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Coal has long history in Ohio and across the Appalachian region (Crowell 1995History of Coal-Mining Industry in Ohio State of Ohio, Department of Natural Resources, Division of Geological survey). The industry has had a major impact on the communities in various ways from underground mining, surface mining, and coal- fired electricity generation (Keenan and Robert 2010An Ecopolitical System of Global Significance” in “Always A River: The Ohio River and the American Experience; Lobao et al 2016Rural Sociol.81343–86). As the U.S. moves away from coal, the mines and coal-fired power plants close, creating significant economic hardships for the communities that relied on the coal industry (Blaackeret al2012Organ. Environ.25385–401; Grubert 2012Energy Policy44174–84; Grubert 2020Science3701171–3; Haggertyet al2018Resour. Policy5769–80). Yet even after the industry has left, the residents of many towns still felt connected to coal and still consider themselves a ‘coal community’. Local history and industry messaging help re- enforce this idea, but those factors are part of a larger phenomenon around the growing and shifting image of coal (Bell and York 2010Rural Sociol.75111–43; Lewin 2019Soc. Probl.6651–68). This article examines how the image of coal has grown over time to be associated with many different values that coal community members identify with and want to attach to themselves. From hardworking coal miners, to town-defining power plant smokestacks, to hunting and fishing on reclaimed coal lands. The image of coal has come to represent a myriad of things that still represent these coal communities allowing them to interact with the image of coal long after the industry and tangible impact of coal has left. In analyzing interview data with fifty coal employees, local leaders and town residents from across four coal communities across southeast Ohio and northern West Virginia at varying stages of coal transition, this article uses concepts from postmodern social theory to illustrate the nature of how the meanings and identity of coal towns persist even after there is no longer coal. The findings advance our understanding of how coal-dependent communities continue to grapple with the societal transition away from coal energy and provide context for addressing the coal transition beyond economic factors.
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A neural network model predicts community-level signaling states in a diverse microbial community
- Award ID(s):
- 1753268
- PAR ID:
- 10101201
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- PLOS Computational Biology
- Volume:
- 15
- Issue:
- 6
- ISSN:
- 1553-7358
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- e1007166
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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The purpose of this research study is to understand teacher experiences throughout their second year of engagement in the Virginia Tech Partnering with Educators and Engineers in Rural Schools partnership. This partnership is an assets-based community partnership in a rural environment between middle school teachers, regional industry, and university affiliates that is focused on implementing recurrent, hands-on, culturally relevant engineering activities for middle school students. This qualitative study uses constant comparative methodology informed by grounded theory on teacher interviews to capture both teacher experiences in the partnership as well as teacher-identified assets in their classrooms and school communities. Using the sensitizing concepts of pedagogical content knowledge, self-efficacy, and the Interconnected Model of Teacher Growth, this study found that while teachers experienced the program differently depending on their contextual setting of their schools, all teachers expressed shifts in their recognition of and value placed on community assets. Findings also suggest that teachers greatly value involving industry and university partners in the classroom to highlight the applications of engineering in their communities and support a reimagination of engineering conceptions and careers for both students and teachers. Teachers reported that the hands-on, team-based, culturally relevant engineering activities engaged learners and showcased individual strengths in ways they otherwise do not see exhibited in their traditional curriculum. The partnership ultimately allowed teachers to identify how assets in schools’ rural communities, beyond those previously identified within their schools, could aid them in further developing and implementing engineering activities. With teachers serving as role models for students, it is important to support teachers’ reimagination of engineering conceptions and integration into the classroom to ultimately increase students’ engineering engagement. Our findings highlight the value of community-based approaches in supporting engineering integration in the classroom and describe the assets that teachers note as being the most significant in their community.more » « less
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Online community research routinely poses minimal risk to individuals, but does the same hold true for online communities? In response to high-profile breaches of online community trust and increased debate in the social computing research community on the ethics of online community research, this paper investigates community-level harms and benefits of research. Through 9 participatory-inspired workshops with four critical online communities (Wikipedia, InTheRooms, CaringBridge, and r/AskHistorians), we found researchers should engage more directly with communities' primary purpose by rationalizing their methods and contributions in the context of community goals to equalize the beneficiaries of community research. To facilitate deeper alignment of these expectations, we present the FACTORS (Functions for Action with Communities: Teaching, Overseeing, Reciprocating, and Sustaining) framework for ethical online community research. Finally, we reflect on our findings by providing implications for researchers and online communities to identify and implement functions for navigating community-level harms and benefits.more » « less
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1007166
