absentee coal companies

The “Appalachianization” of rural America and around the world

Power and Politics in Health Care, Remaining Challenges, Stories / By

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 global stage, too–such as in Mozambique and Nigeria, mineral-rich countries where absentee land ownership and …

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On paternalistic industrialism: Alexander Arthur and the American Association

Power and Politics in Health Care, Pre-Existing Conditions, Stories / By

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 group that funded absentee land acquisition and industrial development across the Cumberland Gap, as a …

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On the interplay between land ownership and mineral rights

Power and Politics in Health Care, Stories / By

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, Bell, Campbell, and Whitley Counties in East Tennessee, as a prime example of absentee corporate …

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