Appalachia and "The Commons": An Introduction

Abstract

The very existence of "Appalachia" as a region is a construct, something "invented" by federal bureaucrats, policy wonks, various media, fictional writers and poets, and scholars over the last 50+ years. Through these primarily non-indigenes' impact, Appalachia has achieved both a heuristic materiality as well as a disembodied imaginary identity (Powell 2007). Central to this process of Appalachian geogenesis has been the multi-billion dollar funding of projects by the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC), a federal agency. Thousands of local organizations and university research teams have embraced the ARC definition of this region to solicit funds for various infrastructure and economic development projects since the 1960s, such that most now accept the ARC definition as the definition of the region (Couto 1995). ARC Appalachia is far too inchoate, expansive, and culturally variable, however, for anthropologists to use in a meaningful way when researching systemic issues related to political disempowerment, precarity, and physical well being-exactly the issues addressed in this issue.