Appalachia Revisited: New Perspectives on Place, Tradition, and Progress

by William Schumann, Rebecca Adkins Fletcher

Overview

Known for its dramatic beauty and valuable natural resources, Appalachia has undergone significant technological, economic, political, and environmental changes in recent decades. Home to distinctive traditions and a rich cultural heritage, the area is also plagued by poverty, insufficient healthcare and education, drug addiction, and ecological devastation. This complex and controversial region has been examined by generations of scholars, activists, and civil servants—all offering an array of perspectives on Appalachia and its people.

In this innovative volume, editors William Schumann and Rebecca Adkins Fletcher assemble both scholars and nonprofit practitioners to examine how Appalachia is perceived both within and beyond its borders. Together, they investigate the region's transformation and analyze how it is currently approached as a topic of academic inquiry. Arguing that interdisciplinary and comparative place-based studies increasingly matter, the contributors investigate numerous topics, including race and gender, environmental transformation, university-community collaborations, cyber identities, fracking, contemporary activist strategies, and analyze Appalachia in the context of local-to-global change.

A pathbreaking study analyzing continuity and change in the region through a global framework, Appalachia Revisited is essential reading for scholars and students as well as for policymakers, community and charitable organizers, and those involved in community development.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780813166971
Publisher:	University Press of Kentucky
Publication date:	07/22/2016
Series:	Place Matters: New Directions in Appalachian Studies
Pages:	318
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.00(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

William Schumann is director of Appalachian studies at Appalachian State University. Rebecca Adkins Fletcher is a visiting lecturer in the Department of Anthropology at the University of North Carolina Wilmington and adjunct faculty at Ohio University Southern.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Place and Place-Making in Appalachia William Schumann 1

Part 1 Race, Ethnicity, and Gender

1 Revisiting Appalachia, Revisiting Self Kathryn L. Duvall Kelly A. Dorgan Sadie P. Hutson 29

2 Carolina Chocolate Drops: Performative Expressions and Reception of Affrilachian Identity Yunina Barbour-Payne 43

3 Beyond a Wife's Perspective on Politics: One Woman's Expression of Identity in Western North Carolina in the Postwar Period Amanda Zeddy 59

4 Intersections of Appalachian Identity Anna Rachel Terman 73

Part 2 Language, Rhetoric, and Literacy

5 Appalachia Beyond the Mountains: Ethical, Community-Based Research in Urban Appalachian Neighborhoods Kathryn Trauth Taylor 91

6 Digital Rhetorics of Appalachia and the Cultural Studies Classroom Jessica Blackburn 105

7 Continuity and Change of English Consonants in Appalachia Kirk Hazen Jordan Lovejoy Jaclyn Dougherty Madeline Vandevender 119

Part 3 Economy and Environment

8 Frackonomics Jacqueline Yahn 139

9 Revisiting Appalachian Icons in the Production and Consumption of Tourist Art Kristin Kant-Byers 155

10 From the Coal Mine to the Prison Yard: The Human Cost of Appalachian New Economy Melissa Ooten Jason Sawyer 171

11 Walking the Fence Line of The Crooked Road: Engaging in the Marketplace of Tourism while Empowering a Place-Based Civic Commons Anita Puckett 185

Part 4 Engagement

12 "No One's Ever Talked to Us Before": Participatory Approaches and Economic Development in Rural Appalachian Communities Tim Ezzell 213

13 Strength in Numbers: The Federation of Appalachian Housing Enterprises Diane N. Loeffler Jim King 229

14 When Collaboration Leads to Action: Collecting and Making History in a Deep South State Mark Wilson 245

15 Participation and Transformation in Twenty-First-Century Appalachian Scholarship Gabriel A. Piser 259

(Re)introduction: The Global Neighborhoods of Appalachian Studies Rebecca Adkins Fletcher 275

Appendix: Teaching Exercises 291

List of Contributors 301

Index 305

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Gone is the focus on the old Appalachia symbolized by coal camps and coal miners' strikes—although they are still highly important in the region. Alongside them, we see important glimpses of new populations, the newly emergent forms of Appalachian activism and engagement, and the new economies and environmental impacts that are reshaping twenty-first century Appalachia." — Dwight Billings, professor of sociology at the University of Kentucky

Dwight Billings

"Gone is the focus on the old Appalachia symbolized by coal camps and coal miners' strikes—although they are still highly important in the region. Alongside them, we see important glimpses of new populations, the newly emergent forms of Appalachian activism and engagement, and the new economies and environmental impacts that are reshaping twenty-first century Appalachia."

Editorial Reviews

The volume provides an important starting point for understanding the political nature of place, and as such, it stands to make an important contribution to regional scholarship and wider efforts to address ongoing problems facing Appalachia.

Register of the Kentucky Historical Society

This book is important for the example it sets for future place-based and interdisciplinary academic enterprise conducted from a global perspective.

Appalachian Mountain Books

Gone is the focus on the old Appalachia symbolized by coal camps and coal miners' strikes—although they are still highly important in the region. Alongside them, we see important glimpses of new populations, the newly emergent forms of Appalachian activism and engagement, and the new economies and environmental impacts that are reshaping twenty-first century Appalachia.

Dwight Billings

A welcome addition to a literature long dominated by historians, anthropologists, and sociologists.... Highly recommended.

Choice

The editors skillfully organize fifteen unique articles into a logical framework and provide thought-provoking and substantive context to the work as a whole. The entries are well written and capably researched, and showcase numerous cutting-edge research models and conceptual frameworks. Appalachia Revisited is a serious and important contribution to multidisciplinary efforts in Appalachian Studies.

West Virginia History

"A welcome addition to a literature long dominated by historians, anthropologists, and sociologists.... Highly recommended." — Choice

"This book is important for the example it sets for future place-based and interdisciplinary academic enterprise conducted from a global perspective." — Appalachian Mountain Books

"The editors skillfully organize fifteen unique articles into a logical framework and provide thought-provoking and substantive context to the work as a whole. The entries are well written and capably researched, and showcase numerous cutting-edge research models and conceptual frameworks. Appalachia Revisited is a serious and important contribution to multidisciplinary efforts in Appalachian Studies." — West Virginia History

"The volume provides an important starting point for understanding the political nature of place, and as such, it stands to make an important contribution to regional scholarship and wider efforts to address ongoing problems facing Appalachia." — Register of the Kentucky Historical Society

From the Publisher