Confronting Ecological Crisis in Appalachia and the South: University and Community Partnerships

by Stephanie McSpirit, Lynne Faltraco, Connor Bailey

Overview

This book analyzes the varied ways in which American films and television shows grapple with the problem of freedom. Popular culture often champions freedom as the fundamentally American way of life, and celebrates the independence and self-reliance of ordinary Americans. But film and television have also explored the tension between freedom and other American values, such as order and political stability. What looks from one angle like a healthy, productive, and creative freedom, may look from

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780813136196
Publisher:	University Press of Kentucky
Publication date:	07/01/2012
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	284
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.20(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Stephanie McSpirit is Professor of Sociology at Eastern Kentucky University. She is the author of several articles that have been published in journals such as the Journal of Appalachian Studies, Southern Rural Sociology, and the International Journal of Society and Natural Resources. Lynne Faltraco is the program coordinator for The Concerned Citizens of Rutherford County in North Carolina and the recipient of a Rockefeller Humanities Fellowship. She has written and been featured in numerous articles, editorials, and regulatory publications such as the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the Environmental Protection Agency Region IV's Performance Partnership Agreement Conner Bailey is professor of rural sociology at Auburn University and has published in various journals such as Rural Sociology, Society & Natural Resources, Marine Policy, the Journal of Development Studies, and World Development.

Table of Contents

Foreword Scoff J. Peters vii

Introduction: Forging Partnerships between Communities and Academic Activists Stephanie McSpirit Lynne Faltraco Conner Bailey 1

1 Confessions of the Parasitic Researcher to the Man in the Cowboy Hat Sherry Cable 21

2 What Difference Did It Make? The Appalachian Land Ownership Study after Twenty-Five Years Shaunna L. Scott 39

3 Participatory Action Research: Combating the Poisoning of Dayhoit, Harlan County Roy Silver 61

4 The Martin County Project: Students, Faculty, and Citizens Research the Effects of a Technological Disaster Stephanie McSpirit Sharon Hardesty Patrick Carter-North Mark Grayson Nina McCoy 75

5 Unsuitable: The Fight to Save Black Mountain, 1998-1999 Robert Gipe 93

6 Building Partnerships to Challenge Chip Mills: Citizen Activists Find Academic Allies Lynne Faltraco Conner Bailey 109

7 Environmental Justice from the Roots: Tillery, North Carolina Mansoureh Tajik 131

8 The Incineration of Chemical Weapons in Anniston, Alabama: The March for Environmental Justice Suzanne Marshall Rufus Kinney Antoinnette Hudson 147

9 Expertise and Alliances: How Kentuckians Transformed the U.S. Chemical Weapons Disposal Program Robert Futrell Dick Futrell 171

10 Headwaters: A Student-Faculty Participatory Research Project in Eastern Kentucky Alan Banks Alice Jones Anne Blakeney 195

11 Social Theory, Appalachian Studies, and the Challenge of Global Regions: The UK Rockefeller Humanities Fellowship Program, 2001-2005 Betsy Taylor Lynne Faltraco Ana Isla 217

Conclusion: Reflections on Public Scholarship in Appalachia and the South Stephanie McSpirit Lynne Faltraco Conner Bailey 233

Acknowledgments 245

List of Contributors 247

Index 253

Editorial Reviews

This book [...] inspires because it brings together accounts of effective citizen action and productive partnerships with academic institutions and personnel in response to environmental assaults and degradation; corporate greed and irresponsibility; and bureaucratic and regulatory collusion, neglect, and inaction. [...] This volume makes a strong case for democratic participation in all arenas, whether in the community or the university, with activism not relegated to one or the other.

Journal of Appalachian Studies

This provocative and inspiring book contributes to a growling line of inquiry about the nature and value of higher education's public mission, purposes, and work; it deserves a wide audience of readers, within and beyond higher education.

Scott J. Peters

Confronting Ecological Crisis is a comprehensive look at the citizens and organizations that have emerged to fight the continued destruction of Appalachia.

Southeastern Naturalist

This book should be required reading for all faculty, especially at Appalachian college and universities.

Appalachian Heritage

The authors reflect very honestly about their experiences working together across overlapping academic, Appalachian, and Southern communities in their efforts to promote environmental justice and community well-being. Academic scholarship has too often been one more extractive industry in these regions. Residents of historically marginalized communities, or "subjects," have been more or less patiently educating academics for decades across a class divide that has widened. This book bridges that divide, acknowledging the diversity of contributions individuals participating in various communities (sometimes simultaneously) bring to documenting and addressing environmental injustice. It is a useful text in working toward more sustainable partnerships.

Ann Kingsolver

"Each of the 11 short chapters chronicles a collaborative project, is extensively documented, and is well written by both activists and academics, making for interesting reading." — A.A. Hickey, Choice

From the Publisher

It should be required reading for faculty and students contemplating doing participatory research.... Highly recommended.

Choice Magazine