John Kennedy elaborates on Heleny Cook’s and Jane Sampson’s role with Save Our Cumberland Mountains (SOCM), their organizing efforts having grown directly out of John Gaventa’s strip mining research and related work about the American Association. For more information on…
Continued
John Gaventa recaps and differentiates between two related studies concerning land ownership in Appalachia. The first was conducted during the summer of 1971 across several East Tennessee counties. It affected Gaventa’s pursuits over the next 50 years, including publication of…
Continued
John Gaventa delineates the context and probing question behind his earliest research into land ownership in Appalachia, as proposed in collaboration with Bill Dow: why are some of the wealthiest, natural resource-rich counties in East Tennessee also the poorest (in…
Continued
Seeking to frame the role of quiescence in unjust sociopolitical structures, John Gaventa delineates the intricacies of power across three different dimensions. He cites his Oxford mentor Steven Lukes, author of Power: A Radical View, as a purveyor of the…
Continued
John Gaventa describes the British paternalism characteristic of late 19th-century industrialists, a philosophy that harnessed absentee land ownership in pursuit of capitalist economic gain. He references Alexander Arthur, Scottish-born entrepreneur, engineer, and president of the American Association, the British investment…
Continued
John Gaventa clarifies the interplay between surface land ownership and the exploitative acquisition of below-ground mineral rights by large coal companies in Appalachia. He cites The American Association, a British company that at one time owned 80,000 acres across Clairborne,…
Continued
Charles “Boomer” Winfrey and Maureen O’Connell consider what set the Student Health Coalition (SHC) apart from other community development efforts in the Appalachian region of East Tennessee. Boomer focuses on the Coalition’s and Save Our Cumberland Mountains’ (SOCM’s) value of…
Continued
John Gaventa reflects on his early conclusions about the role of quiescence in the Clearfork Valley, recognizing now that he may have under-appreciated ongoing forms of resistance, such as through storytelling, music, and other invisible acts. He pulls on political…
Continued
John Gaventa further describes how the 1977 flood mobilized citizens toward supplementary research into the inequities connected to land ownership, taxation practices, and other local power dynamics. They requested funding from the ARC for what over time developed into the…
Continued
John Gaventa elaborates on his previous discussion of quiescence and the three dimensions of power with an introduction of the power cube, a rubik’s analogy he and his colleagues developed to illustrate even more dimensions at play. He explains that…
Continued
Nancy Raybin describes Bill Dow’s visionary leadership, highlighting his role in securing funds for the Coalition’s varied projects. But given her placement in St. Charles and being so far removed from SHC happenings in East Tennessee, Raybin speaks more to…
Continued
John Williams and Neil McBride share a list of the East Tennessee Research Corporation’s range of legal issues addressed between 1974 and 1977, including but not limited to: coal industry regulation, industrial development, environmental litigation, barriers to independently-run rural health…
Continued
Topics discussed in this interview with Kate Bradley and J.W. Bradley include: birth in Petros, Tenn.; life history overview; coal mining father; history of Save Our Cumberland Mountains (SOCM); women’s role in SOCM; relationship of Vanderbilt University medical students; Student…
Continued
John Gaventa describes the concepts of mutual aid and solidarity as exemplified by different interactions of power. He explains that action against injustice is built from the coalition of power within ourselves and power with each other. Together, these fuel…
Continued
On strip mining, community organization, and “[having] fun while trying to change the world.” Interview with Maureen O’Connell and Charles “Boomer” Winfrey, recorded at a May 2013 reunion of the Student Health Coalition (SHC) in Nashville, Tenn.
Continued
John Gaventa elaborates on initial findings from the 1971 land ownership study and what transpired in response. With documented evidence of inequitable corporate control over land and natural resources (due in large part to unfair property taxation practices and the…
Continued
[Story contributed by Dr. Brent Blue, February 2016] I remember I took these photos when I was first introduced to Jess and Steele. I believe John Gaventa was with us. The Huddleston’s freely admitted that due to my long hair,…
Continued
John Gaventa highlights the value of empowering others–locals in the community–to conduct their own research and act on their own knowledge against injustice. Follow this link for access to the full-length interview. Recorded October 2021.
Continued
John Gaventa discusses the “Appalachianization” of rural America, a trend of rising inequality, poverty, environmental damage, and deficit of public services across the U.S. No longer the exception, Gaventa emphaszies injustice in the Clearfork Valley as being relevant to the…
Continued
The John Gaventa Papers include materials generated and collected during Gaventa’s career as a political sociologist, educator, author, and civil society practitioner. This includes correspondence, day planners and calendars, journals, materials from conferences, and papers, reports and studies written by…
Continued
[Story contributed by Perry Steele, 15 May 2017] I was finishing my sophomore year at Vanderbilt. Nixon hadn’t drafted me. For some reason Professor Scott suggested I could be a community organizer. Having no other plans for the summer, I…
Continued
Stuart, Reginald. “Higher Appalachia Taxes Asked.” New York Times, June 22, 1974. Read article online.
Continued
Following a 1977 flood in central Appalachia that left many people displaced, John Gaventa and others at the Highlander Center organized a study to counter conclusions by the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC), which failed to consider the role of corporate…
Continued
Margaret Ecker reflects on the power of the Coalition, however invisible at the time, and its success in changing institutions, unconventional and inchoate though it was. She brings John Gaventa’s conclusion on the matter, as further detailed in his book…
Continued
Jack Beckford offers insight into the role the Student Health Coalition Legacy Fund has played in uncovering and supporting ongoing work on issues in Appalachia related to the SHC’s activism in the 1960s and 70s. He lists Appalshop, the Highlander…
Continued