The Regional Approach

A region is a geographic area or unit having certain limits and bounds. Regional Approach undertakes a large territorial or geographical unit as its subject of study. There are several villages within a region. In geographical studies, the concept of a region plays an important role.

A region was defined by Dr. Bernard purely from the sociological point of view as ‘an area’ in which a consciousness of individuality has been developed by the combined influence of historical and environmental factors. From this definition, given by Dr. Bernard following three aspects of a region may be understood.

• Homogeneity in more than one aspect is exhibited by the region.
• People are well aware of the uniqueness of their region.
• Every region is in an area with a core.

Today, one of the significant aspects from which rural social life is increasingly being analyzed is the ‘aspect of its spatial organization.’ The discussion and analysis include the questions like, ‘What factors determine the growth of varied types of villages, what factors operate to combine a cluster of villagers into an agrarian region, what factors tend to transform an agrarian region into a cultural, linguistic, or political region, and how do regions evolve into and provide these problems are of considerable significance in the study of rural society.’
 

There are many factors responsible for regional variations. Attempts have been made by sociologists to locate the factors explaining this process. Some of the important factors, ‘which have determined the structural pattern of the village the formation of regional and other bigger units, and the interrelations of the village with those units, are as follows:

• Natural conditions like relief, configurations, soil water resources, and others;
• The stage of agrarian economy, whether it is the nomadic stage, the stage of fixed subsistence agriculture, or that commercial agriculture and
• The nature of social conditions such as needs of defense forms of property and others.

The Distinction between Grouped Villages and Dispensed Habitats

From the ecological point of view, the first great division which has been made of village communities is that of ‘nucleated or grouped villages’ and ‘dispersed habitats’. It has been pointed out that such a distinction is vital from the point of view of the study of the entire social life of rural communities. The members of a rural community who dwell in villages have generally stronger social urges, exhibit a stronger feeling of social cohesion, and possess greater ability for cooperation than those who are dispersed and live on their respective farms. Each type of habitat furnishes a different framework for social life. The nucleated village is marked by “proximity, contact, the community of ideas and sentiments” while its dispersed habitats “everything to speak separation, everything marks the fact of dwelling apart.”

Difficulties in the Study of Larger Rural Regions

The study of  “the emergence of a larger rural area’ is one of the most complicated tasks confronting the student of rural society. ‘The factors which have combined to evolve homogeneous rural regions demand a very careful examination. Again we find that the larger rural regions change their characteristics with the change in the techno-economic, socioeconomic, and sociopolitical forces. The epoch of self-sufficiency evolved into one category of regions. Under the impact of the Industrial Revolution and production for the market, a totally new type of rural area came into being. The change from a market economy to a planned economy, where the agrarian sector is consciously developed as a part of the total life of the community, is creating in some countries and will create in other life of the community, is creating in countries and will create in other countries a new type of regional units. And, above, all the gigantic development of productive forces which is evolving an international economic and cultural community in the modern epoch is forcing the students of human society and especially of rural society to discover the appropriate variety of rural regions which will be in consonance with this development.
 

Efforts are on to define economic, linguistic, administrative, religious, and cultural regions in different countries of the world. Efforts are also being made to determine where these regions coincide together with ‘the laws which bring about this concurrence.”

Studies Conducted in the U.S.A.

The studies of Sanderson, Kolb, Taylor and other, sociologists embody an intensive study of rural economic and cultural zones in the U.S.A. these studies have thrown considerable light on the process of the development of such zones. ‘Various studies of primitive tribes-their geographical milieu, technical equipment, economic organization, social institutional structure, religion, arts and culture and, further, their transformation under the impact of communities belonging to various stages of civilized life- also furnish rich material for discovering the laws of rural development. Works dealing with the role of geographical factors such as mountains, rivers, deserts, sea, rainfall, and various species of trees and animals indirectly or directly influencing the nature of the economic organization, social institutions, styles of architecture and beliefs, and other ideological elements of man’s life, also provide valuable clues for a correct understanding of the emergence of varied rural cultures”
Pointing out the significance of the regional approach A.R.Desai writes, 

“The environmental and regional approach will help to distinguish chief village types and village social structures.it will also assist in scientifically classifying principal regional district and provincial units. It will also aid in locating the underlying factors which have operated to create distinct culture-areas. And finally it will help to evolve a systematic account of the evolution of Indian society as a whole.”

Merits of the Regional Approach

The merits of the Regional approach are as under:

1. A regional approach is most suitable in the countries like the USA because it conducts a study of geographical division. In countries like USA broad areas represent cultural uniformity.
2. It helps in developing broad laws for rural development.
3. It is not as time-consuming as the village community approach.
4. This enables the investigator to find out the lifestyle of the people very quickly.

Demerits of the Regional Approach

The regional approach suffers from the following major drawbacks

1. It attempts a general study of village life. The lifestyle of a particular village cannot be grasped through this method.
2. It fails to give the details of the varieties and diversities of village life.
3. Small-scale studies find no place in this approach.

Reference
Rural sociology by Dr. G. Das