Forests as Fuel
Energy, Landscape, Climate, and Race in the U.S. South
Published on 22. August 2023
Book
Paperback/Softback
252 pages
978-1-7936-3236-4 (ISBN)
Description
In the US South, wood-based bioenergy schemes are being promoted and implemented through a powerful vision merging social, environmental, and economic benefits for rural, forest-dependent communities. While this dominant narrative has led to heavy investment in experimental technologies and rural development, many complexities and complications have emerged during implementation. Forests as Fuel draws on extensive multi-sited ethnography to ground the story of wood-based bioenergy in the biophysical, economic, political, social, and cultural landscape of this region. This book contextualizes energy issues within the history and potential futures of the region's forested landscapes, highlighting the impacts of varying perceptions of climate change and complex racial dynamics. Eschewing simple answers, the authors illuminate the points of friction that occur as competing visions of bioenergy development confront each other to variously support, reshape, contest, or reject bioenergy development. Building on recent conceptual advances in studies of sociotechnical imaginaries, environmental history, and energy justice, the authors present a careful and nuanced analysis that can provide guidance for promoting meaningful participation of local community members in renewable energy policy and production while recognizing the complex interplay of factors affecting its implementation in local places.
Reviews / Votes
This work offers an engaging, multi-faceted ethnography, covering two Georgia sites and one in Mississippi.... This book is well-researched and meticulously referenced. It will interest scholars in a wide range of disciplines, from anthropology and environmental studies to political science.Highlyrecommended. Lower- and upper-division undergraduates. Graduate students, faculty, and professionals. General readers. * Choice Reviews * When most people think of renewable energy innovation, they might envision California with its progressive environmental policies or Texas with its burgeoning wind industry. Less often do people or scholars locate the epicenter of renewable energy development in the forests of the Deep South. Forests as Fuel reveals a complicated and compelling story about what technological innovation looks like in rural areas of the South that are fraught with economic challenges and deep racial divides. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in wood-based energy development and environmental justice. -- Sarah Mittlefehldt, Northern Michigan University Hitchner, Schelhas, and Brosius offer a comprehensive ethno-graphic analysis of the challenges to sustainable forest-based bioenergy - as seen through the eyes of the people of the U.S. South. The authors carefully identify points of friction and opportunities in a sector that needs to be inclusive in its land-based energy quest to respond to a changing climate. -- Francisco X. Aguilar Cabezas, Swedish University of Agricultural SciencesMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
United States
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
9 b/w illustrations;
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 14 mm
Weight
374 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-7936-3236-4 (9781793632364)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Sarah Hitchner | John Schelhas | J. Peter Brosius
Forests as Fuel
Energy, Landscape, Climate, and Race in the U.S. South
E-Book
01/2022
1st Edition
Bloomsbury eBooks US
€33.49
Available for download
Persons
Sarah Hitchner is assistant research scientist and adjunct professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Georgia.
John Schelhas is research forester with the Southern Research Station of the USDA Forest Service.
J. Peter Brosius is distinguished research professor of anthropology at the University of Georgia and founding director of the University of Georgia's Center for Integrative Conservation Research.
John Schelhas is research forester with the Southern Research Station of the USDA Forest Service.
J. Peter Brosius is distinguished research professor of anthropology at the University of Georgia and founding director of the University of Georgia's Center for Integrative Conservation Research.
Content
Foreword
J. Marshall Shepherd
Introduction Bioenergy Stories at the Intersection of Energy, Landscape, Race, and Climate in the U.S. South
Chapter 2 What People Hear and What People Say about Bioenergy: Translating Bioenergy Narratives, Imaginaries, and Metaphors
Chapter 3 Bioenergy Landscapes: Impacts of Bioenergy Developments on Forest-Dependent Communities in the U.S. South
Chapter 4 What's Climate Change Got to Do with It?: The Relevance (Or Not) of Climate Change to Perceptions of Bioenergy
Chapter 5 "The South Be the South": How Bioenergy Development Illustrates and Affects
Racial Dynamics in the U.S. South
Conclusion A New Bioenergy Imaginary in the U.S. South
J. Marshall Shepherd
Introduction Bioenergy Stories at the Intersection of Energy, Landscape, Race, and Climate in the U.S. South
Chapter 2 What People Hear and What People Say about Bioenergy: Translating Bioenergy Narratives, Imaginaries, and Metaphors
Chapter 3 Bioenergy Landscapes: Impacts of Bioenergy Developments on Forest-Dependent Communities in the U.S. South
Chapter 4 What's Climate Change Got to Do with It?: The Relevance (Or Not) of Climate Change to Perceptions of Bioenergy
Chapter 5 "The South Be the South": How Bioenergy Development Illustrates and Affects
Racial Dynamics in the U.S. South
Conclusion A New Bioenergy Imaginary in the U.S. South