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Chapter 2 places the problem of movement non-participation within the existing sociological literature on the micro-level processes that contribute to an individual’s decision to participate–or not participate–in a social movement. The chapter provides an overview of the social movements literature on the four “central problematics” of micromobilization–solidarity, identity correspondence, consciousness transformation (also called “cognitive liberation”), and the creation of micromobilization contexts. In studies of social movements, these four processes continually arise as important micro-level issues shaping activist participation. This chapter synthesizes the theoretical and empirical work on these four factors and suggests that the low level of local participation in the coalfield justice movement is the result of problems with all four of these processes. The next four chapters present a series of studies that examine potential barriers to the four central problematics of micromobilization outlined in this chapter.

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.

Chapter 6 argues that another factor inhibiting the process of consciousness transformation, or cognitive liberation, among local coalfield residents is a lack of knowledge about the extent of the coal industry’s activities due to the fact that much of the destruction is not easily seen. The study presented in this chapter uses a geographic information system (GIS) in the top coal-producing county in West Virginia to quantitatively identify how much of the active and recently surface-mined land is visible from the roads in that county. This viewshed analysis reveals that although 47 percent of the total landscape in the county is visible from transportation corridors (including U.S. highways, state highways, and county roads), only 23 percent of the surface-mined land mass is visible from these corridors. Removing the county roads (which are remote and largely depopulated) from the analysis makes the findings even more dramatic: only 4 percent of the total area of surface-mined land in the county is visible from U.S. and state highways. The fact that so much industry activity is out of sight from local residents likely poses another hindrance to social movement recruitment.

Over 50% of Blacks and Latinos and nearly 30% of Whites have proximal contact with the criminal justice system. This group of people experience the consequences of the carceral state vicariously via a loved one, but do not face such extraordinary resource and efficacy barriers to civic and political engagement as do their custodial counterparts. Diminished trust in government that results from negative proximal encounters with the carceral state can be leveraged into increased political action. This is true for all three racial subgroups, but race structures the narratives by which individuals make sense of their experiences with injustice. Chapter 2 defines personal and proximal contact, identifies the social consequences of contact, and develops a theory by which contact can politically mobilize.