Ranching, Mining, and the Human Impact of Natural Resource Development

In Ranching, Mining, and the Human Impact of Natural Resource Development, Raymond L. Gold observes and reports on people whose lives have been significantly affected by the industrialization of rural communities in the American West. Such community change research is rarely done, so this classic study is invaluable for its real world groundings applicable to a variety of social science theories. The study evolved out of ethnographic research on Western communities done over a full decade. This was the first work of its kind to examine and account for the rise of local citizens' groups on the sense of being a community. Its account of this process covers both ordinarily slow and extraordinarily rapid areas of change in the American West. In this regard it is a contribution to basic social theory, showing clearly the interrelation between small-community and large-society elements of the structure and functioning of community life. No other book brings together the story of social effects of natural resource development projects in the American West. This book shows how to implement a social policy concerning resource development and public agencies. It is intended for people interested in the environment, American society, rural and urban affairs, social impact assessment, and urban structures generally. It is also aimed at industrial and community planners and natural resource development firms.

Table of Contents:
Contents Acknowledgments Foreword Elizabeth Moen 1 Introduction 2 The Community Before Development 3 Impacts of Anticipated Development 4 Impacts Experienced at the Outset of Development and During Construction 5 After Construction: The First Year 6 Conceptualization and Analysis 7 Toward Socially Enlightened Natural Resource Development References Index

About the Author :
Raymond L. Gold (1921-2007) received graduate degrees from The University of Chicago. He taught at the universities of Alabama and Montana and completed numerous ethnographic studies.

Review :
-This book deserves attention. . . . Gold has produced an explicitly sociological study of the energy boomtown phenomenon. The book is steeped in the sociological tradition of community studies, and it offers in return an important contribution to that tradition.- --William R. Freudenburg, Contemporary Sociology -Gold's ethnographic analysis of community social stresses created by coal development produces a poignant criticism of the cost/benefit emphasis in conventional strategies for social impact assessment.- --Lewis F. Carter, Social Forces -Gold brings sociology into the environmental impact assessment process in a way that will capture the interest of scholars, public officials, and the corporate world of natural resource development. His style is forthright and engaging, and his qualitative ethnographic approach gives the reader a view of the human social consequences of technological innovation that is uncluttered by the maze of technical considerations all too often dominant in the environmental impact assessment process. Gold set out to identify theoretically and practically important facets of social change occurring in small towns with large-scale energy production systems in progress, and he has done so in a sophisticated and telling way.- --Craig R. Humphrey, Science "This book deserves attention. . . . Gold has produced an explicitly sociological study of the energy boomtown phenomenon. The book is steeped in the sociological tradition of community studies, and it offers in return an important contribution to that tradition." --William R. Freudenburg, Contemporary Sociology "Gold's ethnographic analysis of community social stresses created by coal development produces a poignant criticism of the cost/benefit emphasis in conventional strategies for social impact assessment." --Lewis F. Carter, Social Forces "Gold brings sociology into the environmental impact assessment process in a way that will capture the interest of scholars, public officials, and the corporate world of natural resource development. His style is forthright and engaging, and his qualitative ethnographic approach gives the reader a view of the human social consequences of technological innovation that is uncluttered by the maze of technical considerations all too often dominant in the environmental impact assessment process. Gold set out to identify theoretically and practically important facets of social change occurring in small towns with large-scale energy production systems in progress, and he has done so in a sophisticated and telling way." --Craig R. Humphrey, Science "This book deserves attention. . . . Gold has produced an explicitly sociological study of the energy boomtown phenomenon. The book is steeped in the sociological tradition of community studies, and it offers in return an important contribution to that tradition." --William R. Freudenburg, Contemporary Sociology "Gold's ethnographic analysis of community social stresses created by coal development produces a poignant criticism of the cost/benefit emphasis in conventional strategies for social impact assessment." --Lewis F. Carter, Social Forces "Gold brings sociology into the environmental impact assessment process in a way that will capture the interest of scholars, public officials, and the corporate world of natural resource development. His style is forthright and engaging, and his qualitative ethnographic approach gives the reader a view of the human social consequences of technological innovation that is uncluttered by the maze of technical considerations all too often dominant in the environmental impact assessment process. Gold set out to identify theoretically and practically important facets of social change occurring in small towns with large-scale energy production systems in progress, and he has done so in a sophisticated and telling way." --Craig R. Humphrey, Science