Sociology and Space, No. 35-36, 1972.
Review article
The System of Rural Resistance to Innovations
Vojislav Đurić
Abstract
Traditions and innovations are the two extremes which nowadays affect rural
life. However, in general, rural communities are believed to be more inclined to
tradition than to innovation, and to offer systematic resistance to innovations.
we take »conservativism« as meaning such views and behaviour that tend to
preserve what has been inherited, then there is ground for the assumption that
ti aditionalism is above all a characteristic of the rural society, and conservativism
even its essential feature.
Sociology has not yet provided an answer to the question why conservativism
is immanent to the rural community. While some people believe the reasons for
this to he m the peasant’s own personality, others see it in his social heritage, and
others again in the system of the rural social organization. However, it seems that
iural conservativism is a product of the interaction of numerous psychological and
social factors and that — in contrast to deep-rooted prejudices — it is not autochtonous,
inherited and general, although it is still a marked feature of rural communities.
As legards the spiead of innovations, rural conservativism acts in two
ways: (a) it hampers the circulation of information about innovations and (b)
prevents the actual spread and adoption of innovations.
In conclusion the author analyses the mechanisms of the peasants’ resistance
to innovations pointing to certain implications of the conflict between rural conservativism
and innovations and calling for a more thorough study of this conflict.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
119628
URI
Publication date:
9.6.1972.
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