11/28/2016
The
Significance of ‘Place’ as Identity to Social Change in Appalachia
In
Transforming Places: Lessons from
Appalachia, Fisher and Smith’s perspective of the concept of ‘place’ is
that which we call home, specifically, the mountain landscape of Appalachia is
symbolic of this home. Appalachians have an emotional relationship attached to
the memories of the mountains that evokes a sense of protection of the place. Appalachian’s
ties to the mountains then becomes a place-based political mobilization in the
form of social justice organization to defend the home. Because of the
inequalities and historical exploitation faced by Appalachians, political
mobilization is especially significant. This paper dives into the concept of
‘place’ and its usefulness to understanding how it helps to understand the
political significance of place, ‘scaling up’, and looking towards the future
of grassroots organizing in Appalachia to resist forms of oppression and
domination, including the ‘hegemony of growth’ (Fisher & Smith, 2012.)
Moreover,
understanding the “place” helps to understand its political significance and
potential. As we say the personal is
political, the same applies to the concept of place, where the place is personal, thus the place is political. The concept of
place is internalized to be a source of identity (Fisher & Smith, 2012.) This
means people are concerned about social issues that are personal to them in
their ‘place’ (home.) The implications of ‘place’ and place-based organizations
means that it is limited to that area, and aims to help those in that one
region, which is at risk of being exclusionary to others (Fisher & Smith,
2012.) One region’s social issues may not be the same as other regions, then
solutions should not be the same. Additionally, we need the historical context
and narratives of place to understand the region, how the social issues
developed over time, and the social issues can be linked to the historical
exploitation of the land and people.
Much
of the examples in Transforming Places
see the political significance and potential of place-based organizations. In Appalachian Elegy, bell hooks says “the
passion for freedom and the wildness I had experienced as a child with anarchy,
with the belief in the power of the individual to be self-determining” (p.
67-68.) This is an example of how our interconnectedness with the wild of the
Appalachian Mountains fuels our own political significance and potential.
Again, she is quoted “Living my early childhood in the isolated hills of
Kentucky, I made a place for myself in nature there— roaming the hills” (p.
110-111.) This exemplifies the narratives in Transforming Places: Lessons from Appalachia. For example, the RAIL
Solution, made up people with a collective attachment to the shared place,
worked to end the corporate giant that was the privatization of I-81. “The
political potential of this fundamental tension between public claims to and
private appropriations of place raises tough, unanswered questions for
organized labor in the United States” (p. 276.) The potential and political
significance of a place-based organization then turns oppression and domination
into ‘political solidarity’ (Fisher & Smith, 2012, p. 281.)
The
organizations discussed in Transforming
Places, had common goals to preserve their home, identity, environment, and
community from environmental degradation and resist the imperialist capitalist
patriarchal system. Another example of political significance and potential was
the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance (OREPA.) The efforts of OREPA was to
call attention to the Uranium Processing Facility at Y12 in Oak Ridge (Fisher
& Smith, 2012.) OREPA took the position that nuclear weapons production is
bad for the environment, and because bombs made in America are intended to kill
countries of black and brown people, the root of the issue is imperialist white
supremacy. This further initiated the Stop the Bombs campaign. Despite an
unfinished goal of halting the production of nuclear weapons, OREPA has placed
pressure on state and federal regulators to prevent environmental destruction,
and the organization grew, encompassing diverse groups of people to address
violence as a production—including many religious groups.
Additionally,
the Listening Project exemplified the
political significance and potential by including part of their history into
storytelling. Similarly, the mention of self-awareness and embracing the
Appalachian identity of the Women’s
Wellness Group in Chapter four, was a way of addressing local issues that
are central to understanding our specific history. This ties into the arts
project mentioned in chapter six, because of the ways they are linking their
stories to the Appalachian heritage, and connecting how the economic,
political, and environmental climate of our region has shaped our values and
addresses our specific needs. Likewise, chapter five addressed issues that are
specific to the Appalachian region through media projects like AMI (Fisher
& Smith, 2012.) The narratives of the people of the region help facilitate
change and intervention, like a video made by the interns at AMI on domestic
violence in the region, is still used for prevention efforts by regional health
organizations. Appalachian Women’s
Alliance allied more than two hundred women to facilitate change, where the
Appalachian Women’s Caravan voiced
their message about violence against women through the mountains in 1999 (Fisher
& Smith, 2012.) These efforts made by diverse groups of unified women were
to dismantle stereotypes and vocally call attention to a silent issue among all
women. The political significance of this is that Appalachia has crisis
centers, shelters, therapy centers, and other organizations to help others. When
one person tells their story and when we begin to hear the narratives of
others, the struggle bonds us to work to end the hate, discrimination,
violence, and inequality. The stories we hear facilitate empathy, in turn the
work of the women has fostered organizations in Appalachia to alleviate fear
and suffering of abuse survivors.
‘Place’
matters in understanding the history of exploitation to suggest strategies and
prospects to the specific social issues of that region. Although there are
spatial and racial differences of specific places, globalization and
neoliberalism generate similarities of many different regions (Fisher &
Smith, 2012.) As mentioned, there should not be one solution across different
regions for specific social issues but place-based strategies and solutions
also address the issues and needed solutions across the globe. Place-based
organizations reach outside the region—like Occupy
Wall Street, Standing Up for Standing
Rock, and Black Lives Matter (not
mentioned in the book)—linking people nationally and globally due to the global
access to the Internet. Subsequently, place-based strategies and prospects for
the future should be shared globally. Organizations and grassroots movements
may be place-based in the sense of addressing different struggles, but the goal
of the global population should be similar.
For instance, the goal across the
globe should be social and environmental justice. When there is an attachment
to the place called home, it must be viewed in a way of preserving its
integrity rather than deconstructing it for the sole purpose of job creation.
For example, coal mining jobs are symbolic to Appalachians in their region;
thus, it feels threatening when outsiders suggest creating green jobs to
replace them (Fisher & Smith, 2012.) However, the goal of the transition
work globally and at the local level should aim to create a working world that
functions to preserve the environment and make a safe and healthy world for the
life within the environment. There is a romanticism attached to the memories of
the past (Fisher & Smith, 2012), but this is not an invitation to recreate
the past in ways that continue to exploit land, oppress poor people and people
of color. Instead we need to focus on the potential future of Appalachia as a
place with a self-sustainable food system, locally-based economy,
environmentally-conscious companies, and a place of social justice, liberation,
revolution, and equity.
Some
stories of additional organizations have been discussed from the book, but one
single story featured in Transforming
Places was meaningful to my own understanding and attachment to the ‘place.’
From my perspective, the organization that stood out the most was the Community
Farm Alliance (CFA.) Chapter 14
discussed a Kentucky-based issue, where the CFA aimed to ease the transition
farmers from tobacco growing towards a local food growing system and
distribution in a low-income region among small-scale farmers (known as Locally
Integrated Food Economy.) There was a coherent alternative proposed by the CFA
when they opposed biotechnology spending and cuts towards tobacco farmers. This
is unique to “Appalachianess” because tobacco was Kentucky’s ‘number one cash
crop’ and Kentucky ‘had one of the highest numbers of family farms in the
country in 1997’, and ‘a unique kind of agrarianism’ in Kentucky (p. 210). This
is also a reflection on my family’s experience growing tobacco for many years.
In the late ‘90s, it was clear that there was a shift in the consumerism market
of tobacco, and it was also clear that small-scale farmers would likely quit
growing altogether. When my family quit growing tobacco, they grew large scale
gardens for the family instead. I admired that, and something in me is still
attached to that relationship with the land they grew tobacco on, and I have a
relationship with growing food because it feels ‘part of me.’
Furthermore,
globalization and neoliberalism produce in specific regions eroding communities
and local solidarity; thus, Appalachian citizens are reinventing themselves to
resist the globalization and neoliberal tendencies. The example of the place-based
organization of the CFA exemplified the ways in which Appalachian citizens are
reinventing themselves and resisting the globalization and neoliberalism. For
example, the tobacco farmers reinvented themselves as food producers. The
farmers then advocated for a local food distribution system in urban markets and
African American neighborhoods that suffered from grocery gaps (Fisher &
Smith, 2012.) The CFA “organizers had spent fifteen years developing leadership
skills and county-based chapters among its farmer-members across rural Kentucky”
(p. 274.) Many groups experienced the same long-term efforts, such as OREPA which
is still active today based on their website orepa.org.
Long term organizations must scale up their members and outreach for their
voices to be heard and to facilitate change. From here, ‘scaling up’ is
discussed as an important political step for organizations.
Place-based
organizations that focus on one issue makes it easier to focus on one solution;
and from the examples in the book—it is hard for groups to focus on the many global
problems and their solutions. At the same time, long term organizations are
successful when they address other issues later (Fisher & Smith, 2012.) But,
this is where scaling up is beneficial to expand on the local issues by recognizing
wider social forces that effect people on a global scale. Scaling up can reach
more people and influence greater change outside of the place-based
organization. Scaling up was discussed throughout the book on how this often
meant a need for more staff/membership, resources, and building more
relationships and links with other coalitions, organizations, and community
groups. Although scaling up in terms of outreach meant that reaching a larger
audience will help build and bond a community. What was helpful about CFA is
that the organization encouraged tobacco settlement funds to go towards these
small-scale farmers that would be the most vulnerable (Fisher & Smith, 2012.)
In this case, the idea of scaling up was to bridge the divide, have a dialogue between
foodie groups, policy makers, businesses, and churches.
As
mentioned, ‘scaling up’ is an important step in the process of economically
diversifying and democratizing the region and communities (especially in
coal-impacted communities.) Often
there is an acknowledgement of capitalism, but little awareness of alternatives
to the white supremacist patriarchal capitalism. From this acknowledgement,
however, the first step is to begin resistance and facilitate change through
the theoretical framework of an anti-racist, anti-capitalist feminism. Secondly,
there is a need to bridge the divide and find common ground, solidarity, and
empowerment in struggles, goals, and across love and acceptance. Third, there
is a need to “take up space”—as some feminists refer to as organizing public
space within face-to-face meetings to discuss regional issues and their
solutions. Empathy is formed in conversations and narratives of others that
have different struggles, and thus people outside of their social circle
becomes moved to speak and act on behalf of the justice of others (Fisher &
Smith, 2012.) Another step to democratize and diversify the region is by
acknowledging the problem, and put a name to it (Fisher & Smith, 2012.) For
instance, migrant workers in Cincinnati claimed their problem to be
discrimination, which helped them facilitate the process of change (Fisher
& Smith, 2012.) The next step is to create an alternative to the currently
opposed system.
Similarly,
the CFA created their own values-based alternative plan (Fisher & Smith,
2012.) Secondly, the CFA utilized diversity and democratized their group by
incorporating the knowledge of citizens and farmer’s knowledge in their policy
tools (like coal, timber, etc.) This insight evokes the same inclusiveness to
all policy matters (not just farming.) And the CFA was inclusive for people of
color, which is important because persons of color are often hurt the most by
spending cuts. It is clear in all policies developed, we need the knowledgeable
voices of people that is going to be affected by certain policies. As
previously mentioned, this is a participatory democratic strategy.
Additionally,
because there is a shift from growing tobacco considering the plethora of
knowledge on smoking tobacco—this also gives us insight that we need to have
alternatives to other shifting markets. But even when there is reason to shift
the market, this shift does not hurt the CEO, managers, and shareholders as
much as the workers that lose a whole paycheck with no alternative. For
instance, coal is a declining industry—especially considering there are cheaper
alternatives, but the environmental movements are calling for solar and wind as
power/energy alternatives. This is where we could use the CFA’s model to shift
the industry of coal mining jobs towards energy efficient/sustainable
technology jobs (for the same people, families, and communities) and timber
logging towards bamboo/hemp harvesting to replace wood products for those that
relied on timber jobs.
Consequently, groups that want
minimal government intervention and regulation, do not want individuals to have
their own agency. These same groups give corporations agency to abuse their
power to exploit the environment and people. So, the role of the government
should be one that gives agency to the individual, while restricting and
regulating corporations to prevent those environmental and social injustices.
This is where grassroots groups play a role in addressing the injustices to demand
certain needs by working with the government. One would think that government
always has people’s interest in mind; but if everyone in government is part of
the status quo (white wealthy men), then this group doesn’t understand groups
outside of their selves. When everyone has a voice that is taken into
consideration and valued equally, then that is an actual participatory democracy.
Grassroots movements—although
small and led by marginalized people—create large conversations that shift the
consciousness. It is important to have
both government and grassroots solutions. Governments inadvertently rely on
these movements to educate them—even when these advocates are not necessarily
experts or professionals. Because advocates have little power comparatively, it
takes large groups with access to a platform to have their voices and
narratives heard. The government can be part and in par with citizen groups and
grassroots movements. In fact, much legislation was influenced from these
movements. In this world, government holds so much power, that it sometimes
creates the struggle, oppression, and friction that it claims to reduce and
prevent. We are a product of the government power and control, but we need both
and one another despite that. To properly assess the government’s role, one
must ask: Who is the government working
for? Are they going to continue to uphold the status quo and perpetuate
domination, or dismantle it? Fisher and Smith calls the global domination:
The Empire, which distorts our
knowledge of the world, people, science, and academia, while preventing us from
discovering interconnectedness with others in addition to preventing us from
uprising together. In other words, the Empire
keeps us divided, separate and unequal.
Collectively, grassroots groups
can unify in their struggle and strategies for a solution. Although much of
this paper has somewhat romanticized place-based organizations, Fisher and
Smith suggest that “people need principled reasons, more than place-based
reasons, to form such alliances” (p. 56.) The authors also suggest facilitating
change around values-based principles rather than focusing on the identity of
the place. The white supremacist capitalist patriarchy forms a matrix of
domination across race, class, and gender. Thus, spatial, racial, and
relational differences may prompt place-based organizations to focus on their
regions unique struggles, this is undercutting the larger system at play that
affects every aspect of people’s lives. In other words, mass incarceration,
unemployment, poverty, hunger, war, violence, drug addiction, environmental
degradation all stem from this system of global domination. Once we put a name
to the problems of domination at play, we can name the alternative solution to
dismantle domination.
References
hooks, bell. Appalachian
Elegy: Poetry and Place (Kentucky Voices) (Kindle Locations 67-68). The University
Press of Kentucky. Kindle Edition.
Fisher, Stephen
L. and Smith, Barbara Ellen. (2012). Transforming Places: Lessons from
Appalachia. University of Illinois Press.
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