Semester

Fall

Date of Graduation

2023

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Type

PhD

College

Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design

Committee Chair

J. Chris Haddox

Committee Member

Cheryl Brown

Committee Member

Carrie White

Committee Member

Peter Butler

Committee Member

Chris Plein

Abstract

Central Appalachia specifically and rural extractive areas more generally face some of the most challenging socio-economic realities in North America. Community-based organizations (CBOs) are an important tool for addressing these challenges. As governments intensify efforts to mitigate climate change, and as fossil-fuel industries contract, extracted communities are experiencing economic, cultural, and environmental upheaval. Many leaders call for a “just transition” away from fossil-fuels, which would make local extraction communities whole. However, achieving a truly just transition away from fossil fuels is extraordinarily challenging, and many extracted communities were never whole to begin with. I argue CBOs are the crucial vehicle through which effective community and economic development (CED) outcomes can materialize for distressed rural communities. Yet CBOs do not receive nearly enough funding, policy-focus, or high-level partnership. Technical assistance provided to CBOs is often ineffective, especially in rural settings. Evaluation systems for measuring rural CBO effectiveness are inadequate.

My research is primarily geared toward practitioners and aspiring practitioners. Findings, program designs and evaluative structures put forward herein are based on experience with Coalfield Development, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization I founded in southern West Virginia in 2010. Coalfield Development has essentially served as my research field lab. This dissertation provides four sections detailing organizational capabilities which local CBOs can develop and implement towards the goal of a just transition and improved quality of life for their unique rural place. In doing so, support is needed from funders and policy-makers in order to succeed. Much better evaluative systems are needed, as well, which could improve resource allocation decisions in these greatly under-invested communities and could also improve organizational effectiveness. The four capabilities and corresponding sections of this dissertation are:

  • capacity building for rural CBOs
  • incubating and investing in employment social enterprises
  • human development for people facing barriers to employment
  • and community-based real-estate revitalization

In this dissertation, I use mixed-methods to draw insights and best-practices from more than a decade of interventions through Coalfield Development including case studies, focus groups, surveys, cost-benefit-analyses, program designs and program evaluations. My research illustrates and articulates the value of all four capabilities, finding them each as essential components for CBOs working in extracted local economies. While this research is based in central Appalachia it is intended to be useful to practitioners, policymakers, funders, local leaders and researchers in other rural fossil-fuel communities throughout the world.

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