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Ethnographers often criticize broad theoretical models, such as the one offered by General Systems Theory, as being insensitive to unique historical processes and events that can dramatically affect decision-making at the local level. Using data drawn fromboth a Greek and an Irish rural community, this work examines the validity of such criticism and concludes that there is no necessary inconsistency between variable-level theory and data, provided that the ethnography itself incorporates the appropriate kinds of data.

Rural communities within the European Community (EC) will be dramatically affected by the removal of most of the remaining economic barriers at the end of 1992. Of critical importance in understanding the nature and consequences of these changes is the identification of the ways in which local farmers' productive decisions are affected by different kinds of capital input. This work examines the changes in production strategy in an Irish farming community both before and after EC membership, and shows that the differences are attributable to different forms of capital input within the farming sector of that community.