Doctoral Dissertation Research: Community Responses to Local Resource Extraction

肯塔基大学博士生Julie Shepherd-Powell将在Mary Anglin博士的指导下，对社区对当地自然资源开采反应的变异性进行民族志研究。主要研究问题是：(1)在此背景下，居民如何概念化和理解“环境”的含义；(2)居民如何表达和回应环境问题？初步研究表明，许多居民将自己置于辩论双方之间，这种情况的原因和后果尚不清楚。这项研究的结果将具有广泛的应用，将超出所研究的特定案例。这项研究将在美国阿巴拉契亚中部地区进行。这是一个研究响应多样性的好地方，因为对于生活在这个地区的许多人来说，煤炭开采属于灰色地带。山顶搬迁会造成当地污染和其他环境挑战，但它也为经济不景气的地区提供了一些仅有的维持生活工资的工作。研究人员将在弗吉尼亚州西南部的一个社区进行12个月的实地调查。该社区是拆山采煤和地下采煤的场地，因此可以收集比较数据。该研究人员将通过关注减少资源开采污染的基层运动的反应来收集数据。她将采用一系列社会科学研究方法，包括与社区居民和组织者的半结构化访谈，参与社区活动的观察，以及国家环境和采矿监管机构的档案研究。这项研究的结果将促进对复杂社会环境问题的科学理解，并阐明一些可能产生不同反应并使环境问题难以解决的经济、社会和文化背景。这个项目的一个特别贡献将是更多地了解公众讨论和理解的空间，这种空间可能在直接反对和支持环境问题之间发展。资助这项研究也支持了社会科学家的教育。

University of Kentucky doctoral student Julie Shepherd-Powell, with the guidance of Dr. Mary Anglin, will conduct ethnographic research on variability in community responses to local natural resource extraction. The primary research questions are: (1) In this context, how do residents conceptualize and understand the meaning of "environment;" (2) How do residents articulate and respond to environmental concerns? Preliminary research suggests that many residents position themselves somewhere between the two sides of the debate, a situation whose causes and consequences are not well understood. Findings from this research will have broad application that will extend beyond the particular case to be studied.The research will be conducted in the central Appalachian region of the United States. This is a good site to study response diversity because for many people living in this region, coal extraction falls into a grey area. Mountaintop removal creates local pollution and other environmental challenges, but it also provides some of the only living-wage jobs in an economically depressed area. The researcher will conduct 12 months of fieldwork in a community in southwest Virginia. The community is the site of both mountaintop removal mining and underground coal mining, so comparative data can be collection. The researcher will collect data by focusing on responses to a grassroots campaign to reduce resource extraction pollution. She will employ a range of social science research methods including semi-structured interviews with community residents and organizers, participant observation at community events, and archival research at state environmental and mining regulatory agencies. Findings from this research will advance scientific understanding of complex socio-environmental issues and elucidate some of the economic, social, and cultural contexts that can produce diverse responses and make environmental problems hard to resolve. A particular contribution of this project will be to learn more about the space of public discussion and understanding that may develop between straight opposition and support of environmental issues. Funding this research also supports the education of a social scientist.