Dairy Industrialization in the First Place: Urbanization,Immigration, and Political Economy in Los Angeles County, 1920–1970*

Abstract Rural sociologists are currently debating the pace and extent of industrialization in the dairy sector of the United States. We offer the perspective of historical sociology to this debate, arguing that time and place significantly determine the outcomes of processes such as industrialization. We present an historically‐grounded explanation for the rise of industrial dairying, which first occurred in Los Angeles County. Beginning with the immigration of Dutch dairy farmers to Los Angeles (L.A.) in the 1920s, a contingent and sequential process—embedded within the local/California political economy—of exploding population growth, rapid urbanization, and skyrocketing land prices led to repeated geographical relocations and expansions of large‐scale dairies during the next three decades. We conclude that agricultural industrialization is not inevitable but instead is the result of contingent factors (cultural and political‐economic) as well as the particular sequencing of events and processes. In thus historicizing the industrialization debate, we seek limited, rather than universal, generalizations.     

Ownership and Control of Farmland: Landlord-Tenant Relations in Wisconsin1

This paper addresses the ownership and control of farmland, presents a conceptual model of landed property, and uses it to examine landlord-tenant relations in Wisconsin. A profile of farmland owners is constructed using survey data from two agricultural counties. Particular attention is paid to who controls farm management decisions on rented land. Results suggest that tenants enjoy much latitude in managing rented land and that relations between landlords and tenants seem satisfactory to both parties.     

Putting a Human Face on Crimes: A Qualitative Study on Restorative Justice Processes for Youths

Restorative justice conferences including Victim Offender Mediation (VOM) are rapidly increasing. Due to a lack of participants’ accounts on their experiences, gaining knowledge on how restorative justice works from their perspective is critical, especially to further development of justice policy and practice. In this exploratory qualitative study we interviewed 37 participants in a VOM operating in a mid-sized Midwestern city in the United States. In this article, we examine some youths’ experiences in their VOM to deepen our understanding of how and why restorative discourses work. Findings suggest that meeting their victims through VOM helped the youths realize the extent of the consequences of their actions by being able to personalize their victims and their victimized experiences. In conclusion we highlight the importance of appreciating the unseen effects of the crimes. Lastly, we make some recommendations for practitioners to assist their developing better programs in dealing with youths in restorative justice contexts.     

Commodity market stabilization: A comparison of simple and optimal intervention strategies in the world copper market

With the publication of the Brandt Report, international commodity policy has again become an important issue. Commodity stabilization agreements have been proposed as a means of stabilizing producers' incomes and/or redistributing wealth to less developed economies. This paper examines, in the context of a single market, the extent to which prices can be stabilized, the potential costs of such a scheme, and whether this redistribution would be achieved. By comparing the bandwidth rules that have been proposed with optimal stabilization rules, we find that significant stabilization is possible but expensive and that bandwidth rules are likely to prove inadequate because they cannot anticipate.