perceived as
being political. Political
Political behaviour involves power relationship
and thus is not restricted to any particular governmental
arrangement, but is rather inherent in all social situations. The
lecture ended with discussions on the pattern of the distribution of
power in rural societies
societies and the consequences of such patterns on
the life chances of rural dwellers.

Assessment
SAQ 11.1 (tests learning outcome 11.1)
Discuss power relations at the local level?
Assessment

83
SOC421 Rural Sociology and Development

Bibliography

Ekong, E. Ekong. 1988. Rural Sociology: An Introduction and

Analysis of Rural Nigeria. Uyo: Dove Educational Publishers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_sociology
Reading

84
 Study Session 12Environmental
Environmental Issues and Sustainable Development

Study Session 12

Environmental Issues and

and Sustainable
Development
Introduction
The natural environment consists of the earth’s surface and
atmosphere, including living organisms as well as the air, water,
soil and other resources necessary for the sustenance of life. The
natural environment is indeed
indeed threatened whenever humans exploit
it without deliberate attempts to replenish what has been taken from
it. The notion of sustainable development had therefore emerged as
an appropriate strategy to solve environmental problems. In this
lecture, we shall
shall discuss what constitutes the natural environment;
theoretical analysis of environmental issues; and a discussion on
the concept of sustainable development.
Learning Outcomes
When you have studied this session, you should be able to:
12.1 explain
in environmental issues in rural societies; and
12.2 explain the idea of sustainable development
Outcomes

Terminology
Environment Harmful
armful effects of human activity on the biophysical
issues environment.

Sustainable A process for meeting human development goals while

development sustaining the ability of natural systems.
systems

12.1 What Constitute the Natural Environment

The natural environment is said to consist of the earth’s surface and
atmosphere, including living organisms, as well as the air, water,
soil and other resources
resources necessary to sustain life. Humans as well
as other living organisms do depend on the natural environment for
almost every aspect of life. Humans depends on the natural

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environment for water, air, food, and for materials to build houses,
construct roads, build air and seaports. They even depend on the
natural environment as an object of worship.
In short, humans are the only creatures that deliberately engage
materials in their environment to fashion out a culture. In the same
time, as they exploit the environment for their benefit, they at the
same time threaten the natural environment. This condition in
which the negative, long-term consequences of decisions and
actions on the natural environment outweigh the short-term benefits
derived from the exploitation of the environment is commonly
referred to as environmental deficit. Environmental deficit entails
three basic assumptions:
(a) That the state of the environment is a social issue (that is, it
reflects the choices people make about how they want to
live).
(b) Much environmental damage is unintended (that is, by often
focusing on the short-term benefits of exploiting the
resources in the environment, people tend to forget to
consider the long-term consequences of their actions, or
they tend to underrate these actions).
(c) In some cases, environmental deficit may be reversible (that
is, the society can undo the damage it has done to the
environment). However, undoing environmental damage
takes a long time. For instance, a tree planted in the place of
one cut down will certainly require many years to actually
‘replace’ the one cut down.
ITQ

Question
Humans depend on their natural environment. TRUE or FALSE.
Feedback
There is no doubt in my mind that none of you will pick FALSE
unless you do not understand the question. This statement is true
and this is discussed in the body of this section.

12.1.1 Theoretical Analysis of Environmental Issues

While some people are so concerned about the state of our
environment, and consequently had been shouting for necessary
actions to be taken to ameliorate the problem; others feel that the
shouting about the deplorable state of the environment is uncalled
for. Those who are shouting for appropriate actions believed that
natural resources in the global environment exist in finite
quantities, that while some of these resources are renewable, a great
proportion of the natural resources are non-renewable. These
advocates therefore propose that there must be agreed limits to
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 Study Session 12Environmental Issues and Sustainable Development

growth in which policies and legislation must be implemented to

restrain population growth, enforce the use of fewer natural
resources in order to avoid depletion and environmental collapse.
Those opposed to the view that natural resources have finite
quantities hold that resources in our natural environment are
abundant; that human beings have the mental and physical
capabilities to invent new alternative resources that would help
them escape the environmental constraints that limit other species.
The sociologist is generally interested in environmental issues
because these bring out the importance of beliefs and values in the
operation of society. The state of the environment depends largely
on how and what we think about nature. The capitalist tendency of
competition and strive for material comfort expressed through
conspicuous consumption has indeed led human to relentlessly
exploit the environment. Secondly, the engagement of the
sociological perspective helps to bring out the structural-functional
view of society as a system with interrelated parts in which what
affects one part affects the others; and consequently puts the entire
system at disequilibrium. The attempt also at developing
alternatives resources, such as solar energy, etc, to substitute
naturally existing ones likewise is in conformity with the concept
of functional alternatives.
The sociologist is also interested in issues of inequality and power
arrangements at national and global levels. The sociologist here
attempts to ask the questions like, who sets the agenda for the
exploitation of the natural environment and who benefits or suffer
from the exploitation or non-exploitation of the environment?

12.1.2 Environmental Problems in Nigerian Rural

Communities
Since communities of rural Nigeria are an integral part of the
global ecosystem, hence they are also affected and they also
contribute to global environmental problems. The ecosystem is
defined as the system composed of the interaction of all living
organisms and their natural environment.
Some of the environmental problems in Nigerian rural communities
include deforestation, erosion, desertification, oil spillage causing
pollution, forest fires, as flaring, drought, over-grazing, and so on.
The terribly poor conditions of rural roads can also be mentioned as
an environmental problem in rural Nigeria. Besides the fact that
these roads are not usually motorable, the pools of rainwater
collected during the rainy season constitute breeding grounds for
mosquitoes – the vector that carries malaria parasites.

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SOC421 Rural Sociology and Development

ITQ

Question
One of the following is not an environmental problem rural
communities in Nigeria face.
a. Desertification
b. Language loss
c. Environmental pollution
d. deforestation
Feedback
This question should be an easy ride, right? It is clear that options
A, C, and D are all environmental problems that Nigerian rural
communities face. However, the same cannot be said of option B
which does not constitute an environmental problem. Thus, the
right option is B.

12.2 The Concept of Sustainable Development

The adoption of the sustainable exploitation and use of natural
resources in the environment had been identified by
environmentalists as the appropriate solution to the range of
environmental problems confronting the global community. The
World Conservation Strategy of 1980 is believed to be the
instrument that launched sustainable development into the
international policy arena by stressing the integration of
environmental protection and conservation values into the
development process. In 1987, the United Nations Commission on
Environment and Development (UNCED) chaired by the then
Norway’s Prime Minister, Gro Harlem Bruntland, came up with the
concept of sustainable development. It was defined as ‘economic
and social development that meet the needs of the current
generation without endangering the ability of future generations
satisfying their needs and choosing their lifestyle’.
Sustainable living therefore calls for the conservation of finite
resources through direct reduction of amounts used, more efficient
use and seeking alternatives. It also entails reducing waste through
re-cycling and minimization. Finally, it calls for global population
control to reduce the sheer pressure and demand on resources.
Because of the interrelatedness of the world’s ecosystem,
sustainability is believed to only be attained through global
agreements and co-operation.
Globally, there is a growing consensus that sustainable
development implies achieving a quality of life that can be
maintained for many generations because it is:
(i) Socially desirable – meaning that it is fulfilling people’s
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 Study Session 12Environmental
Environmental Issues and Sustainable Development

cultural, material and spiritual needs in equitable ways.

(ii) Economically viable – that is, it pays for itself with
costs not exceeding income.
(iii) Economically sustainable – that is maintaining the long-
long
term viability of supporting ecosystems.
osystems.
ITQ

Question
The notion of sustainable development implies -----.
a. Providing for the infrastructural needs of the people alone
b. Ensuring that the development of the society is sustained
c. Development that also does not endanger future
generations
d. Development that caters for the needs of the current
generation.
Feedback
This question simply tests your understanding of sustainable
development. It simply asks for a definition of the concept. Option
A is wrong because sustainable development is not no all about
providing infrastructures but also ensuring that the environment is
not endangered in the course of doing this. Option B is wrong
because it does not capture the meaning of sustainable
development. Option D also does not capture the notion of
sustainable
ustainable development. The right option is C because sustainable
development is not just bothered about development as a whole
but that the development must not put future generations at a
disadvantage.

Study Session Summary

The natural environment
environment was discussed in this session as
consisting of the earth’s surface and atmosphere, including living
organisms as well as the air, water, soil and other resources
Summary necessary for the sustenance of life. We highlighted that the
natural environment is indeed
indeed been threatened whenever humans
exploit it without deliberate attempts to replenish what has been
taken from it. We end the session with a discussion on the notion
of sustainable development which has emerged as an appropriate
strategy to solve environmental
environm problems.

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SOC421 Rural Sociology
ociology and Development

Assessment
SAQ 12.1 (tests learning outcome 12.1)
Explain the environmental issues in rural societies.
Assessment SAQ 12.2 (tests learning outcome 12.2)
What do you understand by the concept of sustainable
development?

Bibliography

Ekong, E. Ekong. 1988. Rural Sociology: An Introduction and

Analysis of Rural Nigeria. Uyo: Dove Educational Publishers.

John, D. E and Warner, W. K. 1965. Contemporary Issues in

Reading
Rural Sociology. The Wisconsin Sociologist, vol.4(4).
vol.4(4)

http://www.unesco.org/education/tlsf/mods/theme_a/mod02.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainable_development

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 Study Session 13Community
Community Organization and Development

Study Session 13

Community Organization and

Development
Introduction
In this session, community organization shall be discussed as the
process by which a given rural community is mobilized to identify
or recognized its problems or needs. This involves the integration
integr
and co-ordination
co ordination of groups and institutions for community
com
development. This session therefore examines practices of
community organization and community development in Nigerian
rural communities.
Learning Outcomes
When you have studied this
this session, you should be able to:
13.1 explain the concept of community organization.
13.2 explain the concept of community development.
Outcomes

Terminology
Community A way of strengthening civil society by prioritising the
development actions of communities, and their perspectives
p in the
development of social, economic and environmental
policy.

Community Social
ocial work concentrating upon the organized
organization development of community social welfare through
coordination of public and private agencies.
agencies

13.1 The Concept of Community Organization

There are various definitions to the concept of community
organization, in broad terms, the term has mostly been used to
apply to the method concerned largely with the orderly
dispensation of existing welfare services and services
service to groups in a
community through the alteration of institutions and other aspects

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of the community environment. In the Nigerian context, the

concept of community organization is largely used to refer to the
method concerned with the arrangement of relationships between
the various individuals and groups in a community or their
institutions in order for that community to function properly or
attain its objectives. Community organization therefore has to do
with the issues of accommodation and social adjustments and with
interrelationship of groups within the community. It has to do with
the integration and co-ordination of the groups and their institutions
in the interest of their efficiency and unity of action. The
community in this sense refers to types and number of primary
groups and formal organizations and their patterns of
interrelationships. The practice of organizing the community
consists of interventions that enhance, sustain or screen out existing
linkage patterns between these social units and then establish new
linkages or units. This also implies that the geographical
community is no longer a self-sufficient unit; instead, it is a unit
which depends largely on other ‘communities of interest’ in order
to attain its own objectives or to meet its own felt needs.
ITQ

Question
One of the following is implied in community organization.
a. A community is not meant to socialize with other
communities
b. A community is not self-sufficient
c. A community is self-sufficient
d. All communities will fade away
Feedback
If you have chosen any of options A, C, and D, then you are
wrong. This is because none of these option is implied in the
discussion of community organization. A community is not self-
sufficient. Thus, the right option is B AS IT IS THE ONLY
THING IMPLIED in community organization.

13.2 Community Development

There has been controversy as regard the difference between
community development and community organization. While some
scholars use the terms ‘community development’ and ‘community
organization’ interchangeably; others have attempted to link
community organization with efforts in the more highly
industrialized and urbanized western societies, that deal with
problems resulting from rapid social and technological changes;
while community development is often associated with such efforts
in the more rural and pre-industrial developing nations. The 1962
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 Study Session 13Community Organization and Development

Rio de Janeiro International Conference on Social Work attempted

to distinguish between ‘community development’ and ‘community
organization’. The conference concluded that ‘community
development’ is conscious and deliberate effort aimed at helping
communities recognize their needs and to assume increasing
responsibilities for solving their problems thereby increasing their
capacities to fully participate in national life. On the other hand,
community organization refers to a complex of techniques designed
to involve people, specialists, and technical services to mobilize
and facilitate the effective use of resources for community
development.
In outlining the approaches and tracing the history of community
development, Irwin Sanders had shown that the term ‘community
development’ is derived from the term ‘economic development’.
According to him, community development can be regarded as a
method or process of tackling the problem of community
organization in order to bring about economic development.
It is provided that the idea of community development was first
conceived by the Colonial Office in Britain in the 1920s as a
special ‘development model’ for the rural areas of its dependent
territories. Its aim according to Peter Hodge was to compliment or
compensate for the short-comings of the conventional school
system in the former British dependent territories, and to serve as a
vehicle for progressive evolution of the people to self-government
in the context of social and economic change. Thus, the colonial
administration’s original conception of community development
was in terms of mass education. Community development centres
were set up in some of the colonies where skills in house-building,
carpentry, shoe-reparing and various handicrafts were taught.

13.2.1 Steps in Community Development

Like any other process, community development too usually
follows certain identifiable steps. It is important to note that
community development is first of all a problem-solving process;
this means that there must be a recognition or identification of a
problem or need that necessitates community development.
According to Gooenough (1963), a community need is determined
by how existing conditions differ from what is desired. He
differentiated between wants and needs. Wants here refers to
desired state of affairs whereas needs refer to the effective means
for achieving such desired state and maintaining this desired state.
Although the entire community development process may vary
from community to community and from one situation to the other,
however, Ekong (1988) had argued that some basic steps are
crucial to the success of community development in general. These
basic crucial steps are outlined thus:

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SOC421 Rural Sociology and Development

(a) An informal survey, fact-finding, and identification of

community concerns.
(b) Identification of a small group of leaders and/or interest
groups who can serve as the initiating sets.
(c) Identification of immediate community need(s) or
problem(s).
(d) Sharing of problems identified with community leaders for
legitimation
(e) Diffusion of problems and definition of needs.
(f) Securing citizens’ commitment to act and identification of
needed resources.
(g) Appraisal of available internal resources and invitation of
external aid (where necessary).
(h) Formulation of a detailed plan of action including a
timetable
(i) Carrying out the action and evaluating the entire process
and the results.
(j) Identification of derived problems or needs and planning for
the continuation of the process. By ‘derived’ problems or
needs, these refer to unanticipated effects of the change
implemented.
The final step usually involves the institutionalization of the entire
community development process as it infuses value into the change
effected. These steps are believed to be similar with those of the
‘social action process’. However, in the case of community
development, there is a greater emphasis on broad based
participation of community members in all phases of the
development programme.

ITQ

Question
One of the following is not a basic crucial step at community
development.
a. An informal survey, fact-finding, and identification of
community concerns.
b. Sharing of problems identified with community leaders for
legitimation
c. Diverting the funds of the community to private pockets
d. Formulation of a detailed plan of action including a
timetable
Feedback
When you examine the options herein, you will agree that the odd
option here is C which cannot be a step towards community
development. Such a step can only lead to underdevelopment.
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 Study Session 13Community Organization and Development

Thus, the right option is C

13.2.2 A critique of concepts (Initiative, Felt-Needs,

Self-Help and Citizen Participation) in Community
Development
According to the United Nations (UN), the traditional definition of
community development needs to include the following essential
elements: (1) participation of the people… (2) much reliance on the
community people’s initiative, and (3)… provision of technical and
other services in ways that encourage and foster initiative, self-
help, and mutual help. It is now generally contested that for a
programme to be properly labeled ‘Community Development’,
such a programme must have all these essential elements. It is
therefore important that we critically examine these essential
elements especially as they apply to community development in
Nigeria.

Initiative
The concept of initiative enunciates that the community which
seeks development must take the first step in the process. The
concept also assumes a lack of or an absence of initiative in the
community at the original state. The 1948 Colonial Office Summer
Conference recommended that ‘…if this initiative is not
forthcoming spontaneously, … techniques for arousing and
stimulating initiative should be employed’. Heissler (1967)
recommended ‘information, propaganda, and the use of sanctions’
such as dismissal of headmen as the appropriate techniques.
Richard Poston (1962) had argued that lack of initiative for self-
help is an intrinsic characteristic of developing countries –
particularly their peasant populations. He attributed this to
centuries of mental and physical starvation and the consequent loss
of self-confidence, and the development of a feeling of
helplessness. He added that ‘ancient customs, fatalistic outlook on
life, long established attitudes of resignation and superstition, a
deeply ingrained set of fears and suspicions and rigid social and
cultural patterns, act as powerful blocks against people’s initiating
any effective action of their own toward social or economic
progress’. While this observation may be somehow correct in some
instances, in other cases, the apparent lack of initiative may
actually be a reflection of the ignorant and poor conditions of the
people. In other words, apathy, lethargy and a general absence of
initiative are all closely interwoven with poverty, ignorance and
low level of living.
In African societies, it has been shown that initiative for self-help
abounds, though this has been exhibited in several ways. Batten
(1957) had observed that ‘small communities …adapt themselves

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SOC421 Rural Sociology and Development

to change and improve their way of life without outside help of any
kind…’. He argued that where initiative seems to be lacking, it is
because of some institutional barriers and this barriers must be
removed in order for the people’s initiative to be brought to fore.

Felt-Needs
Community development scholars have tried to establish a
distinction between ‘felt-needs’ and ‘real-needs’. It is claimed that
in most instances, the rural people do not know their ‘real-needs’
but may give importance to their ‘felt-needs’ which are often
‘irrelevant’ and ‘unrealistic’. Goodenough (1963) had identified
four views of the community’s need. First is the agent’s view with
his own goals in mind. Second is the agent’s view with his client’s
(community) goals in mind. Third is the client’s view of what is
appropriate to the agent’s goal as well as their view of what should
be done to achieve their own goals (i.e their felt needs). Too often,
a technical consultant appraises the client’s circumstances and the
draws conclusions about their needs with reference to only one of
the four perspectives. Goodenough concluded that
recommendations are in fact almost invariably based on what the
technical experts themselves want for their clients or assume a
priori that their clients want. It is believed that many unsuccessful
community programmes have often been those that were based on a
presumed ‘real’ rather than the actual ‘felt’ need of the people.

Self-Help
Closely connected to the concept of ‘initaitive’ is the concept of
‘self-help’. Even during the colonial period when the concept of
community development emerged, it is obvious that colonial
authorities could not possibly be everything to everyone. The idea
of self-help emerged therefore as a strategy aimed at supplementing
governmental development efforts with the efforts of the people
themselves. Studies and observations revealed that rural people are
losing faith in self-help when their counterparts in urban areas are
being helped by the same government to whom they all pay their
taxes. Commenting on the exploitative connotations of self-help,
Peter Leonard had argued that ‘the ruling class, whether a majority
or minority in society, uses community work primarily to
contribute to the protection, expansion and legitimation of its
power’. To Manghezi (1976) ‘self-help’ is a negative conception,
that the more positive counterpart of ‘self-help’ is ‘self-reliance’. In
a critical analysis of the aim of rural community development in
Africa generally, Ekong (1988) described self-help in the context of
laissez faire approach to development as conceived by western
nations, which they themselves operationalized in a different light
within their own societies. These nations according to Ekong have
planned intervention from external sources rather than leaving rural
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 Study Session 13Community
Community Organization and Development

people to their own initiative and resources.

Citizen Participation
The concept of participation in community development has indeed
raised a lot of controversies. Participation
Participation is often defined as
‘playing active, though not necessarily direct, roles in community
decisions, knowledge of local issues, attendance at public meetings,
related attempts to influence proposed measures through individual
and group actions, belonging to to groups and committee and
financial contributions towards community programmes’. With
regard to who should participate; Wileden (1961) had opined that
all recognized community leaders should participate while the rest
of the community members should be informed
informed of any plans and
programmes that are evolved. Ekong on his part argued that
participation depends on the task at hand. On the whole, it is upheld
here that participation must be meaningful; meaning that any
programme that requires the mobilization of of the community’s
internal resources must involve a broad spectrum of individual
citizens and organizations within the community.

Study Session Summary

In this session, you established that community development
entails community organization; this is because the consciousness
of a community has to be established among the people before
Summary they can be organized
organized for development. We emphasized that
communities exist in rural as well as urban areas, but the
community spirit is more enduring and meanin
meaningful in rural areas.
We also stressed that community development employs the social
action process with emphasis on broad based participation of
community members at all phases of the programme.

Assessment
SAQ 13.1 (tests learning outcomes 13.1
13.1 and 13.2)
Critically examine the relationship between the ideas of
Assessment
community organization and community development.

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SOC421 Rural Sociology and Development

Bibliography
Goodenough, W.H. 1963. Co-operation in Change. New
York:Rusell Sage Foundation.
Heissler, H. 1967. Community Development and Development
Administration in Zambia, Community Development Journal,
Reading
No.5.

98
 Notes on Self Assessment Questions

Notes on Self Assessment Questions

FEEDBACK TO SAQ 1.1

What this question requires of you is to attempt a definition of rural
sociology first. To do this, it is important that you first define the
idea of rural in rural psychology. Having done this, you can then
proceed to discuss the scope of rural sociology. Here, we expect
you to tell us about the historical background of rural sociology.
You can then wrap it up with the analysis of the methodological
approaches adopted in rural sociology.
FEEDBACK TO SAQ 1.2
This question requires that you identify and discuss the three
features of rural life which are rural life as a community, as an
institution, and religiosity.
FEEDBACK TO SAQ 2.1
This question requires that you look at the various indices used in
discussing rural Nigeria, ranging from sex distribution to marriage.
It also requires that you identify the vital processes of birth, death,
and migration.
FEEDBACK TO SAQ 3.1
This question requires that you identify any four of the various
differences which we mentioned. It means you can identify any of
the indices ranging from size, population density, to standard of
living.
FEEDBACK TO SAQ 4.1
This question requires you to first conceptualize the idea of
poverty. This means that you should attempt a definition of poverty
and rural poverty as it were. It will be important that you also
discuss the various forms that rural poverty comes in. after doing
this, you would then look at the issue of institutional framework
for economic reforms in Nigeria, nay Africa.
FEEDBACK TO SAQ 5.1
This question requires that you mention each of the social
institutions we have discussed in this session and explain each of
them as well. These institutions are the family, educational,
political, religious, and economic institutions.

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SOC421 Rural Sociology and Development

FEEDBACK TO SAQ 6.1

This question requires you to discuss the issues concerning the
distinguishing of the social structural arrangements of pre-capitalist
agricultural society and the distinguishing into three basic
categories. It is expected that you discuss each of the categories and
then connect this to the issue of the roots of modernity in rural
sociology.
FEEDBACK TO SAQ 7.1

This question requires that you do an expose on the role of women

in rural societies. To do this, we expect to see your discussion of
the issue along the line of the traditional society and the post-
colonial rural society. After this, you can shift your focus to the
role and experience of women farmers in Africa.

FEEDBACK TO 8.1

What this question requires of you is the use of theories to explain

the effects of colonialism on third world countries. Your
explanation must be done within the framework of both the
modernization theory and the development theory.

FEEDBACK TO SAQ 9.1

What this question requires of you is to expatiate on the research

design and method employed in rural sociological studies. Hence,
you are expected to discuss the three research designs and the
research methods which are the case study, survey, observational,
correlational, experimental, and cross‐cultural methods.

FEEDBACK TO SAQ 9.2

This question requires you to talk about the ethical standards that
are expected to be met by a research in rural sociological studies.

FEEDBACK TO SAQ 10.1

This question requires you to explain the social processes on the

ground of whether such is associative or antagonistic. It is expected
that you discuss the various forms of each of this groups.

FEEDBACK TO SAQ 11.1

This question requires you to explain power relations through the

horoscope of the three theories of Marxist class theory, elitist
theory, and the pluralist theory.
FEEDBACK TO SAQ 12.1

100
 Notes on Self Assessment Questions

This question requires you to start off by explaining what natural

environments are. Having done this, you should also give a
theoretical background to discussing environmental issues and then
discuss environmental issues in rural communities in Nigeria.
FEEDBCAK TO SAQ 12.2
This question requires you to explain the notion of sustainable
development. It is expected that you will decipher between the
genral conception of development from sustainable development
which involves putting the environment into consideration in our
quest for development.

FEEDBACK TO SAQ 13.1

This question requires you to discuss the ideas of community

organization and community development and attempt to see if
there is a point of convergence between both concepts.

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SOC421 Rural Sociology and Development

References
Durkheim, E. 1964. Rules of Sociological Method. Free Press

Ekong, E. Ekong. 1988. Rural Sociology: An Introduction and

Analysis of Rural Nigeria. Uyo: Dove Educational Publishers.

Gilletee, 1963. Rural Sociology. New York: Macmillan

Giddens, A. 1990. The Consequences of Modernity. Cambridge:
Polity Press
Goodenough, W.H. 1963. Co-operation in Change. New
York:Rusell Sage Foundation.
Heissler, H. 1967. Community Development and Development
Administration in Zambia, Community Development Journal, No.5.
Hindess, Barry and Hirst, Q. Paul. 1975. Pre-Capitalist Modes of
Production. Contributors: London: Routledge and K. Paul.
Horton, P.B. and Leslie, G.R. 1970. The Sociology of Social
Problems. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.

John, D. E and Warner, W. K. 1965. Contemporary Issues in Rural

Sociology. The Wisconsin Sociologist, vol.4(4)
Leslie, G.R. Larson, R.F. and Gorman, B.L. 1973. Introductory
Sociology: Order and Change. New York: Oxford University
Press.

102