Mountain Voices

Virginia Center for Coal and Energy Research

Mountain Voices;
Stephen D. Mooney.
VCCER 98-02. August 1998.
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Introduction:

The following study, Mountain Voices, was funded by the Virginia Center for Coal and Energy Research. Its purpose is to allow the people of the southwestern Virginia coalfields -- miners and managers, citizens and industry representatives -- to speak for themselves about socio-cultural issues related to the vitality or decline of their coal-based economy. Unfortunately, these voices -- belonging to those who live daily with the consequences of booms and busts in their economy, and who, as a result, know best their socio-cultural ramifications -- are often ignored by both politicians and policymakers alike. This study seeks to, at least partially, remedy that problem by providing the coalfield population a direct line of access to those people who make the decisions affecting the course of their lives.

The study is divided into two central sections. The first, "Coal Mining Industrialization and Quality of Life, " provides a brief historical overview of the connections in Virginia’s coalfield counties between the coal economy and quality of life issues. It also identifies the many factors that influence Virginia’s coal industry, discusses the role of that industry in the state’s economy as a whole, identifies significant problem areas with regard to the coal industry and coalfield population, examines the cost of a "do-nothing" approach, and finally offers tentative solutions to these problems, identifying certain long-range potentialities. The study’s second part, "Mountain Voices," provides coalfield residents an opportunity to speak to these problems, solutions, or potentialities. Their comments reveal the vast network of connections in the coalfield counties between coal mining industrialization and quality of life. Their comments also reveal a depth and complexity of understanding on the part of coalfield residents about the economic and socio-cultural factors that affect their lives.

It is freely acknowledged that the study’s methodology is influenced by the author’s background and approach to this work. Perhaps most importantly: (1) the author’s lifelong experiential knowledge -- as a resident, newspaper reporter, and educator -- of Appalachian coal culture life and work, with its attendant historical cycles of boom and bust; (2) the author’s extensive knowledge of the very considerable body of scholarship and literature on the Appalachian coal industry and coal culture; (3) the author’s firm belief that the story of the coal mining industrialization of central Appalachia and of southwestern Virginia is a complex and many-sided story, with multiple shades of gray and little in terms of a simple dichotomy between an heroic proletarian workforce and an evil capitalist empire that oppressed a good people while simultaneously and completely destroying their culture and environment; (4) the author’s desire to establish a balance and a tone of fairness in the presentation of materials; (5) the author’s desire to allow the people of the southwestern Virginia coalfields to speak for themselves about the issues that most affect their lives; (6) the author’s firm belief that these people are an intelligent and astute group who can more than accurately speak -- and with sophistication, eloquence, and real depth -- to their decades’ long experience with coal mining and its attendant socio-cultural consequences; (7) the author’s knowledge and appreciation of an extensive body of thought and scholarship which argues for the utility and accuracy of "people’s narratives" as a credible source of historical information and interpretation, and which argues that over-arching "diacritical meta-narratives" by interpretive agents are unnecessary and often obscuring in their effect and in their pursuit of "truth"; (8) the author’s firm belief in "common sense"; that, for example, if one seeks to best understand the impact on school systems of historical and/or projected declines in coal production and/or employment, then who better to talk to than a school administrator with more than 30 years of experience in a Virginia coalfield county school system? Or, if one seeks to best understand the impacts of these developments on a coalfield county social services department, then who better to talk to than a social services director with 35 years of experience?; (9) the author’s belief that a fair representation of viewpoints and perspectives can be attained with a small but carefully selected, highly relevant, and sensibly chosen body of interviewees; that a large "statistical sampling" is not always a necessary or even desirable methodology by which to proceed; that at some very logical level "quality" and depth of response are more important than sheer "quantity"; and finally, (10) the author’s firm belief that an open airing and debate of the issues raised by this report are far more desirable than silence and/or a basic refusal to address these issues which so clearly and directly affect the realities of day-to-day life, work, and culture in the Virginia coalfields.