About the Book
In this era of globalization's ruthless deracination, place attachments have become increasingly salient in collective mobilizations across the spectrum of politics. Like place-based activists in other resource-rich yet impoverished regions across the globe, Appalachians are contesting economic injustice, environmental degradation, and the anti-democratic power of elites. This collection of seventeen original essays by scholars and activists from a variety of backgrounds explores this wide range of oppositional politics, querying its successes, limitations, and impacts. The editors' critical introduction and conclusion integrate theories of place and space with analyses of organizations and events discussed by contributors. Transforming Places illuminates widely relevant lessons about building coalitions and movements with sufficient strength to challenge corporate-driven globalization. Contributors are Fran Ansley, Yaira Andrea Arias Soto, Dwight B. Billings, M. Kathryn Brown, Jeannette Butterworth, Paul Castelloe, Aviva Chomsky, Dave Cooper, Walter Davis, Meredith Dean, Elizabeth C. Fine, Jenrose Fitzgerald, Doug Gamble, Nina Gregg, Edna Gulley, Molly Hemstreet, Mary Hufford, Ralph Hutchison, Donna Jones, Ann Kingsolver, Sue Ella Kobak, Jill Kriesky, Michael E. Maloney, Lisa Markowitz, Linda McKinney, Ladelle McWhorter, Marta Maria Miranda, Chad Montrie, Maureen Mullinax, Phillip J. Obermiller, Rebecca O'Doherty, Cassie Robinson Pfleger, Randal Pfleger, Anita Puckett, Katie Richards-Schuster, June Rostan, Rees Shearer, Daniel Swan, Joe Szakos, Betsy Taylor, Thomas E. Wagner, Craig White, and Ryan Wishart.
Table of Contents:
CoverTitle PageCopyright PageContentsPrefaceAcknowledgmentsInvocation/Invocacion Marta Maria MirandaIntroduction: Placing Appalachia Stephen L. Fisher and Barbara Ellen SmithI. GO TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAINS: PLACE, IDENTITY, AND CULTURE1. Stop the Bombs: Local Organizing with Global Reach Ralph Hutchison2. RAIL Solution: Taking on Halliburton on the Home Front Rees Shearer3. This Land Is Your Land: Local Organizing and the Hegemony of Growth Nina Gregg and Doug Gamble4. Identity Matters: Building an Urban Appalachian Movement in Cincinnati Phillip J. Obermiller, M.5. Appalachian Youth Re-envisioning Home, Re-making Identities Katie Richards-Schuster and Rebecca O6. Resistance through Community-based Arts Maureen MullinaxII. WHERE NO ONE STANDS ALONE: BRIDGING DIVIDES7. Organizing Appalachian Women: Hope Lies in the Struggle Meredith Dean with Edna Gulley and Linda8. The Southern Empowerment Project: Homegrown Organizing Gone Too Soon June Rostan and Walter Davis9. Center for Participatory Change: Cultivating Grassroots Support Organizing Craig White, Paul Cast10. Faith-based Coalitions and Organized Labor: New Forms of Collaboration in the Twenty-first Centu11. Talking Union in Two Languages: Labor Rights and Immigrant Workers in East TennesseeIII. CLIMBING JACOB'S LADDER: SCALING UP12. Virginia Organizing: The Action Is at the State Level Joe Szakos and Ladelle McWhorter13. OxyContin Flood in the Coalfields: "Searching for Higher Ground" Sue Ella Kobak14. Not Your Grandmother's Agrarianism: The Community Farm Alliance's Agrifood Activism Jenrose Fitz15. Mountain Justice Cassie Robinson Pfleger, Randal Pfleger, Ryan Wishart, and Dave Cooper16. Who Knows? Who Tells?: Creating a Knowledge Commons Anita Puckett, Elizabeth Fine, Mary Hufford,17. North and South: Struggles over Coal in Colombia and Appalachia Aviva Chomsky and Chad MontrieConclusion: Transformations in Place Barbara Ellen Smith and Stephen L. FisherList of ContributorsIndex
About the Author :
Stephen L. Fisher is professor emeritus at Emory & Henry College, where he founded and directed the Appalachian Center for Community Service. Barbara Ellen Smith is professor of women's and gender studies at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.
Review :
"An important, user-oriented document for Appalachia and elsewhere. Highly recommended."--Choice "As coal dies a hard, fast death, justice work turns to economic transition and encompasses a wide range of other issues, as detailed in the book, Transforming Places: Lessons from Appalachia by Steven L. Fisher and Barbara Ellen Smith." --Justice
"The seventeen original essays showcased in Transforming Places chronicle and analyze these diverse struggles in an attempt to answer one driving question: 'Who will control such places, and to what ends?'… The mill might turn drop by drop, as the old song says, but anyone who wants to understand the water of activism is flowing in Appalachia these days--and anyone who would like first person perspectives on how to and how not to build a better mill--could not find a better hand book than Transforming Places."--Now and Then
"Transforming Places excels in its ability to hold in tension the heterogeneity of Appalachia and the commonalities between very different strands of resistance."--Cultural Geographies
"Engaging and accessible. . . . will win a place on the shelves of scholars, practitioners and activists alike."--West Virginia History
"Transforming Places: Lessons from Appalachia edited by Stephen L. Fisher and Barbara Ellen Smith, is an apotheosis of that Appalachian studies dream. . . . tightly and engagingly told."--Journal of Appalachian Studies
