Civic Commons Research Articles

Appalachia Revisited: New Perspectives on Place, Tradition, and Progress ed. by William Schumann and Rebecca Adkins Fletcher

Reviewed by: Appalachia Revisited: New Perspectives on Place, Tradition, and Progress ed. by William Schumann and Rebecca Adkins Fletcher Jinny A. Turman (bio) Appalachia Revisited: New Perspectives on Place, Tradition, and Progress. Edited by William Schumann and Rebecca Adkins Fletcher. ( Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2016. Pp. 310. $50.00 cloth) In recent decades place has emerged as an important framework for scholars seeking to understand how individuals and groups, operating in shifting historical contexts, have vied for, maintained, or asserted power in a given location. Similarly, the process of place-making, or the creation of narratives related to human interactions within a specific environment, has attracted attention, for it, too, is the result of powerful social, cultural, economic, and political forces. Appalachia Revisited, edited by William Schumann and Rebecca Adkins Fletcher, provides a sampling of how regional scholars and community organizers currently engage questions about place and place-making. The essays collectively strive to move conversations about Appalachia beyond prevailing assessments of the region as static and unchanging, as an "internal colony," or as "underdeveloped." Such narratives inform contributors' thinking, but the authors seek to offer a more fluid and comprehensive portrait of the region and its inhabitants by utilizing comparative analysis, highlighting global contexts, and emphasizing continuity and change. William Schumann's opening essay provides an overview of place as a conceptual framework, and it offers a brief but thoughtful account of how previous generations of scholars have defined and redefined "Appalachia." Indeed, scholars, as much as policymakers, benevolent workers, or corporate interests, have been key actors in regional place-making. "Researchers," Schumann notes, "make decisions" about relevant research questions, which in turn shape the range of "valid answers" (p. 11). His engagement with this form of "academic place-making" sets the tone for the rest of the volume. Contributors consciously expose and discuss the "theories, methods, and comparative contexts" that they use in their case studies (p. 18). The book is divided into four sections. Essays in section one examine identity construction in the context of place by employing [End Page 704] reflective practice and qualitative health care research methods, "digital" ethnography, and feminist theory. Section two focuses on expressions of place through oral, written, and digital formats. The third section includes essays that examine "economy and environment," with topics ranging from the sale of artistic representations of regional iconography, such as images of the black bear, to hydraulic fracturing. The final section examines themes of "engagement" in regional communities. The volume's most compelling chapters place Appalachia within a global context and question the effects of neoliberalism on economic development, cultural expressions, and social relations. These essays highlight how global market forces and the commodification of all facets of human life and social interaction affect the region. Anita Puckett chronicles how this ideology has shaped southwestern Virginia's music traditions by examining a festival that was held in Montgomery County in 2014. She argues for the use of a collaborative and open decision-making process through the platform of a "civic commons" that enables performers to decide for themselves, well in advance of the establishment of cultural programs, how they want to address the tourist economy's commodification of traditional music. The flourishing of for-profit prisons is equally symbolic of this new neoliberal order. Melissa Ooten and Jason Sawyer connect the burgeoning "prison-industrial complex" in Appalachia to global market forces, environmental destruction, and the destruction of human communities both within and beyond the region. Corporate-owned prisons are particularly insidious because they extract "ever-growing numbers of prisoners," frequently African Americans, from inner cities and relocate them to predominately white and rural communities in which a few select whites stand to benefit economically from prison jobs (p. 174). Because prisons make for undesirable neighbors, they hinder further economic diversification in the communities where they reside. The editors concede that Appalachia Revisited is not meant to offer a comprehensive analysis of place and place-making in Appalachia. [End Page 705] Indeed, it could benefit from other considerations of place as a theoretical framework, including the notion of "placelessness" and transience that has resulted from many of the same global capitalist forces examined in this book...

The search for a civic commons online: an assessment of existing BBC Online policy

Debates surrounding democracy and the internet are of central importance to the future of public service broadcasting. Some of these debates have led a group of scholars to argue for the establishment of a civic commons online, in response to the commercial nature of the internet and its limited support of deliberative democracy. General features of a civic commons online include the formation of a deliberative space free from corporate and state influence, yet that receives some form of public funding. Given their long and relatively successful history, some scholars have argued that existing public service broadcasters might provide the best chance for the establishment of such a commons. This article evaluates existing BBC Online policy in the UK in light of these arguments, and assesses the extent to which existing policy might allow space for the establishment of such a civic commons. The article concludes by arguing that while existing BBC Online policy would allow the basic grounds for the establishment of a civic commons online, there are significant obstacles to its full realization.

NETWORKING DEMOCRACY?

Early conceptions of digital democracy as a virtual public sphere or civic commons have been replaced by a new technological optimism for democratic renewal based upon the open and collaborative networking characteristics of social media. This article provides an introduction to a special issue of the international journal Information, Communication & Society, which attempts to present a grounded analysis of these claims drawing upon evidence-based research and analysis. A more cautious approach is suggested for the potential of social media to facilitate more participative democracy while acknowledging its disruptive value for challenging traditional interests and modes of communicative power.

E-democracy remixed: Learning from the BBC's Action Network and the shift from a static commons to a participatory multiplex

This paper examines a five-year initiative by the UK's public service broadcaster, the BBC, to reinvigorate civic engagement at a time of declining public participation in politics. The Action Network project, originally called iCan, ran from 2003 to 2008 and was one of the most high profile and ambitious attempts by a public service broadcaster to foster eParticipation through an online civic commons. This study analyzes Action Network within the context of conceptualizations of the Internet as a networked, distributed and participatory environment and the shift towards what scholars describe as a networked public sphere. It suggests that the project did not have the impact anticipated as it was borne out of a paternalistic broadcast legacy, out of step with the trend towards distributed and collaborative discourse online that reassesses the notion that the public is simply a resource to be managed. This paper argues that the BBC experience provides lessons in how the media, and specifically public service broadcasters, can contribute towards greater political participation and democratic dialogue through the Internet by adopting Web 2.0 approaches that enable citizens to engage on different levels and at different times, depending on contexts.

THE NEW MEDIA AND OUR POLITICAL COMMUNICATION DISCONTENTS: DEMOCRATIZING CYBERSPACE

This article argues that the new interactive media have a 'vulnerable potential' to enhance public communications and enrich democracy, which can be realized only through appropriate policy support and imaginative institution building. After outlining the main shortcomings of the prevailing political communication system, certain elements of redemptive potential, inherent in distinctive features of the Internet, are identified. The policy implications of this analysis are then drawn for the public-service obligations of mainstream media, to ensure open access to new media platforms, and to create a 'civic commons' in cyberspace.

THE NEW MEDIA AND OUR POLITICAL COMMUNICATION DISCONTENTS: DEMOCRATIZING CYBERSPACE

This article argues that the new interactive media have a 'vulnerable potential' to enhance public communications and enrich democracy, which can be realized only through appropriate policy support and imaginative institution building. After outlining the main shortcomings of the prevailing political communication system, certain elements of redemptive potential, inherent in distinctive features of the Internet, are identified. The policy implications of this analysis are then drawn for the public-service obligations of mainstream media, to ensure open access to new media platforms, and to create a 'civic commons' in cyberspace.