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.

Download

Share

COinS