Seeking a Common Frame for Understanding Socioeconomic Crises in Appalachia and Beyond

This paper explores instances of what have been called “slow-motion disasters” in academic and popular writing over the past decade by applying the concept to a focused analysis of the contemporary socioeconomic context of rustbelt communities in the northern Appalachian region. Specifically, this paper examines how the intent of this characterization appears to be an apprehension (in fact, an anxious grasping) of particular temporal and spatial qualities of unfolding events that have catastrophic potential for both individuals and communities on an order of magnitude typically associated with “fast-acting” disasters, such as hurricanes. I first applied the concept in my own work in order to describe protracted, multi-dimensional crises in communities such as Flint, Michigan—in the shadow of Detroit—that are undergoing processes of deindustrialization, depopulation through outmigration, and sociospatial restructuring fueled by racial discrimination. Fruitful comparisons between post-Katrina New Orleans and such hollowed-out regions reveal the fact that disaster is a transformation and state achieved through complex, inter-related processes. Borrowing from Naomi Klein’s notion of “disaster capitalism,” my intent is to reveal, for example, that there are no simply "natural" disasters, given the particular ways in which people are made differentially vulnerable to the impact of such events. Based on ethnographic research conducted in the Ohio River Valley of West Virginia over the past ten years, this paper is designed to reveal, how in our increasingly polarized public discourse, opposing sides fight to frame the social reality of crises, validate and prescribe appropriate interventions, and create consequential future visions.