ABSTRACT
This chapter summarizes the condition of the local southwestern Irish dairying community. It examines evidence which suggests that similar conditions exist for family dairy farm communities within Ireland as a whole and in a number of other European Community member states. The chapter identifies a general set of ecological, economic, and political constraints which can be used to explain coterminous developments; and suggest what will happen to these kinds of communities when the Internal Market is completed in 1993 and beyond. The chapter shows how the analytical techniques of anthropology can be usefully applied to situations where social change is taking place at a transnational, macro-level. The idea of the family farm is a politically potent one in Europe, symbolizing as it does a number of desirable characteristics such as a stable family structure, independence, self-sufficiency, ecological balance, and a strong community support network, all of which seem to be diminished by the demands of complex urban living.
