The Federal Institute for Less Less Favoured and Mountainous Areas (BABF) is also a centre for rural social research in Austria. She is responsible for the organisation of the Working Group for Rural Social Research, which in turn is part of the Rural Social Research Section of the Austrian Society for Sociology.

In the field of rural social research, important work on rural poverty, infrastructure development in rural areas and models of social services and care within the framework of agricultural diversification have been developed under the term 'green care'. In addition, the spatial aspects of migration movements and opportunities for integration (including those resulting from international migration) in their effects on rural regions are dealt with comprehensively.

Farm Relief Services provide working force in case of temporary disability, sickness, maternity, decease of core farm managers, and also in case of recreation and absence from the farm in order to sustain agricultural operation. Services are generally applied by farming and forestry relief agencies and machinery rings.

Sociology of space examines the social and material constitution of spaces. It is concerned with understanding the social practices, institutional forces, and material complexity of how humans and spaces interact.

Sociology of food and agriculture is dedicated to farm production, natural resource management, agricultural, horticultural and forest industries, farm families and farm households.

Rural sociology focuses on social structure analyses of rural population, structural change in rural areas, and the scope of action for social inclusion.

Green Care encompasses a diverse set of interventions using nature and the natural environment as a framework.

Social inclusion conceptualizes mechanisms and practices competing social disadvantage and relegation to the fringe of society.

Social Capital It is generally seen as a form of capital that produces public goods for a common good. The term generally refers to resources, the relationships among these resources, and the impact that these relationships have on the resources involved in each relationship, and on larger groups.