Lost Landscapes and Failed Economies: The Search for a Value of Place

Abstract

Lost Landscapes and Failed Economies: The Search for a Value of Place THOMAS POWER ISLAND PRESS, WASHINGTON, DC, 1996 295 PP. $35.00 HARDCOVER While this book is firmly based in the rhetoric of academic economics, Powers local economies and popular folklore makes it an excellent text for economic anthropology. Specifically he focuses on the ways in which folklore expresses local economic decision making wisdom with regards to environmental resources. These issues are brought to life through descriptive ethnography of the diversity of political and economic interests in American extractive industries. But this work is not merely descriptive. Power advocates the demystification of two competing modes of thought in local economic behavior. One is the ideological bias of academic economic science that assumes absolute truth. The other is the uncritical bias of naive folk economics that mistrusts expertise external to local communities. This demystification is motivated by his objective of helping local people better understand how they make their decisions so that local economic policies are neither misled nor distorted. Three basic assumptions inform his arguments in the body of the book: 1) popular folk economies that assume natural resource extraction industries are critical to economic development are incomplete and misleading; 2) contrary to popular belief people seek high-quality residential environments over economic opportunities; and 3) business development follows labor, not vice versa. Environmental economic issues (i.e., agriculture, ranching, fishing, mining, and logging) are primarily rural in context, where folk wisdom persists in political and economic decision-making. These extractive activities are centers of economic and environmental conflicts. Power argues that it may be more productive to view these conflicts from the perspective of scientific vs. folk economics rather than as political interest group conflicts. This new perspective, I think, is his main contribution to economic anthropology and environmental scholarship. According to Power, the various interests representing extractive industries and environmental protection are often deadlocked. He proposes a different framework for engaging in civil discourse to examine local realities. Scientific economics can be employed to demystify the significance of the role of extractive industries at local levels. In most cases, argues Power, that role is not as significant as many locals assume. Scientific economics can also identity the significance of protected landscapes on local economies. In most cases protected areas and ecotourism contribute much more to economic vitality than is locally believed. Power argues that it is peoples commitment to local environments that influences local economic agendas. Therefore, environmental protection is not only central to economic decision making, but the most central resources in the local economic base. …