Individual Commitment to Industrialization in Rural Mexico

Placement in industrial work is a function of the number and strength of kin-mediated ties to urbanized or differentiated situations. This hypothesis, which specifies much of what it is about social class, education, size of community of residence, and other similar "factors" that influence non-farm occupational placement, was tested in a rural but industrializing area in Mexico. Occupational type is empirically specified by a continuum based on present and past work experience, and primary urban ties are measured by a range of indicators. Lipset's related findings are reinterpreted, and the hypothesis that farmers seek factory work because of landlessness is rejected.