Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Historical Geography of Electricity in Eastern North Carolina

博士论文研究：北卡罗来纳州东部电力历史地理

• 批准号: 1302739
• 负责人: Scott Kirsch
• 金额: $ 1.24万
• 依托单位: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2013-05-01 至 2014-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1302739&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Historical; Geography

IntroductionThis doctoral dissertation improvement grant is jointly supported by the Science, Technology, and Society program and the Geography and Spatial Sciences program.In eastern North Carolina, some towns charge electricity rates nearly double those in nearby towns. These differences result from the patchwork of electricity providers that serve the region. These electric utilities can be grouped into three ownership types: investor owned, municipally owned, and cooperatively owned. The proposed research seeks to understand how and why this patchwork of electric utilities and varying prices emerged. It is guided by two interlocking hypotheses. First, electric utilities were compelled to overcome a series of obstacles, including difficulty obtaining capital investment for infrastructure; a necessity to increase revenues from electricity sales; and ongoing attempts to stave off the devaluation of fixed assets. Second, the developing electric utilities both shaped, and were shaped by, local and regional social, economic and political geographies. As electric utilities began operating in eastern North Carolina, varying alliances and configurations worked to undermine the interests of African Americans and the working classes. Intellectual meritThis research employs geographic approaches to research electric utilities, including archival research, GIS mapping, and interviews with key informants, to consider how the ownership and financing models of the different electric utilities developed in relation to the ideologies of the Progressive Era and Jim Crow segregation. It also considers electricity's development in the American South, a region previously unexamined by historians of electricity.Broader ImpactsThis project provides insights into how electricity infrastructures are developed, and how they influence the development of the cities they power. This will inform current debates over the relations between the industry, the state, and infrastructure, and in eastern North Carolina will inform ongoing debates over electricity prices. Project outputs include a geodatabase of historic power plant information, and an interactive online mapping tool that allows users to explore the development of electricity in several North Carolina towns.

简介本博士学位论文改进赠款得到了科学，技术与社会计划以及地理和空间科学计划的共同支持。这些差异是由服务于该地区的电力提供商的拼凑而成的。这些电力公司可以分为三种所有权类型：投资者所有，市政拥有和合作拥有。拟议的研究试图了解电力公司的拼凑而成的方式以及为什么出现了变化的价格。 它以两个互锁假设为指导。首先，电力公司被迫克服一系列障碍，包括难以获得基础设施的资本投资；增加电力销售收入的必要性；并正在进行的试图避免固定资产贬值。其次，发展中的电力公用事业都由地方和地区的社会，经济和政治地理位置形成，并且是塑造的。 随着电力公用事业开始在北卡罗来纳州东部运营，不同的联盟和配置会破坏非裔美国人和工人阶级的利益。知识分子的研究研究采用地理方法来研究电力公司，包括档案研究，GIS映射以及与主要线人的访谈，以考虑如何与进步时代的意识形态和Jim Crow的意识形态相关的不同电力公用事业的所有权和融资模型。它还认为电力在美国南部的开发，该地区以前没有电力史学家，这一项目提供了有关电力基础设施如何开发电力基础设施以及它们如何影响其权力的城市发展的见解。 这将为当前关于行业，州和基础设施之间关系的辩论以及北卡罗来纳州东部的辩论提供信息，将为持续的电价提供持续的辩论。 项目输出包括一个历史悠久的电厂信息的地理数据，以及一种互动的在线映射工具，该工具使用户可以探索北卡罗来纳州几个城镇的电力开发。