Power and Just Transitions: Struggles for a Post-Coal Future in an Appalachian Valley

Published in 1982, John Gaventa’s award-winning Power and Powerlessness examined the dominance of the absentee coal industry in Central Appalachia. Gaventa and Gabe Schwartzman update the story through coal’s decline and into the present while focusing on how power relations and community mobilizing have changed and evolved during this era of transition. Their analysis tracks the impact on a place where a fossil fuel-based economy shaped political and social structures for over a century. As they show, new forms of power emerged while old ones remained, and both affected the popular struggle for a future that’s both just and more inclusive. Original and timely, Power and Just Transitions merges historical perspective with interviews and engagement to look at how coal’s decline impacted power and resistance in an Appalachian community.

John Gaventa is a professor and research fellow at the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex. He is the author of Power and Powerlessness: Quiescence and Rebellion in an Appalachian Valley. Gabe Schwartzman is an assistant professor of geography and sustainability at the University of Tennessee and has been deeply engaged in community mobilization efforts in the Clear Fork Valley.