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Chapter 1 begins with a description of the historical roots of exploitation in Central Appalachia, revealing how the economic, political, and social structures of the region have long been influenced by its ties with the coal industry. An overview of the declining coal economy and the rise and fall of the union is then discussed, followed by an account of the earliest attempts to end surface mining in the 1960s and 70s. The next section details the myriad environmental injustices that face the coalfield region today, including mountaintop removal mining, flooding, coal waste impoundment breaches, water contamination, coal dust air pollution, and high rates of a number of chronic health conditions, including cancer, heart disease, respiratory conditions, and depression. The final section of this chapter describes the present-day environmental justice movement that is fighting to hold the coal industry accountable for the harms it has brought to the Central Appalachian region. The chapter closes with a reminder of the puzzle that frames this book: given the enormity of the coal industry’s deleterious effects on local communities, why are there such low rates of movement participation at the local level?

Chapter 4 examines the second micro-level factor influencing social movement participation: identity. Of the small proportion of local citizens who are involved in the coalfield environmental justice movement, an even smaller proportion are men. This chapter presents an interview study conducted with local environmental justice activists to examine the reasons for local men’s low levels of involvement in the movement relative to women. The analysis of the data suggests that the differing rates of environmental justice activism among women and men may be related to how readily their gendered identities are able to align with the collective identity of the coalfield movement. The findings suggest that, despite the tremendous declines in coal employment in Central Appalachia over the past sixty years, the hegemonic masculinity of the region is still closely tied with coal production. This coal-related masculine identity creates a barrier to local men’s ability to achieve what Snow and McAdam (2000) call “identity correspondence” with the collective identity of the environmental justice movement, in effect removing a major segment of potential social-movement participants from the pool of potential recruits.

Chapter 7 provides a transition between Part I and Part II of the book, beginning with a summary of the four factors described in Part I that were found to inhibit local residents’ participation in the Central Appalachian environmental justice movement. The chapter then describes how Part II will present a “Photovoice” project that was initiated with non-activist coalfield residents to study, in real time, the processes hindering and facilitating local involvement in the environmental justice movement.

This final chapter juxtaposes film portrayals of coal mining communities on both sides of the Atlantic and the generational impulses to escape them or not. No aspect of Appalachia’s social and economic character has generated of a comparison than have the coalfields of central Appalachia and those of South Wales. A strong sense of community has been a vital element of the coal culture that evolved in both regions. The social and economic hardships inherent in coal mining communities have produced some of the most effective and realistic screen depictions of Appalachia and its people over the course of the twentieth century, Inscoe argues. The primary drama in which the films engage takes place more above ground than below, making communities and households their central framing devices. The few films set in Appalachian coal towns are more recent (the 1980s and 1990s) and are built on a much older and richer tradition of British-based or produced films set in the UK’s own coal country. The three films discussed in this chapter—The Stars Look Down (1940), The Proud Valley (1940), How Green Was My Valley (1941), Matewan (1987), Coal Minder’s Daughter (1990), October Sky (1999)—embrace multiple tones both positive and negative.

Chapter 5 examines the coal industry’s ideology-construction efforts in Central Appalachia and the ways in which this cultural manipulation impedes the process of consciousness transformation (or cognitive liberation) among coalfield citizens. The study presented in this chapter draws on participant observation data and content analysis to examine the ways in which the West Virginia coal industry uses a fake grassroots (or “astroturf”) organization called Friends of Coal to construct the image that West Virginia’s economy and cultural identity are centered on coal production. Through this campaign, and others like it, the coal industry aims to greenwash its destructive practices and to convince the public that being a “true Appalachian” means supporting the coal industry. This industry-created ideology poses yet another impediment to local people’s willingness to join the fight to hold the industry accountable for the environmental and social harms it inflicts on the region.