Participation Type
Paper
Presentation #1 Title
Children of the Downturn: Capability and 'New Poverty' in Central Appalachia
Presentation #1 Abstract or Summary
The coal industry downturn has created millions of new poor across all of Appalachia. As mining and its ancillary industries lost momentum, thousands of families lost their livelihood, causing massive intra- and inter-generational hardship. How do today’s Appalachian youths cope with the adversity they have inherited? How do we distinguish their “post-coal” poverty from the “coal poverty” of their parents and grandparents, and which solutions can we tailor to their generation-specific needs and desires? Our research offers both a new analysis of post-coal poverty and a transdisciplinary methodology for its relief and eventual dissolution in Central Appalachia. We reconceptualize the very idea of ‘poverty’ through the capability approach to ethical justice, which understands life-quality not only as material wealth and access to opportunity, but also in terms of substantive sociopolitical freedoms. The young post-coal poor Appalachians are not just impoverished, but also systemically unfree, in different ways from how their older relatives were unfree. We then coopt community-building strategies typically employed by religious leadership (“come to church, get free pizza”) to establish networks of social empowerment and capability development. The poor are the best judges of how to remove their substantive unfreedoms, so they ought to design the aid strategies that will affect their lives. In developing these recipient-centered solutions, we recommend a focus on “at-risk” youth in Alternative Education systems, who are both especially susceptible to post-coal poverty and in an unfavorable position to fix it.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #1
Olivia Lowery (Big Stone Gap, VA) is a senior at Hollins University and a steering committee member on the STAY project. Her work focuses on social justice and fair economic transitions, with an emphasis on young people in Appalachia.
Dr. Claudio D'Amato (Blacksburg, VA) is an instructor of philosophy at Virginia Tech. His research focuses on human development and international ethics and social justice.
Conference Subthemes
Diversity and Inclusion, Economic Development
Children of the Downturn: Capability and 'New Poverty' in Central Appalachia
The coal industry downturn has created millions of new poor across all of Appalachia. As mining and its ancillary industries lost momentum, thousands of families lost their livelihood, causing massive intra- and inter-generational hardship. How do today’s Appalachian youths cope with the adversity they have inherited? How do we distinguish their “post-coal” poverty from the “coal poverty” of their parents and grandparents, and which solutions can we tailor to their generation-specific needs and desires? Our research offers both a new analysis of post-coal poverty and a transdisciplinary methodology for its relief and eventual dissolution in Central Appalachia. We reconceptualize the very idea of ‘poverty’ through the capability approach to ethical justice, which understands life-quality not only as material wealth and access to opportunity, but also in terms of substantive sociopolitical freedoms. The young post-coal poor Appalachians are not just impoverished, but also systemically unfree, in different ways from how their older relatives were unfree. We then coopt community-building strategies typically employed by religious leadership (“come to church, get free pizza”) to establish networks of social empowerment and capability development. The poor are the best judges of how to remove their substantive unfreedoms, so they ought to design the aid strategies that will affect their lives. In developing these recipient-centered solutions, we recommend a focus on “at-risk” youth in Alternative Education systems, who are both especially susceptible to post-coal poverty and in an unfavorable position to fix it.
