Remaking Appalachia: Ecosocialism, Ecofeminism, and Law

Product Description

A critical legal scholar uses feminist and environmental theory to sketch alternate futures for Appalachia.

Environmental law has failed spectacularly to protect Appalachia from the ravages of liberal capitalism, and from extractive industries in particular.
Remaking Appalachia chronicles such failures, but also puts forth hopeful paths for truly radical change.

Remaking Appalachia begins with an account of how, over a century ago, laws governing environmental and related issues proved fruitless against the rising power of coal and other industries. Key legal regimes were, in fact, explicitly developed to support favored industrial growth. Aided by law, industry succeeded in maximizing profits not just through profound exploitation of Appalachia’s environment but also through subordination along lines of class, gender, and race. After chronicling such failures and those of liberal development strategies in the region, Stump explores true system change beyond law “reform.” Ecofeminism and ecosocialism undergird this discussion, which involves bottom-up approaches to transcending capitalism that are coordinated from local to global scales.

Review

”
Stump offers more than criticisms of environmental law and extractive industries and presents ways to redress harm and reimagine environmental and economic structures in Appalachia.” 

Z. Zane McNeill, Scholar-Activist, Editor of 
Y’all Means All: The Emerging Voices Queering Appalachia

“Remaking Appalachia offers a thorough critical account of Appalachia through a law and political economy lens, and makes a persuasive case for what the region needs today: a hopeful vision for a new future rooted in transformative, bottom-up change.”

Ann M. Eisenberg, Associate Professor, University of South Carolina

“Stump’s ambitious and challenging work reimagines the commons – the cultural and natural assets accessible to all members of society – in innovative ways but also imbibes from previous intellectual frameworks and Appalachia’s own robust activist tradition.”

Gonzalo Baeza, Author, with fiction published in
Boulevard, Goliad, and The Texas Review

From the Back Cover

Environmental law has failed spectacularly to protect Appalachia from the ravages of liberal capitalism, and from extractive industries in particular.
Remaking Appalachia chronicles such failures, but also puts forth hopeful paths for truly radical change.

Remaking Appalachia begins with an account of how, over a century ago, laws governing environmental and related issues proved fruitless against the rising power of coal and other industries. Key legal regimes were, in fact, explicitly developed to support favored industrial growth. Aided by law, industry succeeded in maximizing profits not just through profound exploitation of Appalachia’s environment but also through subordination along lines of class, gender, and race. After chronicling such failures and those of liberal development strategies in the region, Stump explores true system change beyond law “reform.” Ecofeminism and ecosocialism undergird this discussion, which involves bottom-up approaches to transcending capitalism that are coordinated from local to global scales.

About the Author

Nicholas F. Stump is a lifelong West Virginian. His scholarship explores environmental law, critical legal theory, law and social movements, and Appalachian and rural studies. He currently works as a faculty member with the George R. Farmer Jr. Law Library at West Virginia University College of Law.