It is often discussed that the degradation of farming, seen in such phenomena as part-time farming, the aging population and depopulation, may result in the dissolution of farm families and the rural community. Our initial hypothesis was that the differentiation whithin farm households caused by the rapid introduction of machines will individuate the members, disrupt the socialization of younger members and result in the dissolution of farm families. However, the process of dissolution should be questioned.
A panel study on time-use conducted at a rural community in Okayama prefecture enables the comparison of the life-patterns of farm families before and after the mechanization. After mechanization, time-use patterns become differentiated by generation and sex. Younger members have gained private spheres, while the aged are left with old norms. The farm family is now the arena of competing norms.
Under such a situation as individuation, the dissolution of a farm family could be prevented if the process of socialization takes place not as a molding process but as a process of an inter-generational negotiation.