ABSTRACT
Any scientific analysis of accelerated soil erosion processes must be more than some combination of soil science, agronomy, engineering, accounting, and plant biology—it must incorporate the land user or farmer as a central component of this analysis. Sociological contributions to soil conservation largely are responses to the questions of why accelerated soil erosion occurs, its impacts on farmers and communities, how to promote soil conservation, and who is adopting soil conservation and why. Rural sociologists have had an interest in soil erosion and soil and water conservation since the founding of their subdiscipline early this century. In 1938 the US Department of Agriculture's Yearbook of Agriculture had the subtitle Soils and Men, reflecting the importance of the relationship between biophysical and social processes. Through the mid-1980s the primary approach to soil and water conservation was the voluntary approach, and institutional support in the form of educational, technical, and/or financial assistance is especially important for the voluntary approaches.
