Participation Type
Paper
Presentation #1 Title
One Election Away?: An Appalachian Kentucky Town's Struggle to Diversify its Economy After Coal
Presentation #1 Abstract or Summary
This paper critically assess the results of university-community engagement efforts in Elkhorn City, a small eastern Kentucky town that has been seeking to diversify its economy by adding adventure tourism. We examine the products of this community partnership with the University of Kentucky and Eastern Kentucky University as well as their accomplishments with other partners in an attempt to assess what types of relationships have been most helpful in achieving local goals. We found that, regardless of type of extra-community partner, the intra-community dynamics and, in particular, local government leaders’ attitudes toward adventure tourism, appear to be the most crucial factor in determining whether this path is followed. We further argue that coal “corporate capture” (Tarus, Hufford, and Taylor 2017) of elected officials prevents their acknowledgement of the potential of adventure tourism to diversify the community’s economy and contribute to the quality of life in the region even in the face of empirical evidence and expert analysis. This case study points to the limitations of university-community partnerships and raises concerns about the dysyr of democracy in a society whose leadership, from the local to the national levels, declines to base policy decisions on evidence.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #1
Shaunna L. Scott is an Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Kentucky, where she also is the Director of Appalachian Studies. She is also the editor of the Journal of Appalachian Studies.
Stephanie M. McSpirit is a Professor of Sociology at Eastern Kentucky University, where she teaches statistics, research methods and environmental sociology while actively engaging her students in community-based research projects in eastern Kentucky.
J. Jared Friesen is a doctoral candidate in Sociology at the University of Kentucky and a Visiting Instructor of Sociology at Manchester University (Indiana).
Conference Subthemes
Economic Development, Environmental Sustainability
One Election Away?: An Appalachian Kentucky Town's Struggle to Diversify its Economy After Coal
This paper critically assess the results of university-community engagement efforts in Elkhorn City, a small eastern Kentucky town that has been seeking to diversify its economy by adding adventure tourism. We examine the products of this community partnership with the University of Kentucky and Eastern Kentucky University as well as their accomplishments with other partners in an attempt to assess what types of relationships have been most helpful in achieving local goals. We found that, regardless of type of extra-community partner, the intra-community dynamics and, in particular, local government leaders’ attitudes toward adventure tourism, appear to be the most crucial factor in determining whether this path is followed. We further argue that coal “corporate capture” (Tarus, Hufford, and Taylor 2017) of elected officials prevents their acknowledgement of the potential of adventure tourism to diversify the community’s economy and contribute to the quality of life in the region even in the face of empirical evidence and expert analysis. This case study points to the limitations of university-community partnerships and raises concerns about the dysyr of democracy in a society whose leadership, from the local to the national levels, declines to base policy decisions on evidence.
