In recent years, rural sociology has been the subject of sociological inquiries. Many of these have been highly critical, raising questions about the ontological nature of the discipline. This paper extends the tradition, providing a brief historical analysis of rural sociology's roots as both theoretical and applied and critiquing current rural sociology in a critical theory perspective. Questions about rural sociology's very being and how it could become more policy-oriented are raised. Illustrating a direction in which research and practice are more interwoven rather than merely discussed and suggesting a direction in which rural sociology could go, the paper gives examples from economics. Finally, the paper cautions rural sociologists that not to address these questions is to run the risk of creating a scientifically pure but substantively vacuous discipline. (Author/NEC)