Coal power: Class, fetishism, memory, and disjuncture in Romania’s Jiu Valley and Appalachian West Virginia

Abstract

This essay compares the social disjuncture of coal’s decline in Romania's Jiu Valley and southern West Virginia/Appalachia. In both regions coal is fetishized, concentrating belief and creating a paradigm of meaning. But when fetishes lose power, social dislocation results. Coal's decline is often thought to produce common conditions in former coal regions. However, we suggest four factors shape regional variation: 1) political economy of class and industrial control; 2) state power over mining; 3) extent and diversity of non-governmental organizations related to the industrial control system; and 4) gender activism, emerging from political economy. We examine social conditions, coal memory, and nostalgia related to the above. In the Jiu Valley, there is a weakening of organization, coal nostalgia, as well as decline in coal-related disjuncture with existing conflict now largely a province of regional elites. In West Virginia, however, a weak state, active organizational environment, and women's activism produce conflict between coal supporters and detractors. These circumstances also influence the regions’ futures. Jiu Valley people are protected by state intervention, but this weakens class identity and the intensity of change efforts. In Appalachia the tensioned organizational environment perpetuates conflict but creates an intensity toward the future.   

Author Biography

David A. Kideckel, Central Connecticut State University, United States

David A. Kideckel is professor emeritus of cultural anthropology at Central Connecticut State University, USA. He was founding chair of the Anthropology Department and originator/ occasional director of International and Area Studies. His last book, “Getting By in Post-Socialist Romania: Labor, the Body, and Working Class Culture” (2008, Indiana U. Press) with a companion video, Days of the Miners: Life and Death of a Working Class Culture, concerned changing conditions and physical perceptions among workers after socialism. His recent work concerns “Regional Responses to the Decline of Coal and Energy Transformation” comparing the Jiu Valley, Romania and southern West Virginia. 

Published
2018-07-24
How to Cite
Kideckel, D. (2018) “Coal power: Class, fetishism, memory, and disjuncture in Romania’s Jiu Valley and Appalachian West Virginia”, Anuac, 7(1), pp. 67-88. doi: 10.7340/anuac2239-625X-3291.
Section
Articles