Bell, Shannon Elizabeth. 2009. “‘There Ain’t No Bond
in Town Like there Used to Be’: The Destruction of Social Capital in the West
Virginia Coalfields.” Sociological Forum.
24(3): 631-657. Abstract: There is a paucity of research focusing on the circumstances that cause or contribute to a decline in social capital within communities. Furthermore, relatively few researchers employ qualitative methods in their studies of social capital, despite the multi-dimensional and many-layered nature of this concept, characteristics which make social capital well suited for qualitative analysis. To address these two gaps in social capital research, I explore the mechanisms that have led to a depletion of social capital in the southern coal-producing region of West Virginia. I examine whether the coal industry, which has caused bitter conflicts among residents over environmental degradation and union loyalties, has also undermined social capital in the region. My principle data include 40 semi-structured, face-to-face interviews with randomly selected individuals in a coal-mining town and a demographically similar non-coal-mining town in West Virginia. I analyze the experiences of residents in each town, assessing the qualitative differences in community and personal life associated with social capital. I find that the loss of social capital in the coal-mining community has arisen through a combination of depopulation and the community-wide conflict that arose when an anti-union coal company bought out the union coal mine at which many in the community worked, challenging the union identity so engrained in this community. Bell, Shannon Elizabeth and Richard York. Forthcoming. “Community Economic Identity: The Coal Industry and Ideology Construction in West Virginia.” Rural Sociology. [Expected 2010]. Abstract: Economic changes and the machinations of the treadmill of production have dramatically reduced the number of jobs provided by extractive industries, such as mining and timber, in the United States and other affluent nations in the post-World War II era. As the importance of these industries to national, regional, and local economies wanes, community resistance to ecologically and socially destructive industry practices threatens the political power of extractive corporations. Here we argue that to maintain their power (and profits) as their contribution to employment declines, extractive industries have made increasing efforts to maintain and amplify the extent to which the “economic identity” of communities is connected with the industry that was historically an important source of employment. We fit this argument within the neo-Marxian theoretical tradition, which emphasizes the role ideology plays in maintaining elite rule. We illustrate this theorized process by analyzing the efforts of the West Virginia coal industry, which, through its (faux) “grassroots” front group “Friends of Coal,” attempts to construct the image that West Virginia’s economy and cultural identity are centered on coal production. Our analysis relies on content analysis of various sources and experience in the field. We find that key strategies of the Friends of Coal include the appropriation of cultural icons and efforts to become pervasively visible in the social landscape. These findings have implications for how industries around the country, and the world, work to maintain their power through ideological manipulation. Bell, Shannon Elizabeth. Forthcoming. “Photovoice as a Strategy for Community Organizing in the Appalachian Coalfields.” Journal of Appalachian Studies. [Expected November 2009]. Abstract: The effects of powerlessness and depleted levels of social capital in coalfield communities make community organizing a particularly daunting task. Any organizing effort, if it is to be successful, must overcome these two major barriers to mobilization. In this paper, I present the participatory action research methodology of “Photovoice” as an underutilized strategy for community organizing that has the potential to both address the consequences of long-term powerlessness and low social capital within the coalfields of Central Appalachia. Photovoice is a methodology, most notably used in public health, which involves using participant-produced photography as a means of giving voice to marginalized persons in the community. Community member participants receive cameras to record images that “tell the story” of their community and then come together for regular group reflection sessions to discuss their photographs and the underlying issues represented in the images. At these reflection sessions, participants write short narratives to accompany the pictures they deem most important, creating “photostories.” Outcomes from the Cabin Creek Photovoice Project are presented as evidence of the possibilities that this methodology holds as a tool for organizing for change in Central Appalachia. Bell, Shannon Elizabeth and Yvonne A. Braun. “‘Our Roots Run Deep as Ironweed’: Collective Identities and the Gendering of Environmental Justice Activism.” [Revise & Resubmit at Gender & Society] Abstract: Women generally initiate, lead, and comprise the rank-and-file of environmental justice (EJ) activism. However, there is little research on why there are comparatively so few men involved in these movements. Using the environmental justice movement in the Central Appalachian coalfields as a case study, we examine the ways that EJ activism is gendered, with a focus on how women’s and men’s collective identities both shape and constrain their involvement in gendered ways. Our analysis relies on 20 in-depth interviews with women and men grassroots activists working for environmental justice in the coalfields of Appalachia. We find that women draw on their collective identities as “mothers” and “Appalachians” as resources for the movement and to justify their activism, whereas men speak of their activism from a more individuated perspective, focusing on personal experiences of injustice. Additionally, we argue that the hegemonic masculinity of the region, which is tied to the coal industry, constrains coalfield men’s involvement in the movement. We explore the implications of these gendered differences for the future EJ movement in the coalfields. Book Chapters: Bell, Shannon Elizabeth. “‘Coal is all West Virginia’s Got’: The Coal Industry’s Propagation of a False Ideology.” Forthcoming book chapter in Shirley Stewart Burns, Mari-Lynn Evans, and Silas House (Eds.). Coal Country: Rising Up Against Mountaintop Removal Mining. Sierra Club Books/Counterpoint. [Expected November 2009]. Bell, Shannon Elizabeth. “Displacement in the Appalachian Coalfields: Mountaintop Removal Mining and the Depopulation of Southern West Virginia.” Forthcoming book chapter in Guadalupe Arreola, Alicia Schwartz, James Tracy and Tom Wetzel (Eds.) Dispatches Against Displacement: From the Global Economy to the Eviction Notice. Oakland: AK Press. Bell, Shannon. 2004 “The Jolo Church of the Lord Jesus.” Pp. 194-199 in Mari-Lynn Evans, Robert Santelli, and Holly George-Warren (Eds.) The Appalachians: America’s First and Last Frontier. New York: Random House. Work in Progress: Bell, Shannon Elizabeth and Yvonne A. Braun. “Photovoice as a Method of Sociological Inquiry.” Braun, Yvonne A. and Shannon Elizabeth Bell. “Gendered Patterns of Exploitation in Extractive Industries: A Comparison of Water Extraction in Lesotho, Africa and Coal Extraction in Appalachia, United States.” “The Burden of Invisible Work in Academia: Social Inequalities and Time Use in Eight Departments at the University of Oregon.” Collaborative research project with faculty and graduate students in the Social Science Feminist Network Research Interest Group (SSFN-RIG) at the University of Oregon. York, Richard, Shannon Elizabeth Bell, and Brett Clark “The Feminism Question in Science.” |