Semester
Spring
Date of Graduation
2025
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Type
PhD
College
Eberly College of Arts and Sciences
Department
Sociology and Anthropology
Committee Chair
Katie Corcoran
Committee Co-Chair
Chris Scheitle
Committee Member
Chris Scheitle
Committee Member
Rachel Stein
Committee Member
Corey Colyer
Committee Member
HaeJung Kim
Abstract
This study demonstrates the potential long standing social impacts of extractive industries in Appalachia, supported by historical data and literature that defines the region as a sacrifice zone or as resource cursed. As represented by key informants and the communities under observational study, West Virginia communities can exhibit dynamics indicative of collective trauma that is emplaced and complex in nature, given a historical high level of industrial intervention and social control that induced precarious economic, environmental, and social circumstances. Some of the main “symptoms” of this collective trauma are an aversion to outsider intervention and nostalgia about the past that necessitate certain strategies, like extreme deference to current resident needs and ideas, when working toward communal change. Variation in these dynamics seem to be determined by community narrative identity and past experiences with community outsiders that outline conditions of communal belonging. Additionally, this collective trauma has led to some “strange dichotomies” that often complicate experiences of community belonging and strategies for economic and community development.
Recommended Citation
Hudnall, Erin, "Community Belonging: Experiences of Outsiderness in Appalachia" (2025). Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports. 12767.
https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd/12767