This book is a collection of research papers written by former graduate students and other close associates of Professor Zimmerman, an eminent sociologist who has done significant work in sociology, especially socio-cultural change in the rural-urban context, inter-group relations, minority groups and their attempt during the last two decades to acculturate with majority groups. The essays not only reflect the importance of comparative sociology but encompass ‘the liberalizing effect on higher education, professions in· terms of altruism, environmentalism and the study of change through the sociology of youth’. The area of rural sociology covers both national and international problems, indicating the variety of ways whereby former students and associates of Professor Zimmerman have investigated problems all over the world.
A large number of essays study the effect of urbanization and modernization in different countries, such as India, Canada, the United States, Japan, Latin America, the Soviet Union and Sri Lanka. The changes due to the education of youth by the introduction of liberal methods of teaching and programmes have also been examined. The effect of changes in traditional societies because of western industrialism and urban culture is a crucial research theme because it helps to understand the process of alienation, especially in developing nations, that has created serious amagonisms and conflicts. A major focus in these essays is on the United States where the lessening of tensions in inter-group relations is being consciously worked for.