ABSTRACT
The importance of irrigation to rural development and the potential for social conflict, corruption and disorganization make irrigated agriculture an ideal context for assessing applications of the sociology of organizations. While social science research has provided substantial insight into the motivational basis of farmer participation, there has been little corresponding research on bureaucratic behavior and its implications for farmers in development settings. The relative absence of attention to the organizational and management side of irrigation development emerges, in part, from the lack of theoretical underpinnings in the case level studies which have provided most of the knowledge base in irrigation development. Sociology and anthropology have addressed the challenge of development and planned social/technological change using sociological and political theory. Development theories provide insight into the macrosociological dimensions of the development process. E. W. Coward’s research provides a contemporary example of the application of human and social ecology theory to irrigation development.
