Rural Sociology 75(1), 2010, pp 111–143 Copyright © 2010, by the Rural Sociological Society Community Economic Identity: The Coal Industry and Ideology Construction in West Virginia* Shannon Elizabeth Bell Department of Sociology University of Oregon Richard York Department of Sociology University of Oregon Abstract Economic changes and the machinations of the treadmill of production have dramatically reduced the number of jobs provided by extractive industries, such as mining and timber, in the United States and other affluent nations in the post–World War II era As the importance of these industries to national, regional, and local economies wanes, community resistance to ecologically and socially destructive industry practices threatens the political power of corporations engaged in natural-resource extraction Here we argue that to maintain their power (and profits) as their contribution to employment declines, extractive industries have increased their efforts to maintain and amplify the extent to which the “economic identity” of communities is connected with the industry that was historically an important source of employment We fit this argument within the neo-Marxian theoretical tradition, which emphasizes the roles ideology and legitimation play in maintaining elite rule We illustrate this theorized process by analyzing the efforts of the West Virginia coal industry, which, through its (faux) “grassroots” front group “Friends of Coal,” attempts to construct the image that West Virginia’s economy and cultural identity are centered on coal production Our analysis relies on content analysis of various sources and on experience gained from field research We find that key strategies of the Friends of Coal include efforts to become pervasively visible in the social landscape and the appropriation of cultural icons that exploit the hegemonic masculinity of the region These findings have implications for how industries around the country, and the world, work to maintain their power through ideological manipulation In the wake of industrialization and “postindustrialization,” naturalresource extraction has played a diminishing role in the economies of affluent nations Although the United States, like other countries of the Global North, has continued to consume vast quantities of natural resources, the contribution of extractive industries to total employment and to total national economic production—as typically measured by * An earlier version of this paper was presented at the American Sociological Association meetings in San Francisco, August 2009 We are very grateful to Michael Schulman and the three anonymous reviewers for their careful reading of our paper and insightful suggestions for improvement 112 Rural Sociology, Vol 75, No 1, March 2010 gross domestic product—has been declining for decades This decline primarily has been due to mechanization and to imports of raw materials from the Global South This national-level pattern has manifested itself across the United States in a variety of communities that historically were closely connected to extractive industries, such as timber and mining Due to this legacy, many rural communities are left with an identity tied to a particular extractive industry, even though that industry no longer provides many jobs or plays a dominant role in the local or regional economy This tendency for many in a community to identify with an industry that was historically important in the local economy, but that may not be any longer, is regularly exploited by extractive industries to maintain their political influence, which is often used to avoid government regulations aimed at ensuring the protection of the environment and public health Here we provide some theoretical conceptualizations for understanding the development and perpetuation of community economic identities tied to extractive industries, focusing on how economic identity is influenced by the active contemporary framing1 efforts (Snow et al 1986) of these industries, which aim to define themselves as the backbone of local and regional economies We identify the industries’ framing work as “economic identity maintenance” and “amplification.” As part of this theorization, we document how the contribution of extractive industries to the economies of communities around the nation has declined dramatically while these extractive industries continue to create large-scale environmental problems In particular, with the massive job losses that are the typical outcome of the “treadmill of production” (Schnaiberg 1980), the bond that has historically maintained the loyalties of many rural communities to extractive industries has been dramatically weakened, if not destroyed One of our key aims is to help determine why some communities continue to support industries that cause harm—for example, by degrading the environment—while providing few (and declining) benefits, such as reliable high-paying jobs To illustrate the processes we discuss, we provide an empirical assessment of how the coal industry in West Virginia attempts to suppress political opposition to the destructive effects of coal mining by actively working to maintain and “Framing,” also referred to as “frame alignment,” is a process of “assign[ing] meaning to and interpret[ing]” certain “events and conditions in ways that are intended to mobilize potential adherents and constituents, to garner bystander support, and to demobilize antagonists” (Snow and Benford 1988:198) In other words, framing is the way in which organizations package their message for their intended audience in an attempt to make the activities, goals, and ideology of the organization appear “congruent and complementary” with the values, beliefs, and interests of the public (Snow et al 1986:464) Community Economic Identity — Bell and York 113 reinforce the centrality of coal to the identity of the state and local communities The Treadmill of Production and the Legitimation Process The “treadmill of production” model is one of the most influential and important theories in the environmental sociology literature (Buttel 2004; Foster 2005; Foster and York 2004) First introduced by Allan Schnaiberg (1980) in order to explain why environmental degradation in the United States had grown dramatically since World War II, the treadmill of production model argues that ecological destruction is intrinsic to capitalist (as well as some other) modes of production Schnaiberg contended that the economic boom following World War II led to increased production and profits, which were invested in the development of new production technologies These technologies came with large operating expenses that needed to be financed, however, and industries responded to these fixed costs by further increasing production so as to increase profits The increase in production led to an escalating need for natural resources, which were extracted at greater rates and used in ways that “substantially increased both the volume of production waste and the toxicity of wastes” (Gould, Pellow, and Schnaiberg 2004:300) This pattern of increasing extraction and degradation in order to generate greater and greater profits has become the central operating framework of the global market It is widely held that the treadmill of production, along with the ecological degradation it generates, is unavoidable unless the relations of production under corporate capitalism are changed (Buttel 2004; Foster 2005; Foster and York 2004; Gould et al 2004; Schnaiberg 1980) The effects of the treadmill of production are not limited to the ecological, however; displaced workers are another result “Improvements” in technology lead to an increase in “worker productivity,” which accelerates the treadmill, “producing higher production and profits with fewer workers” (Gould et al 2004:306) This pattern, where jobs decline even while production expands, is clearly visible in the case of naturalresource extraction industries, particularly timber and mining For example, in an analysis of the connection between timber jobs and federal timber harvests, Freudenburg, Wilson, and O’Leary (1998) show that following World War II, both in the Pacific Northwest and in the United States as a whole, the number of timber jobs declined dramatically while federal timber harvests increased In fact, they note that job losses were highest before the implementation of federal environmental laws in the 1960s and ’70s, refuting the claim that environmental regu- Rural Sociology, Vol 75, No 1, March 2010 100 50 150 Coal employment (thousands of jobs) Coal production (millions of short tons) 120 150 180 30 60 90 114 1945 1955 1965 1975 year 1985 1995 2005 Coal production (millions of short tons) Coal employment (thousands of jobs) Figure West Virginia Coal Employment and Production Sources: Workforce West Virginia (2000a, 2000b, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007), Energy Information Administration’s Annual Coal Report (2002, 2004, 2006), and United States Census Bureau’s Statistical Abstract of the United States (1961, 1971, 1981, 1991, 1994, 2000, 2005) lations, such as those giving protection to the northern spotted owl in the Pacific Northwest, were the primary cause of the decline of rural timber economies in the 1980s and ’90s Similarly, as Figure reveals, while coal production increased dramatically in West Virginia from the late 1970s to the 1990s, coal-mining employment declined substantially, as it has generally done in the postwar era This trend was not limited to West Virginia; as Figure shows, national-level data on coal production and employment reveal an even starker negative association, where production rose as jobs declined As the above evidence indicates, a pattern exists among extractive industries: consistent with treadmill of production theorizing, even when production increases in these industries, employment levels decrease.2 The overall consequences of corporate capitalism for the economy and employment structure are, of course, more complicated than the treadmill model may suggest New types of jobs (e.g., information technology) may be created as other types of jobs (e.g., mining) disappear, so that the net effect of the treadmill may not always be overall job losses However, the pattern described by the treadmill model does generally hold when focusing on manufacturing and extractive industry jobs 115 400 100 200 300 Coal employment (thousands of jobs) Coal production (millions of short tons) 300 600 900 1200 Community Economic Identity — Bell and York 1945 1955 1965 1975 year 1985 1995 2005 Coal production (millions of short tons) Coal employment (thousands of jobs) Figure United States Coal Employment and Production Source: National Mining Association (2008) Gould et al (2004) draw attention to an important intersection between ecological degradation and jobs: Historically, those individuals who are the most affected by industrial pollution and environmental damage also typically have been dependent on the jobs within the polluting industries Pollution and degradation have become “geographically and socially removed” from the middle class, which has the money to move upstream and upwind from the contamination and destruction, while blue-collar workers have been “induced and/or coerced” to live in close proximity to pollution, in part due to the lower housing prices in these areas (298) Thus, many of the people suffering the most acute costs of ecological degradation are some of the least likely to fight against the treadmill processes because of their economic dependence on the destructive industries Furthermore, many will even fight for the companies polluting their communities or destroying their ecosystems because they fear further job losses if environmental regulations are tightened This system works to discourage mobilization against these industries, while at the same time producing an arsenal of workers that can be mobilized to create a countermovement for the industry in opposition to any efforts to impose stricter environmental regulations and disrupt treadmill processes 116 Rural Sociology, Vol 75, No 1, March 2010 However, when there is a large-scale reduction in jobs, and employment no longer connects an industry to the community it pollutes, why communities continue to support industry, even though industrial practices have detrimental social and environmental effects? This question points to a lacuna in the treadmill theory, which has not focused on analyzing the various ways industry gains compliance from workers and the general public other than through providing jobs In an effort to advance treadmill theory, here we examine the role ideology plays in legitimating the dominance of industries We argue that public acquiescence to the wishes of industry is in part achieved by industries’ calculated efforts to reconstruct a bond with the communities they degrade, attempting to replace the employment connection between industry and community with a constructed ideology of dependency and economic identity Critical traditions, from Marxism to feminism, have often emphasized how ideology is employed to further the interests of those in power by mystifying the nature of social relations and the causes of oppression The role of ideology in maintaining capitalism was explored by Marx and Engels (1991) and has been a central theme of Western Marxism since its foundation in the works of Lukács ([1923] 1972) and Gramsci (1971) Horkheimer and Adorno (1972), leading lights of the Frankfurt School, where “critical theory” was born, produced particularly influential work examining the emergence of a “culture industry” in capitalist societies, which manufactured cultural goods for mass consumption (e.g., Hollywood movies, corporate media) that lulled the public into accepting the capitalist status quo Since these foundational works, analyses of how culture and ideology are manufactured and manipulated in order to further elite interests have become a central part of research on the power structure (Habermas 1975; Herman and Chomsky 2002; Lukes 1974; Mann 1970; Mészáros 1989) The work of Jürgen Habermas, the most renowned heir to the tradition of the Frankfurt School, is particularly relevant to our analysis He clearly recognized the ecological threats created in capitalist societies and the social challenges that accompany these threats: The rapid growth processes of advanced-capitalist societies have confronted world society with disturbance to ecological balance, violation of the consistency requirements of the personality system (alienation), and potentially explosive strains on international relations With growing complexity, the system of world society shifts its boundaries so far into its environment that it runs up against limits of outer as well as inner nature Ecological balance designates an absolute limit to growth The Community Economic Identity — Bell and York 117 less palpable anthropological balance designates another limit, which can be overstepped only at the price of altering the socio-cultural identity of social systems (1975:41) Habermas has written extensively on the process by which social systems are legitimized and the factors that lead to legitimation crises, wherein the public comes to reject ideological justifications for the prevailing social system Although the work of Habermas is generally aimed at a grand scale—understanding how entire social-political-economic systems, such as capitalism, operate—rather than the specifics of how particular corporations or industries work to retain their privilege, the theoretical concepts Habermas developed prove relevant at a smaller scale as well The decline in the number of jobs provided by extractive industries can be seen as a factor potentially leading to a legitimation crisis for these industries, since it can lead the public to question the propriety of industry management of natural resources Thus, industry works to avoid this crisis by furthering its efforts at legitimation The argument that we develop below is that owners and managers of extractive industries actively construct, maintain, and amplify community economic identity in order to ensure that certain ideologies dominate in communities that historically depended on natural-resource extraction, thereby averting a legitimation crisis Maintaining and reinforcing community economic identity is critical to avoiding a legitimation crisis, for, as Habermas argued, “traditions can retain legitimizing force only as long as they are not torn out of interpretive systems that guarantee continuity and identity” (Habermas 1975:71) Industry efforts at legitimation via ideology manipulation can be understood as part of what Habermas (1984, 1987) has identified as the colonization of the “lifeworld” (the realm of everyday, lived experience where people find meaning from culturally grounded traditions of interpretation) Habermas observed that in modern societies, particularly capitalist ones, the lifeworld is increasingly invaded by the overarching social system For example, the marketing industry aims to define what our goals in life should be (consumption—our life’s purpose becomes to accumulate mass-produced goods, and people come to see themselves as “consumers”), and the state aims to define key features of our identity (nationalism/patriotism—people come to identify as, for example, Americans, rather than as community members, human beings, etc.) The efforts of extractive industries to lure the public into identifying with industry are part of this same process, where logging and mining, for example, come to be seen not simply as sources of employment but 118 Rural Sociology, Vol 75, No 1, March 2010 rather as key features of individuals’ and communities’ identities—that is, workers often come to identify first and foremost as loggers or miners, and communities come to identify as logging or mining communities Here, we focus on the coal industry in West Virginia to explore the process of legitimation via ideology construction and cultural manipulation However, it is important to note that there are a number of other examples of industry ideology construction aimed at securing for extractive industries inordinate political influence despite their meager contribution to regional or national economies It is noteworthy, for example, that many rural communities throughout the United States, and the Pacific Northwest in particular, identify with the timber industry, despite the fact that few people are now dependent on this industry for employment In addition, the valorization of the “cowboy” and rancher in U.S culture is another striking example of identities constructed around an industry that is of little importance in the modern economy and contributes to a vast array of environmental problems, including water pollution, biodiversity loss, and land degradation (Wuerthner and Matteson 2002) Although not as prone to mechanization as other extractive industries, livestock grazing provides few jobs to rural economies, and most of the access to rangeland is controlled by a few large-scale operations, not family ranchers The U.S Department of the Interior (1994) estimated that the elimination of all public-lands livestock grazing would result in the loss of only about 18,000 jobs across the entire West, about 0.1 percent of total employment In light of the fact that these jobs are also dependent on substantial subsidies from the federal taxpayer (Moskowitz and Romaniello 2002), from the perspective of society as a whole, the economic rationality of public-lands grazing is highly suspect, and its continuation appears to have more to with the political power of the livestock industry, stemming in part from industry ideology, than the health of rural economies Thus, it appears that it is far from uncommon for communities to identify with industries that not much to support local and regional economies In the remainder of this article, we focus on the coal industry in West Virginia to further explore the ways in which community economic identities are actively constructed, maintained, and amplified to the benefit of extractive industries, and, in many cases, to the detriment of rural communities The Historical Roots of Dependency As the second-leading coal producer in the United States (behind Wyoming), and the top coal-producing state in Appalachia, West Virginia’s historical ties with the coal industry have strongly influenced the Community Economic Identity — Bell and York 119 economic, political, and social structures of the state While American capitalists knew of the rich mineral and timber resources held within the Appalachian Mountains as early as 1740, it was not until the post–Civil War years, and the birth of the American industrial revolution, that interest in the coal and iron deposits of the Appalachians brought large numbers of speculators into the region (Eller 1982) In the late 1800s, eager entrepreneurs from outside Appalachia poured into the hills, procuring millions of acres of land and mineral rights at exceptionally low prices Local residents, most of whom had been subsistence farmers until that point (Haynes 1997), had no idea of the value of the minerals beneath their land Many are reported to have “ ‘voluntarily’ sold [their] land for 50 cents or one dollar an acre” (Gaventa 1978:144), while still others were duped into different types of unfair exchanges For instance, an entire mountain, which in the late 1970s supplied Georgia Power million tons of coal annually, was reported to have been traded to a company agent for a hog rifle (Gaventa 1978:144) Others who refused to sell their land became victims of legal traps, such as being jailed and then offered bond in exchange for their land (Gaventa 1978) Numerous scholars have referred to Central Appalachia as an “internal colony” (Gaventa 1978; Lewis and Knipe 1978; Weller 1978) or an “internal periphery” (Walls 1978) created to provide cheap resources to fuel the rest of the country Both of these models point to outside interests’ exploitation of the resources of Central Appalachia through the subjugation and domination of its people Part of this continued domination has been achieved through corporate ownership of the majority of the land,3 effectively blocking other industries from entering the region in an attempt to maintain this part of Appalachia as a monoeconomy As Lewis and Knipe (1978) assert, “it is advantageous for coal mining to operate in isolation without competing companies” because the extraction process is tied to a particular location and the work is hazardous and strenuous (19) A cheap workforce was the foundation of early mining, and it was essential for the coal barons to remove the Appalachian people from their land in order to “turn them into a docile workforce” (Haynes 1997:49) Another method to ensure a cheap—and captive—workforce was the establishment of company towns In the late 1800s and early The Appalachian Land Ownership Task Force’s (1983) study of land ownership patterns in 80 counties in Central and southern Appalachia found that 72 percent of the 13 million acres of surface land in the study were owned by absentee owners, and of the top 50 private owners, 46 were corporations This pattern is even more dramatic in the highest coal-producing regions of Appalachia: four of the five counties with the most corporately held land are in the coalfields of southern West Virginia, and in those counties nearly 90 percent of the land is owned by corporations 120 Rural Sociology, Vol 75, No 1, March 2010 1900s, men were recruited into the state by the tens of thousands to work in the booming mining industry The population skyrocketed during this period, and hundreds of company towns and coal camps, which were completely owned and controlled by the coal companies, sprang up throughout Central Appalachia In these towns, the coal companies owned the houses, the streets, the schools, the water systems, the churches, the recreational facilities (if there were any), the doctor’s office, and the company store, which was the only store in the town where one could buy groceries, furniture, clothes, and other goods In addition, most coal companies paid their employees in “scrip,” their own monetary system redeemable only within that particular company’s town (Lockard 1998) The use of scrip ensured that the miners and their families were unable to travel outside the town to buy fundamental supplies and that the company store was able to charge monopolistic prices for its goods The company store system and the other companysupplied services for which miners were charged, such as tool sharpening, health care, and housing rent, were “a key mechanism for increasing company profits” (Cook 2000:192) Also integral to maximizing profits was reinforcing the traditional gender ideology regarding the “appropriate” roles for men and women in society, that is, men as the breadwinners and women as the caretakers of the home These social norms, not at all unique to Appalachia, have historically forced households in capitalist economies to subsidize production through the unpaid work of women, allowing businesses to pay laborers wages that fall far below the cost of reproducing the household (Dunaway 2001) Through their unpaid cooking, cleaning, washing, child care, and other duties of domestic work, women have made it possible for capitalism to remain profitable, for, as Dunaway (2001) asserts, “If capitalists compensated women for all their externalized costs and unpaid labor, prices would be driven up so high that most commodities would not be competitive in the world economy” (22) Coal towns in Central Appalachia were constructed to exploit and reinforce this gender ideology by placing men in the mines and women in the close-by homes By intentionally “equating masculinity with a willingness to work in dangerous conditions,” and femininity with “domestic labor inside coal camps,” the coal industry was able to keep the costs of labor and worksite maintenance low (Maggard 1994:30, 18) This gender ideology has not only had implications for who does what work, it has also meant that men are favored as the center of community, work, and politics in Central Appalachia Since the 1980s, however, there has been a shift in the Appalachian coalfields’ economy, threatening the coal industry’s stranglehold on the Community Economic Identity — Bell and York 129 of a larger project examining the social impacts of the coal industry on rural communities and the resistance movement that has risen up to hold the coal industry accountable for irresponsible mining practices Data for this larger project include 20 in-depth interviews with randomly selected individuals living in a coal town in Boone County, West Virginia (Bell 2009); 25 interviews with activists involved in the environmental justice movement in Central Appalachia; and four months’ worth of field notes spanning two summers, written while engaging in participant observation as a volunteer with a grassroots environmental justice organization in Boone County and while living in two different coal towns during the summers of 2006 and 2007 While we not explicitly utilize the interview data here, general knowledge gained from the interviews and the field observations inform our analysis Results Through the coding process, we found that the Friends of Coal’s main strategy to reconstruct a bond between the coal industry and West Virginia communities centers on attempting to present coal mining as the defining feature of the state The statement “It is likely that no state and industry are as closely identified with one another as West Virginia and coal,” which appeared on the Friends of Coal Website in 2005, imparts exactly the message this organization hopes West Virginians will come to believe, despite the coal industry’s declining contribution to employment in the state The coal industry works to create (or re-create) and maintain its standing as the “identity” of West Virginia Through our content analysis and field observations, we found that the Friends of Coal employs two strategies to this: (1) by appropriating West Virginia cultural icons; and (2) by creating a visible presence in the social landscape of West Virginia through stickers, yard signs, and sponsorships Strategy 1: The Appropriation of West Virginia Cultural Icons Even before securing Charles Ryan Associates as their public relations firm, the Friends of Coal recruited a spokesperson Don Nehlen, popular retired football coach of the West Virginia University Mountaineers and recent inductee into the College Football Hall of Fame, quickly became the face of the Friends of Coal Nehlen was soon joined by two other spokespersons: retired Marshall University football coach Bobby Pruett and, in 2006, professional bass fisherman Jeremy Starks In addition, retired air force general “Doc” Foglesong has appeared in at least one television commercial speaking on behalf of the Friends of Coal 130 Rural Sociology, Vol 75, No 1, March 2010 Each of these spokespersons represents important West Virginia cultural icons, which also reflect the historic and present hegemonic masculinity of the region We define cultural icons as those representations of cultural or regional identity that resonate with individuals of a particular area or community The winner icon Coaches Nehlen and Pruett together represent the two Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly Division 1) teams in the state and thus represent the two sets of football fans that exist in West Virginia: the Mountaineers fans (West Virginia University) and the Thundering Herd fans (Marshall University) In a state of only 1.8 million, these two football teams are important cultural icons Through securing the two coaches with the most wins in the history of these two teams, the Friends of Coal has attempted to appropriate football—and winning—as a part of its identity To further this end, in 2006 Friends of Coal became the corporate sponsor of a seven-year football series, called the “Friends of Coal Bowl,” which pits the Mountaineers and the Thundering Herd against each other This is particularly relevant because, until 2006, the two teams had played only once since 1923 College football fans in West Virginia have been waiting for many years for the two in-state rivals to play each other After four match-ups, the Friends of Coal Bowl is a raging success in the state, further solidifying the Friends of Coal as an integral component of college football in West Virginia The Friends of Coal further reinforces this connection between the coal industry and football through two 30-second television commercials promoting the Marshall University Thundering Herd and the West Virginia University Mountaineers The first commercial begins with a chorus singing, “When we go down deep through the dark today, we come up with the light for America.” Next, the narrator announces, “Champions are born of hard work and determination, and just like the Thundering Herd, coal miners are a championship team During this 2008 season, the Friends of Coal honor our coal miners and our Thundering Herd—all champions indeed.” Then, the chorus concludes the commercial by singing, “Coal is West Virginia!”6 The second commercial is similarly worded, praising coal miners and the West Virginia University Mountaineers for both being “championship team[s],” making the Friends of Coal’s message difficult to miss The Friends of Coal have also added NASCAR driver Derek Kiser to this “winner” icon by becoming his primary corporate sponsor Kiser now The West Virginia Coal Association Website claims that the song featured in this television commercial was the coal industry’s theme music 25 years ago The chorus—“Coal is West Virginia”—has been made into a cell phone ringtone that is available for downloading from the Website (West Virginia Coal Association 2008) Community Economic Identity — Bell and York 131 drives a race car with the “Friends of Coal” logo prominently placed across the hood Thus, through associating itself with the winning football coaches and the winning NASCAR driver, the Friends of Coal sends the message that the coal industry is a winner, too The provider and defender icon The provider icon and the defender icon are closely intertwined within Friends of Coal propaganda This becomes particularly apparent in two Friends of Coal television commercials In the first of these commercials, called “American Hero,” retired Air Force General “Doc” Foglesong narrates as images of (male) coal miners hard at work flash across the screen: doc: You could say the West Virginia coal miners are modern-day pioneers Men and women of courage, pride and adventure, who safely go where no one’s been before and harvest the coal that powers our nation In fact, if these miners didn’t produce coal, our nation would be in trouble More than half of the nation’s electricity is generated by coal West Virginia is the national leader in underground coal-mining production, and America needs that energy—today more than ever So if you know a West Virginia coal miner, say “Thanks.” Not that he or she is doing it for the thanks They’re doing it for their family and for our future I’m retired Air Force General Doc Foglesong Friends of Coal salute [sic] the pioneering spirit of the West Virginia coal miner Why not join us and the same? Within the text of this commercial the coal industry becomes synonymous with the coal miner Thus, the coal industry is presented as a provider—both for West Virginia’s families and for the nation’s energy demands As Doc states, “America needs that energy—today more than ever,” and it is the West Virginia coal industry that is to thank for meeting those energy demands The working-class provider icon is a decidedly masculine image While Doc calls coal miners “men and women of courage,” not a single woman can be seen among the 15 coal miners who appear throughout the short one-minute commercial This is in line with traditional mainstream ideologies of “the provider” within the context of American society and Appalachian coal communities in particular Beckwith (2001) argues that the historically male-dominated coal mining workforce of central Appalachia has created “a context in which ‘miner’ and ‘male’ become conflated, a conflation that is so deeply ingrained that it is virtually undetectable” (310) In fact, it was not until the late 1970s that women were granted the right to work in the coal mines Even this legal victory was largely empty, however, for once women did eventually become coal miners, they were the first to be pushed out when 132 Rural Sociology, Vol 75, No 1, March 2010 technological changes “shrank the size of the labor force, leaving only those miners with seniority,” who, of course, were men (Maggard 1999:186) Thus, through reinforcing the hegemonic image of the working-class provider as male, and a particularly masculine male, the images in this commercial lubricate the process of the coal industry becoming synonymous with the family provider Underlying this commercial is also the image of the West Virginia coal industry (as represented through the face of the coal miner) as “defender” of our country: “If these miners didn’t produce coal, our nation would be in trouble.” Furthermore, the choice of a retired military general as the narrator of this commercial is particularly telling of the messages that the Friends of Coal seeks to present: The coal industry defends the “American way of life” just as the military does Thus, coal is more than an energy source—it is a patriotic energy source! The “coal industry as defender” trope is also apparent in another Friends of Coal television commercial called “Tracking the Source.” In this one-minute piece, the narrator asserts: Without West Virginia coal, our nation’s economic status as a leader would be in jeopardy It may seem like a daunting task to supply the nation with energy But clean coal technology continues to gain momentum, helping us reduce our dependence on foreign oil and creating jobs for the men and women who proudly call themselves coal miners Thus, according to this commercial, the coal industry is responsible for defending the United States from economic disaster and foreign conflict over oil Again, in this section of the commercial, it is only male coal miners who are depicted in the images relating to the mining process, reinforcing mainstream images of a working-class male provider as the true face of the coal industry This image works within the historical gender structure of Appalachia and thus makes this association more “natural.” Through appropriating the cultural icon of the provider and defender as being ultimately represented within the workers of the coal industry, the Friends of Coal is able to again construct a connection between the increasingly isolated coal industry and the local communities The coal industry’s approach fits with Habermas’s (1975) observation that efforts at legitimation typically draw on existing cultural institutions, providing continuity with tradition The coal industry, in its development of the provider and defender icon—linking coal to the military, a symbol of patriotism and strength—is clearly trying to imbed coal mining in deep cultural traditions It connects its legitimation Community Economic Identity — Bell and York 133 efforts with those of the state, which has long worked to build the image of the military as a noble institution on which all Americans depend The outdoorsman icon Hunting and fishing are important traditions to many West Virginians Many West Virginians pride themselves on being avid outdoorspeople, a value that often stands in contradiction to the destructive ecological practices of the coal industry Mountaintop removal mining has caused the destruction of vast tracts of land once used for hunting, digging ginseng root, morel gathering, and collecting other types of medicinal herbs such as black cohosh, bloodroot, and mayapple Many streams in which West Virginians used to swim and the fish habitat they provided have been buried under valley fills or polluted with acid mine drainage and coal waste Thus, the Friends of Coal needed to address this contradiction to make the coal industry appear to also value the outdoors, as a large number of West Virginians This they attempted to accomplish by becoming the primary corporate sponsor of professional bass fisherman Jeremy Starks and by bringing him on as an official spokesperson for the Friends of Coal in 2006 Adding even more to his credentials as an “environmentally conscious” spokesperson for the Friends of Coal is the fact that Starks serves as a representative on the Bass Angler Sportsman Society’s (BASS) “conservation team,” which meets with government officials to discuss conservation issues Starks appears in two 60-second Friends of Coal television commercials, the first alongside Nehlen and Pruett and the second on a stream bank fishing with five children In the first commercial, Starks, Nehlen, and Pruett are fishing from Starks’s 21-foot bass boat, which has a panoramic photo of West Virginia mountains and the “Friends of Coal” logo emblazoned across its side As the three of them fish in a West Virginia stream, they discuss the West Virginia coal industry: nehlen: Thousands of tons of coal are mined in this area starks: And scientific tests have shown pruett: That the water is clean, clear, and a strong provider for wildlife And the coal mining industry is proud of that nehlen: And of their role in making sure that it stays that way In his second commercial, Jeremy Starks continues with this theme of clean streams as images of him standing on a stream bank fishing with young children alternate with images of the coal mining process: starks: Hi I’m Jeremy Starks—a Friend of Coal and a pro fisherman who’s concerned about the environment This clear stream is proof that sustaining water quality is a big part of the reclamation 134 Rural Sociology, Vol 75, No 1, March 2010 process Scientific tests have shown that this water quality is better now than it’s ever been And this is after 22 million tons of coal have been mined in nearby land Our need for energy is greater than ever And with responsible practices in place, we can safely mine coal while restoring our land for future generations From the mouth of self-proclaimed conservationist Jeremy Starks, we are assured that coal extraction and a clean environment can coexist.7 We are even told that the coal industry actually improves water quality! It is through this assertion that the Friends of Coal attempts to identify itself as the quintessential West Virginia “outdoorsman.” Through appropriating some of the most potent cultural icons of the region, such as football, the military, race-car driving, the accomplished outdoorsman, and the working-class provider, the Friends of Coal has attempted to amplify the connection between West Virginia and coal so that this industry appears to be more than a provider of jobs; it embodies all of the characteristics of the archetypal West Virginian It is no coincidence that this “archetypal West Virginian” is clearly constructed to be a man With the changing economic realities in West Virginia, wherein coal is no longer the main source of employment or earnings, the gendered division of labor, and related gender ideology, is under attack With the rise in service-sector jobs and decline in mining employment, women have increasingly entered the workforce, while greater and greater numbers of men have been forced to leave, threatening men’s status as the sole breadwinners of the family (Maggard 1994; Miewald and McCann 2004) As Maggard (1994) relates, “The Appalachian coalfield region is witnessing the disassembling of a nearly century old economic and domestic arrangement” (31) However, while the strict gendered division of labor has declined, the related gender ideology “is still felt” (Miewald and McCann 2004:1054) This disconnect between ideology and economic reality has meant that many men are no longer able to live up to their traditional definition of masculinity In many cases, this has translated to turmoil at home, including divorce, depression, domestic violence, and even suicide (Miewald and McCann 2004) Ironically, the very industry that created the hegemonic masculinity of the region in the first place is also responsible for preventing most coalfield men from achieving it Because of this ideological connection between the male provider and the male coal miner, it is necessary for the coal industry to convince residents that men are still the This message is one that is being promoted through the coal industry’s “Clean Coal” campaign, which many argue is nothing more than an advertising scheme to counter coal’s reputation as a “dirty” fossil fuel Community Economic Identity — Bell and York 135 breadwinners of the family if it is to convince them that coal is still the backbone of the economy Strategy 2: Becoming Pervasively Visible within the Social Landscape of West Virginia The second major way in which the Friends of Coal endeavors to become the identity of West Virginia is through its attempts to be seen virtually everywhere in the state and penetrate the lifeworld The organization accomplishes this in three major ways: (1) distributing hard-hat stickers, window decals, buttons, yard signs, and ball caps at nearly every major public event; (2) sponsoring events, community improvement projects, scholarships, and any other venue that provides an opportunity for the Friends of Coal logo or name to be in the public’s attention; and (3) entering the school system through the Coal Education Development and Resource (CEDAR) Program of southern West Virginia The Friends of Coal logo Reflecting the Friends of Coal’s goal to pervade the visual landscape with its presence, Warren Hylton, West Virginia Coal Association board member (quoted in Shanghai Zoom Intelligence Co., Ltd 2006), asserted, “This logo will be the visible proof that there are Friends of Coal all over West Virginia The more you see of this symbol, the more you can be sure our message is getting across.” The Friends of Coal has made concerted efforts to distribute its stickers, hats, buttons, and yard signs widely throughout West Virginia, and even into other Appalachian states Membership as a “Friend of Coal” is free, and there are no participation requirements Simply putting a Friends of Coal decal on the back of one’s pick-up truck is a contribution to the organization’s goal of painting the landscape with Friends of Coal logos, providing a strong visual image of solidarity and “grassroots support” for the coal industry (see Figure 3) Friends of Coal sponsorships Connected to the wide distribution of Friends of Coal logos is the extensive list of events, places, and services that the Friends of Coal has sponsored in the five years since its inception Those we have identified through our data are presented in Table Friends of Coal’s massive campaign to have its name attached to everything from soccer fields to auto fairs to the capital city’s Fourth of July celebration to volleyball games to theater performances is a clear attempt to broaden its base of support to those individuals who may not care about football or fishing and who may not come from a working-class background Through appearing to sponsor everything and anything, the Friends of Coal gives the impression that the coal industry is still acting as the backbone of the state, regardless of whether 136 Figure Rural Sociology, Vol 75, No 1, March 2010 Example of a “Friends of Coal” car decal on a car in southern West Virginia it provides many jobs or contributes significantly to public services Thus, these diverse sponsorships serve to perpetuate an ideology of dependency: Without the coal industry, West Virginians would not only be without jobs, they would also be without sporting events, soccer fields (see, for example, Figure 4), cultural events, and community centers Coal education in the schools In his study of social cohesion in liberal democracies, Mann (1970) found that the most common form of “manipulative socialization” by the state does not attempt to change the values of the working class, but instead seeks to perpetuate the values that hinder the working class from interpreting “the reality it actually experiences” (437) This insight fits with our observation that the coal industry actively works to maintain and amplify its status as the state’s economic identity in order to prevent the working class from recognizing the coal industry’s role in the economic and environmental degradation of coalfield communities Furthermore, Mann (1970) cites studies that reveal the school system’s crucial role in the manipulative socialization of children, particularly those from working-class families In this same way, the coal industry, with the blessing of the state, endeavors to socialize school children in the southern coalfields to an “understanding of the many benefits the coal industry provides in daily lives” through the CEDAR Program, which consists of special coal-education materials and curricula created by the West Virginia Coal Association (West Virginia Coal Association 2007) Teachers in the counties of Boone, Logan, Wyoming, Mingo, and McDowell (some of the top coal-producing counties in West Virginia) are Community Economic Identity — Bell and York 137 Table Events, Buildings/Places, and Professionals Sponsored by the Friends of Coal Events • The Friends of Coal Bowl—(Discussed in text) A yearly football game between the two Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly Division 1) teams in West Virginia: West Virginia University and Marshall University • Friends of Coal Day at the Legislature—A rally and day-long event that has taken place every March since 2004 At the first Friends of Coal Day at the Legislature, the state Senate and House of Delegates passed concurrent resolutions designating March 4, 2004, as “Friends of Coal Day.” • Friends of Coal Auto Fair—An annual three-day event with live music, carnival rides, games, food, and, of course, cars • Friends of Coal Blue-Green Volleyball Classic—An annual NCAA Division I volleyball event featuring West Virginia University (blue) and Marshall University (green) • Paint the City Green Presented by the Friends of Coal—An annual pep rally and tailgate for Marshall University alumni and fans • Fifth Third/Friends of Coal West Virginia–Ohio All-Star Basketball Game—An annual high school all-star basketball game • Tiskelwah Community Center Fundraiser—An event to raise money for a new heating system in the community center • West Virginia University Band Fundraiser—An event to raise money for new band uniforms • Independence Day Celebration in the Capital City—Contributed $20,000 to the 4th of July celebration • The Odd Couple Theater Performance—Sponsored a performance of The Odd Couple at the Clay Center for Arts and Sciences in Charleston, West Virginia • Hall of Fame Tribute for Don Nehlen—Sponsored a tribute dinner for former WVU football coach (and spokesperson for the Friends of Coal) Don Nehlen when he was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame Buildings/Places • The Friends of Coal Soccer Fields—Contributed $1 million to the construction of a six-field soccer complex in Kanawha County, West Virginia, in 2004 • Attempted to purchase naming rights for the new Class A baseball stadium in Charleston However, they did not win the bid Professionals • Jeremy Starks—Professional bass fisherman and West Virginia native, whose main corporate sponsor is the Friends of Coal • Derek Kiser—Friends of Coal Racing is the main sponsor for this up-and-coming NASCAR driver and West Virginia native offered grant money to create and implement classroom study units on coal using the CEDAR materials, and the three teachers in each grade level (K–12) with the best “performance” have the opportunity to win cash prizes (West Virginia Coal Association 2007) Furthermore, each school has a principal-appointed “coal fair coordinator,” whose duties are to organize a coal fair at the school so that each student has the opportunity to enter a project on coal in one of the following categories: science, math, English literature, art, music, technology-multimedia, or social studies The winners of the local coal fair are invited to enter their projects in a 138 Figure Virginia Rural Sociology, Vol 75, No 1, March 2010 Example of a “Friends of Coal” sponsorship: soccer fields in Charleston, West regional coal fair, where 63 winners in each of the seven categories (first through third place) in three different age groups receive cash prizes Additionally, nine overall age group winners receive cash prizes (West Virginia Coal Association 2007) Finally, the CEDAR Program offers ten $1,000 scholarships to students from the five participating coalfield counties to be used at one of the Southern West Virginia Community and Technical College campuses (West Virginia Coal Association 2007) Through their presence in the school systems of many of the top coal-producing counties in the state, the coal industry attempts to manipulate the loyalties of citizens as young as five As quoted in an article in Coal Leader: Coal’s National Newspaper, “CEDAR is working toward securing coal’s future TODAY by educating our leaders of TOMORROW!” (“CEDAR of Southern West Virginia” 2005) By engaging students and teachers in coal-education units, encouraging participation in coal fairs, and offering college scholarships, the coal industry is working to ensure that the future citizenry of southern West Virginia is socialized to believe that coal is indispensable to the life, culture, and economic future of their communities and state Conclusions The drive for profit accumulation is a defining feature of capitalism and is central to the treadmill of production This drive has always generated a fundamental tension, however, because activities that increase profits Community Economic Identity — Bell and York 139 also frequently degrade the environment and undermine social wellbeing These circumstances create legitimation problems for the owners of the means of production The machinations of the treadmill have been particularly apparent in regions that historically depended on extractive industries, such as mining and timber, as the mainstay of their economies In an effort to increase profits, industries in the post–World War II era accelerated the mechanization of production, leading to the dual consequences of displacing workers and increasing environmental degradation In the aftermath of these transformations in production practices, many rural communities were left with polluted environments and high unemployment due to a decline in industry jobs The social and environmental costs of production led to the public’s growing opposition to industry’s often unrestrained access to natural resources This rising tide of protest, challenging the power of industry, has increasingly led to industry backlash, where extractive industries struggle to cling to their power, despite their declining contribution to the economy and employment Our aim here has been to address a lacuna in the treadmill of production theory by incorporating theoretical concepts from the neoMarxian tradition on the legitimation process so as to further our understanding of how industry gains compliance from substantial segments of the public One of the ways that industry maintains its power is to actively construct ideology that furthers its interests—an observation made by Marx, but developed further by a line of critical scholars, including Lukács, Gramsci, Horkheimer, Adorno, and Habermas Here, we examined a manifestation of this in “postindustrial” America The changes in coal production in West Virginia illustrate how industry works to maintain community loyalty when it no longer serves as a major source of employment When the number of jobs it provided declined due to changing mining practices, the coal industry faced a legitimation crisis that challenged its hold on political power The industry response to this challenge has been to engage in cultural manipulation, attempting to construct a pro-coal ideology that shapes community economic identity Key strategies for furthering this process center on the appropriation of West Virginia cultural icons and the infusion of coal-industry ideology into a variety of social arenas The intended effect of these efforts has been to (re)construct the identity of West Virginia as both economically dependent on coal and culturally defined by coal, the latter being part of what Habermas identified as the colonization of the lifeworld The West Virginia case illustrates processes that likely occur elsewhere in the nation, such as in the historically timber-dependent communities in the Pacific Northwest Analyses of ideology construction by the economic 140 Rural Sociology, Vol 75, No 1, March 2010 elite may, therefore, help shed light on a variety of social and economic processes occurring throughout the United States and around the world References Appalachian Land Ownership Taskforce 1983 Who Owns Appalachia? 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