Fighting King Coal: The Challenges to Micromobilization in Central Appalachia by Shannon Elizabeth Bell (review)

Social movement research has been criticized for selecting on the dependent variable (i.e., cases of successful mobilization) and retroactively asking how movements emerge, persist, and succeed or fail. Consequently, one of the most intriguing and compelling questions in social movement scholarship today centers on the issue of why people fail to mobilize in situations where one would expect resistance. Yet, this question is an inherently tricky one to answer. As numerous researchers have noted, how does one analyze something that isn't there? Bell deftly tackles this question head-on in Fighting King Coal, utilizing the case of citizen resistance (and the lack thereof) among coalfield residents in Central Appalachia. Scholars have long been intrigued by the dynamics between coal elites and local residents in this area. As a scholar of environmental justice and social movements, Bell builds on her already extensive work in this region to provide an in-depth look into the factors that impede mobilization in cases of environmental injustice. The book is engaging, well written and organized, and makes important contributions to social movement and environmental justice work.

Bell begins the book by contextualizing the case of Central Appalachia, providing a succinct yet in-depth overview of the history of the area, the relationship between the operators of coal mines and the Appalachian people, and the environmental and social devastation that resulted from decades of coal extraction. She then proceeds with the book in two distinct sections. The first section delves into the barriers to coalfield residents' engagement with the environmental justice movement in the area. Drawing on data from in-depth interviews, participant observation, and content analysis, Bell's findings point to the depletion of social capital in coalfield communities, the coal industry's influence on local hegemonic masculinity, and the industry's ideological manipulation of local culture. In addition, she utilizes GIS and viewshed mapping to illustrate how environmental degradation from coal extraction is largely hidden from public view, preventing grievances from forming in the first place.

This portion of the book makes a critical contribution to social movement scholarship. Previous work investigating questions of quiescence in the face of unquestionable grievances has focused on macro-level, structural explanations. Bell's in-depth field research has provided insight into the critical micro-level processes that inhibit mobilization, especially in a context where mobilization is already established. These findings are particularly salient in the contemporary political context where social movement scholars are asking questions about political mobilization (and the lack thereof). Bell's work provides inroads that forge past assumptions about apathy or indifference to show that subtle and inconspicuous factors such as social capital, hegemonic pressures, and ideological influences can impede micro-mobilization in a variety of ways.

In the second section of the book, Bell works to correct the tendency of social movement scholars to focus on successful mobilization by using a feminist participatory methodology to document the process of becoming or not becoming an activist. Using five communities as case studies, she uses Photovoice to create a context where residents not engaged in the environmental justice movement could potentially become involved. She specifically utilizes this methodology to raise awareness among participants about the significant problems associated with the coal industry in the area, as well as to provide a space where participants could freely voice concerns about the industry.

It is here that the impact of Bell's work is particularly apparent. This section tackles the important question of why people choose not to engage in social movement activity by examining how women respond to social and environmental injustice, and to what extent they engage in activism. Her findings highlight the role of elite power in maintaining the status quo and how the pressure to remain silent is filtered throughout coalfield community relationships. Importantly, Bell positions the role of identity with elites and elite hegemony, arguing that evolving movement collective identity can shift away from local identity, creating a...