"There Ain't No Bond in Town Like There Used to Be": The Destruction of Social Capital in the West Virginia Coalfields1
"There Ain't No Bond in Town Like There Used to Be": The Destruction of Social Capital in the West Virginia Coalfields1
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DOI：
10.1111/j.1573-7861.2009.01123.x
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发表时间：
2009-09-01
影响因子：
1.8
通讯作者：
Bell, Shannon Elizabeth
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Bell, Shannon Elizabeth
很少有研究集中于导致或促成社区内社会资本下降的情况。此外，尽管社会资本这一概念具有多维度和多层次的性质，但很少有研究者在他们的研究中使用定性的方法，这使得社会资本非常适合于定性分析。为了解决社会资本研究中的这两个差距，我探索了导致西弗吉尼亚州南部产煤地区社会资本枯竭的机制。我研究了煤炭行业是否也削弱了该地区的社会资本。煤炭行业在居民中引发了围绕环境退化和对工会的忠诚度的激烈冲突。我的主要数据包括对西弗吉尼亚州一个煤矿城镇和一个人口统计相似的非煤矿城镇随机挑选的40个半结构化、面对面的访谈。我分析了每个城镇的居民的经历，评估了与社会资本相关的社区和个人生活的质的差异。我发现，煤矿社区的社会资本损失是由于人口减少和全社区冲突的共同作用，当时一家反工会的煤炭公司买下了社区中许多人工作的联合煤矿，挑战了该地区如此根深蒂固的工会身份。
There is a paucity of research focusing on the circumstances that cause or contribute to a decline in social capital within communities. Furthermore, relatively few researchers employ qualitative methods in their studies of social capital, despite the multidimensional and many-layered nature of this concept, characteristics that make social capital well suited for qualitative analysis. To address these two gaps in social capital research, I explore the mechanisms that have led to a depletion of social capital in the southern coal-producing region of West Virginia. I examine whether the coal industry, which has caused bitter conflicts among residents over environmental degradation and union loyalties, has also undermined social capital in the region. My principal data include 40 semi-structured, face-to-face interviews with randomly selected individuals in a coal-mining town and a demographically similar non-coal-mining town in West Virginia. I analyze the experiences of residents in each town, assessing the qualitative differences in community and personal life associated with social capital. I find that the loss of social capital in the coal-mining community has arisen through a combination of depopulation and the community-wide conflict that arose when an anti-union coal company bought out the union coal mine at which many in the community worked, challenging the union identity so engrained in this region.