Appalachia Revisited: New Perspectives on Place, Tradition, and Progress (Place Matters New Direction Appal Stds) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0813166977 ISBN 13: 9780813166971

Publisher: University Press of Kentucky, 2016

Synopsis

Known for its dramatic beauty and valuable natural resources, Appalachia has undergone significant technological, economic, political, and environmental changes in recent decades. Home to distinctive traditions and a rich cultural heritage, the area is also plagued by poverty, insufficient healthcare and education, drug addiction, and ecological devastation. This complex and controversial region has been examined by generations of scholars, activists, and civil servants―all offering an array of perspectives on Appalachia and its people.

In this innovative volume, editors William Schumann and Rebecca Adkins Fletcher assemble both scholars and nonprofit practitioners to examine how Appalachia is perceived both within and beyond its borders. Together, they investigate the region's transformation and analyze how it is currently approached as a topic of academic inquiry. Arguing that interdisciplinary and comparative place-based studies increasingly matter, the contributors investigate numerous topics, including race and gender, environmental transformation, university-community collaborations, cyber identities, fracking, contemporary activist strategies, and analyze Appalachia in the context of local-to-global change.

A pathbreaking study analyzing continuity and change in the region through a global framework, Appalachia Revisited is essential reading for scholars and students as well as for policymakers, community and charitable organizers, and those involved in community development.

About this title

About the Author:

William Schumann is director of Appalachian studies at Appalachian State University.

Rebecca Adkins Fletcher is a visiting lecturer in the Department of Anthropology at the University of North Carolina Wilmington and adjunct faculty at Ohio University Southern.

Review:

"Gone is the focus on the old Appalachia symbolized by coal camps and coal miners' strikes―although they are still highly important in the region. Alongside them, we see important glimpses of new populations, the newly emergent forms of Appalachian activism and engagement, and the new economies and environmental impacts that are reshaping twenty-first century Appalachia."―Dwight Billings, professor of sociology at the University of Kentucky

"A welcome addition to a literature long dominated by historians, anthropologists, and sociologists. . . . Highly recommended."―Choice

"This book is important for the example it sets for future place-based and interdisciplinary academic enterprise conducted from a global perspective."―Appalachian Mountain Books

"The editors skillfully organize fifteen unique articles into a logical framework and provide thought-provoking and substantive context to the work as a whole. The entries are well written and capably researched, and showcase numerous cutting-edge research models and conceptual frameworks.

Appalachia Revisited is a serious and important contribution to multidisciplinary efforts in Appalachian Studies."―West Virginia History

"The volume provides an important starting point for understanding the political nature of place, and as such, it stands to make an important contribution to regional scholarship and wider efforts to address ongoing problems facing Appalachia."―Register of the Kentucky Historical Society

About this edition

• Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 0813166977
• ISBN 13: 9780813166971
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 318
• Editor: Schumann William, Fletcher Rebecca Adkins