Rural Sociology and Psycology

1.1.7 Comparison between Rural and Urban Societies

The rural and the urban societies differ from each other on many respects. A comparison between these two societies will help the learners to understand the nature of rural societies and how they differ from the urban societies.

Criteria	Rural Society	Urban Society
1	Occupation	Predominantly agriculture and allied occupations and artisans	Non-agriculture like manufacturing, trade, commerce, professionals, etc.
2	Environment	Direct relationship with nature	Greater isolation from nature; predominance of man – made environment
3	Heterogeneity and Homogeneity of population (in respect of socio-psychological and other aspects like behaviour, belief, language etc.)	More homogeneity	More heterogeneity
4	Size of community	Usually small; Rurality and size community are not correlated.	Usually larger. Urbanity and size of community are positively correlated
5	Culture	Conservative and tradition bound Guided by customs and superstitions Don’t accept importance of scientific inventions	Free from conservation and tradition Free from superstition and customs Influenced by scientific invention which bring about changes in every day life
6	Social stratification (Determines status and role of individuals) More or less static	Low and follows traditional systems; status determined by birth Not so but on economical, social, political and other considerations.It changes with changes in values. (eg) poor becomes rich and thus changes occur in status.	- High; stratification on the basis of economic, social, political, educational and other features. Wider gap
7	Social mobility	Lack of social mobility. People normally do not change their place, occupation, religion, political view etc. Wards generally carry the occupation of parents, thus social status remains the same Occupation is determined by tradition and customs	High level of Social mobility. Occupation of wards not necessarily that of the parents. Occupation differs according to skills possessed.
8	Systems of interaction	Less contact / mass. Narrow area of interaction. More of primary contacts. Predominance of personal and durable contacts. Man is interacted as a human person	Numerous contacts. Wider area of interaction. Predominance of secondary contacts. Impersonel, formal and short- lived relations. Man is interacted as a number and address
9	Social control	Informal due to smaller size of community. It is the primary institutions like family and neighbourhood that control life and the society	More formal because of more laws. Besides primary institutions, secondary institutions like economic and other institutions control social life.
10	Social change	Takes place at a very slow rate due to little competition	Fast because of stiff competition
11	Social tolerance and family domination	More due to cultural uniformity, lack of varieties (different castes/religion etc.) and people do not face the new situation	Low because people often face new situation, varieties in culture and other aspects.
12	Status of women	Low, inferior to men, role confined to house, live with serious restrictions	Not so low. Free to take part in outdoor activities. Enjoy a good deal of freedom.
13	Neighbourhood environment.	Important because rural society’s strength is based an co-operation and mutual good will. Generally consists of same caste and economic status.	No institution like neighbourhood is built. Belong to different castes and economic status.
14	Leaders	Based on personal qualities	More impersonal leaders.
15	Solidarity	Stronger, informal	Not stronger
16	Caste	More predominant	Less predominant
17	ncome	Less	More
18	Sense of belonging ness	More	Less