The Diffusion of Conservation Technology: A Dyad Analysis of Innovators and Their Neighbors

The goal of the study is to contribute to the understanding of the process of the diffusion of innovations. A corollary to this goal is to assess systematic differences and similarities in the socioeconomic characteristics of innovators, those individuals in a social system who, relative to their peers, are among the very first to adopt an innovation. The problem addressed is a lack of recent diffusion research on innovators in contemporary American agriculture. Many of the assumptions about the process of the diffusion of innovations in agriculture are based on a social, economic and agricultural structure which no longer exists. By focusing on the innovators of a conservation innovation, several of the longstanding hypotheses of the dominant adoption and diffusion model in rural sociology are tested.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Sociology

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2014

Author dc:creator

• Makowski, Thomas J.

Contributors dc:contributor

• van Es, Johannes C.

• Sociology, Social Structure and Development

Identifier

(UMI)AAI8908764

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/71026