SEX, LIES, AND STATISTICS - CAN RURAL SOCIOLOGY SURVIVE RESTRUCTURING- (OR) WHAT IS RIGHT WITH RURAL SOCIOLOGY AND HOW CAN WE FIX IT

Rural Sociology faces increasing threats of marginalization from socia l and economic restructuring of academia and of the larger society in which it is embedded. Contrary to some recent analyses, the problem li es more in the inadequacies of data conceptualization, production, and collection than in the theoretical vitality of the discipline. The fa ilure to match theoretical and conceptual advances with appropriate da ta leaves sociologists grappling with ''modern data to study a postmod ern world.'' Research on the impact of restructuring on social and spa tial divisions of labor and the contributions of feminist theory and r esearch to the conceptualization of work and household illustrate the theoretical advances and the empirical deficiencies faced by the disci pline. Disciplinary survival and development depend on meeting the cha llenge of matching theoretical progress with an appropriate empirical base.