Book description
Throughout Appalachia corporations control local economies and
absentee ownership of land makes it difficult for communities to
protect their waterways, mountains, and forests. Yet among all this
uncertainty are committed citizens who have organized themselves to
confront both external power holders and often their own local, state,
and federal agents. Determined to make their voice heard and to
improve their living conditions, newfound partnerships between
community activists and faculty and students at community colleges and
universities have formed to challenge powerful bureaucratic
infrastructures and to protect local ecosystems and communities.
Confronting Ecological Crisis: University and Community Partnerships
in Appalachia and the South addresses a wide range of cases that have
presented challenges to local environments, public health, and social
justice faced by the people of this region. Editors Stephanie
McSpirit, Lynne Faltraco, and Conner Bailey, along with community
leaders and their university partners, describe stories of unlikely
unions between faculty, students, and Appalachian communities in which
both sides learn from one another and, most importantly, form a unique
alliance in the fight against corporate control. Confronting
Ecological Crisis is a comprehensive look at the citizens and
organizations that have emerged to fight the continued destruction of Appalachia.
""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, Director
of the Appalachian Center and Appalachian Studies Program, University
of Kentucky" --
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.
