Mode of Program Participation
Academic Scholarship
Participation Type
Panel
Session Title
"Working Appalachia" : Seeking out Possibilities through Everyday Struggle
Session Abstract or Summary
Appalachia is a mountainous region of transformations and a site of power struggles. Industries come and go as working families construct livelihoods and seek out solutions to problems perceived as stemming from the so-called global economy. Over the past four decades, technological advances, market deregulation, and an erosion of collective bargaining have transformed the nature of work in the region and in the United States as a whole. How do Appalachians today make sense of their piece of the global whole? How do Appalachian workers make use of their resources and grapple with their predicaments? The participants on this panel will present the stories of workers from a variety of industries who face livelihood struggles and employ diverse strategies to carve out a living and contribute to their communities. Through the stories of working Appalachians, the panel will explore particular livelihood strategies which illustrate the complexities of everyday struggle and point to possibilities for meaningful programming.
Presentation #1 Title
Strategies of Resilience among Working Poor Safety-net Clients of Upstate South Carolina
Presentation #1 Abstract or Summary
The proliferation of precarious employment in the modern U.S. represents a sea change in the American opportunity structure. As the role of the state has shifted from guarantor of rights and services to anxious custodian of economic liberalization, the working poor—individuals with jobs confining them to the lowest rung of economic attainment—have been left to weather the vicissitudes of the unfettered market with the increasingly paltry social membership guaranteed through waged employment. This paper examines the strategies of resilience working poor South Carolinians mobilize to remain employed and manage their health.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #1
Henry is an Anthropology Ph.D. candidate at the University of Kentucky. His dissertation research examines the mental distress and resilience of upstate South Carolina’s uninsured working poor, a low-wage workforce typical of those sustaining the new economies of the American South.
Presentation #2 Title
Family Tomatero Enterprises of Southern Appalachia
Presentation #2 Abstract or Summary
Who is truck farming today in southern Appalachia? How are they organizing their enterprises within the marginalizing context of family-based farming? This paper addresses these questions through the vantage point of members in a Mexican-U.S. (binational) family group. The majority of the working adults in this group work as tomateros or tomato industry workers in the southeastern U.S. Many of them do so through enterprises they or their relatives organize, operate and own. This paper presents the context of the fresh-market tomato and vegetable industry in southern Appalachia and the stories and perspectives of members of this family group and their industry colleagues. It suggests that this working family group makes substaintial contributions to the fresh-market fruit and vegetable industry in southern Appalachia and that their knowledge and strategies can help inform apt science literacy programming to create a more equitable fresh-market fruit and vegetable industry.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #2
Mary Elizabeth Schmid is an Anthropology Ph.D. Candidate at the University of Kentucky. She uses a combined interpretive and political economic approach to study the intersections of migration, kinship, agro-food systems, agricultural livelihoods and globalization.
Presentation #3 Title
Finding “Tone” and Meaningful Work in West Virginian Instrument Craft
Presentation #3 Abstract or Summary
West Virginia’s musical instrument makers are uniquely positioned in the context of the political discourses of job creation and conversations of the role of cultural heritage and forests in regional economic futures. They seek to bolster their livelihood, yet their labor is typically undervalued or misunderstood by craft development models; reconfigure the value of the wood by transforming the material into “living” instruments, yet are dependent on modern forestry practices for their raw material; and craft technical and material innovations, yet remain beholden to demands of regional and occupational heritage. This paper explores how musical instrument makers navigate these contradictions and find meaning in their work and produce “living” instruments through the active, skilled relationship with tonewood.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #3
Jasper Waugh-Quasebarth is an Anthropology Ph.D. candidate at the University of Kentucky.
Presentation #4 Title
Bean Seeds and Beyond: Oral Histories with Farmers in Eastern Kentucky
Presentation #4 Abstract or Summary
This presentation will center on oral history interviews conducted in and around Letcher County, Kentucky in 2016. With curiosity about past, present, and future foodways, I interviewed farmers, gardeners, seed savers, cooks, foragers, local and regional activists, and community theater participants. These interviews were facilitated in an open-ended, life history format. Narrators shared about growing gardens, sharing food, selling food, putting up food, saving seeds, generational awareness, arts based community work, social and economic justice, youth movements, and LGBTQ presence in the region. Each interview represents the stories of a particular person in a particular place at a particular moment. Collectively, these interviews raise questions about the role of creative economies – especially related to food and art as a part of viable, healthy, sustainable communities. They evoke ponderings of how traditions and generational awareness guide movements into the future of the region. They encourage contemplation of meaning, belonging, and allegiance to place. These interviews will be a part of a MA thesis in Southern Studies that includes both writing and audio documentary, with consideration of intersecting regional studies of Appalachia and the South. This project lends itself to analysis of oral history as a method, including its limitations and strengths. For the purposes of this panel discussion, I will share audio recordings of interviews within the theme of agricultural work, paired with photography. The presentation will be rooted in the voices, experiences, and visions of the farmers who shared their stories and perspectives.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #4
Abby Huggins is currently an MA student in Southern Studies at the University of Mississippi with interest in Appalachian Studies, oral history, and foodways. Raised in North Carolina, Abby has also lived in Grenada, West Indies and Alaska, working within areas of education, community development, and agriculture. She hopes to continue to work at intersections of community, culture, food, and justice in the future.
Strategies of Resilience among Working Poor Safety-net Clients of Upstate South Carolina
The proliferation of precarious employment in the modern U.S. represents a sea change in the American opportunity structure. As the role of the state has shifted from guarantor of rights and services to anxious custodian of economic liberalization, the working poor—individuals with jobs confining them to the lowest rung of economic attainment—have been left to weather the vicissitudes of the unfettered market with the increasingly paltry social membership guaranteed through waged employment. This paper examines the strategies of resilience working poor South Carolinians mobilize to remain employed and manage their health.
