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PHOTOVOICE As A STRATEGY FOR COmmUNITY ORGANIZING IN THE CENTRAL APPALACHIAN COALFIELDs1

By Shannon Elizabeth Bell The effects of powerlessness and depleted levels of social capital in coaleld communities make community organizing a particularly daunting task. Any organizing effort, if it is to be successful, must overcome these two major barriers to mobilization. In this paper, I present the participatory action research method of Photovoice as an underutilized strategy for community organizing that has the potential to both address the consequences of long-term powerlessness and low social capital within the coalelds of Central Appalachia. Photovoice is a method, most notably used in public health, which involves using participant-produced photography as a means of giving voice to marginalized persons in the community. Community member participants receive cameras to record images that tell the story of their community and then come together for regular group reection sessions to discuss their photographs and the underlying issues represented in the images. At these reection sessions, participants write short narratives to accompany the pictures they deem most important, creating photostories. Outcomes from the Cabin Creek Photovoice Project are presented as evidence of the possibilities that this method holds as a tool for organizing for change in Central Appalachia.

Introduction: The West Virginia context

West Virginias status as the second foremost producer of coal in the nation (behind Wyoming) has meant that coal has historically played a central role in the states economy and identity. Local and regional social movement organizations advocating for coaleld communities in West Virginia argue that the importance of the coal industry to the West Virginia economy, and to meeting the energy demands of the United States, has meant that coal enjoys undue inuence over the political system, providing the coal industry with a level of impunity for its actions
Shannon Elizabeth Bell is a PhD candidate in the Sociology Department at the University of Oregon. Her research focuses on the intersection of social movements, the environment, and gender. Her current project, called the Southern West Virginia Photovoice Project, includes forty women in ve coaleld communities in Southern West Virginia.

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(Peoples Election Reform Coalition 2003; Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition 2005). Many residents contend that coals power in local and state politics has allowed the industry to engage in highly destructive mining practices that jeopardize the health, safety, and livelihoods of many people living in southern coaleld communities. Mountaintop removal coal mining and the resulting valley lls are some of the most notorious of these practices, having directly affected twelve hundred miles of headwater streams in Appalachia between 1992 and 2002, and having completely buried an estimated 724 miles of streams between 1985 and 2001 (United States Environmental Protection Agency 2005). This type of mining can cause a great deal of harm to communities downstream from these mining operations. Devastating ooding (Flood Advisory Technical Taskforce 2002), coal slurry impoundment breaks and disasters (Eades 2000; Erikson 1976), respiratory problems from coal dust in the air (Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition 2005), and well water contamination consisting of heavy metals (present in coal) and carcinogenic chemicals used in the coal cleaning process (Orem 2006) are just a few of the devastating consequences of certain mining practices in this region. Even the protection laws that are in place have been largely ignored by many coal companies, such as coal giant Massey Energy, which was charged with 4,633 violations of the Clean Water Act between January of 2000 and December of 2006 (Associated Press 2007). With the increasing frequency of coal-related ooding, sickness, and water contamination in the Central Appalachian region over the past ten years, a strong grassroots movement has emerged within the coalelds of West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Southwestern Virginia to confront the coal industry, regulatory agencies, and local, state, and national governments, demanding protection and accountability. Many members of environmental justice Social Movement Organizations (SMOs) in West Virginia joined the movement as a result of being directly impacted by coal. Experiencing a ood caused by mountaintop removal mining, sickness due to coal waste-contaminated well water, or loss of property value and diminished quality of life due to coal dust air pollution are some motives activists report for joining the environmental justice movement (Bell and Braun 2008). However, these activists only represent a small number of the individuals who have been directly affected by irresponsible mining practices. Most of the affected population remain uninvolved in the environmental justice movement, despite SMO efforts at outreach. Given the enormity of the impacts on these communities, why are there such low levels of movement participation at the local level? Gaventa (1980) argues that the relatively small numbers of local people involved in movements confronting the injustices in Central Appalachia

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stem from a pattern found throughout the history of the Appalachian Valley in which grassroots challenges to the massive inequalities [residents] face have been precluded or repelled, time and again, by the power which surrounds and protects beneciaries of the inequalities (252). This pattern of defeat has created and reinforced a sense of powerlessness among many in the population, often misinterpreted by outsiders as the fatalism of the traditional culture (Gaventa 1980, 254). The cumulative experiences of defeat, occurring and reoccurring throughout history, have taught many in Central Appalachia to anticipate future failure. Thus, the powerful in this region are able to maintain their power precisely because the powerless have learned to remain silent. In other words, Powerlessness serves to re-enforce powerlessness (Gaventa 1980, 256). Another social factor affecting mobilization in the Central Appalachian context is social capital, or the lack thereof. Social capital, which can be dened as the features of social organization, such as networks, norms, and social trust that facilitate coordination and cooperation for mutual benet, is what holds society together. It is the level of connectedness, involvement, and trustworthiness among people (Putnam 1995, 67). Furthermore, a regions store of social capital is vital to the proper democratic functioning of its government (Putnam 1993). A decit in social capital often leads to an unhealthy democracy, wherein the citizens do not trust each other enough to collaborate on shared goals for the improvement of their neighborhood or town. While rural areas have been found to possess greater stores of social capital than urban and suburban areas (Onyx and Bullen 2000; Pena and Lindo-Fuentes 1998), West Virginia appears to be an anomaly to these ndings. West Virginia is the second most rural state in the United States (United States Census Bureau 2000), but, according to Putnam (2000), it exhibits the eighth lowest level of social capital in the nation. There is evidence that the states overall low social capital ranking may be the result of a severe depletion of social capital in coaleld communities (Bell 2009). Low social capital has consequences for residents, as it affects a communitys capacity for action (Paxton 1999, 93). If coaleld residents do not trust each other, if they are not embedded in a network of neighbors, friends, and family in their community, they may be less equipped to collectively ght the injustices that the coal industry imposes upon Central Appalachia.

Overcoming powerlessness and depleted social capital through Photovoice

The effects of powerlessness and depleted levels of social capital in coaleld communities make community organizing a particularly

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daunting task because any organizing effort, if it is to be successful, must overcome these two major barriers to mobilization. In the remainder of this paper, I present the participatory action research method of Photovoice as an underutilized strategy for community organizing that has the potential to address the consequences of both long-term powerlessness and low social capital within a population. Photovoice is a method, most notably used in public health, which involves using participant-produced photography as a means of giving voice to and facilitating empowerment education among participants (Wang and Burris 1994, 171). Community member participants receive cameras to record images that tell the story of their community and then come together for regular group reection sessions to discuss their photographs and the underlying issues represented in the images. At these reection sessions, participants write short narratives to accompany the pictures they deem most important, creating photostories.

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Through reection, the writing of narratives for the photographs, and public presentations, Photovoice makes it possible for community members to (1) document and reect on the assets and concerns of their community; (2) produce and expand shared knowledge through discussing community issues in large and small groups; and (3) inform policy makers of the communitys true needs (Wang and Redwood-Jones 2001). The people typically sought out for this type of project are not the obvious community leaders; they are the individuals marginalized within the community whose voices are not usually heard. Thus, it is often women, racial minorities, and people of a lower socio-economic status that become the community-based documentary photographers in Photovoice. The signicance of Photovoice as an underexplored tool for community organizing became apparent through the ndings of a yearlong Photovoice project I enacted from 2003 - 2004 in the coal-mining town of Cabin Creek, West Virginia. Through this process, I witnessed participants understandings of community needs evolve from an individualistic view of problems to an awareness of the structural roots of many issues. In addition, I found that participants felt an increased sense of efcacy through the experience of being respected and listened to in a group setting, many for the rst time in their lives. Within their group, the participants experienced a sense of community that many had expressed not feeling within their town otherwise. Finally, participants became more civically engaged, taking action through planning community improvement projects, communicating with elected ofcials, and reporting community problems to the appropriate authorities (Bell 2006). While the intention of this Photovoice project was for it to serve as a type of needs assessment that would facilitate the communication of Cabin Creek residents shared concerns, needs, and ideas for change to policymakers, the unanticipated outcomes of the project reveal the potential this method holds for community organizing, as it simultaneously empowers participants and builds social capital within the group.

The Cabin Creek Photovoice Project

The Cabin Creek Photovoice Project began in September of 2003 with funding from The Greater Kanawha Valley Foundation and Canaan Valley Institute. Fifteen women participants, ranging in age from fteen to sixty-nine, were given cameras and received two rolls of lm every month over the course of one year to document scenes that told of the strengths, challenges, and issues of concern in their community. Every month, the participants came together for reection sessions during which they received their developed lm and discussed the pictures they took, brainstorming ideas for change. After talking as a group about their

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photographs, the women then took time to write a few sentences about each of their most important pictures, documenting what the picture represented, why they took it, and what ideas they had to solve the problem or to highlight the strength. In September of 2004, after one year of this project, the Photovoice women and I organized a Photovoice Exhibit, at which eighty-six of the womens photostories (pictures with narratives) were displayed. The general community, the media, business leaders, and legislators were invited. With more than ninety people in attendance, the event drew muchneeded attention to many of the problems and issues in the community. The eighty-six photostories included in the exhibit, which can be viewed at www.wvphotovoice.org, were selected by the women and reected their shared concerns and joys. Seven themes emerged from the selected photostories: Cabin Creeks Heritage and History Cabin Creek and Coal Strengths in Cabin Creek Ideas for Change Problems and Challenges the Community Can Address from Within Problems and Challenges the Community Needs Outside Help to Address Hidden Beauty in Cabin Creek While the Photovoice Exhibit marked the endpoint of the funding for the Cabin Creek Photovoice Project, this process was so meaningful to the participants that they decided to continue meeting after the ofcial oneyear duration of the project was over in order to work on addressing some of the community problems identied in their photostories. For example, to address the problem of trash along the roadsides and creek banks in the community, the women organized a Make Cabin Creek Shine Youth Clean-Up Day, which drew together children and adults to pick up litter, after which they enjoyed a celebration picnic. Then, in order to address the perceived decline in voter turn-out rates within the community, the women decided to hold a voter registration drive in the lobby of Cabin Creek Health Center. They registered eighteen new voters on the day of the event. Finally, to address the negative stereotype of Cabin Creek as a dirty and drug-infested community, the women decided to counter this image with photographs of beauty in Cabin Creek. These photographs were so beautiful that Cabin Creek Health Systems (the scal agent for

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the project) used some of the pictures of beauty to produce a calendar that was distributed to nearly ve thousand people in 2005. Through the Photovoice process, the women moved from seeing themselves as victims of change to agents of change.

Personal and community empowerment through Photovoice

The possible benefits of Photovoice go farther than simply communicating needs to policy-makers; Photovoice also fosters a change in the self perceptions of participants from non-inuential to inuential. Through this process, the women of the Cabin Creek Photovoice Project came to see themselves as actors in the public arena instead of objects of it. For many of the participants, it was through this project that they made their rst contacts with legislators to express their opinions about certain community concerns. Many of these women were surprised when their opinions were accepted and even welcomed by their elected ofcials. The starting point of this important dialogical breakthrough was at a reection session in January of 2004, when we had a particularly powerful conversation that began with a womans picture of her two grandchildren who live in North Carolina. This participants son, like many West Virginians, left West Virginia in his early twenties to nd work because the job economy in this state was so bleak. Many of the women in the group could relate to her expression of regret that her children were forced to leave their home state in order to nd employment. This began a discussion about the decrease in coal mining jobs over the years and why other industries have not come in to replace the jobs that have been lost due to mechanization and increases in technology. The conversation moved further to the West Virginia legislature and who really owns the candidates. We discussed the realities of the political system: that those who are elected usually have the most money or campaign contributions from coal, tobacco, and other powerful corporations with interests that often go against the well-being of West Virginia citizens. The women discussed the general populations lack of knowledge about third-party candidates and that most people they knewincluding themselvesvoted mostly on name recognition, if they even voted at all. The next day, Genevieve, one of the Photovoice women, stopped by my ofce with a new photostory to share with me. She had taken a picture of a coal train and had written a paragraph about the negative aspects of coal in Cabin Creek that she had seen over the years, from acid mine drainage to mountaintop removal coal mining to overweight coal trucks. She looked at me and said, Shannon, Im tired of the coal operators running our state. What can I do to stop it? I was dumbfounded. How does one answer a question that huge? But I could also see that this was

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a tremendous opportunity. The Photovoice process was moving from reection and discussion to action and change. Around that time, the Clean Elections Act had been introduced in the West Virginia legislature. If passed, this act would create a system for full public nancing for legislative candidates who agreed to limit their spending and reject all private donations. This voluntary, voter-owned system would reduce candidates dependence on special interest money, like coal, and would allow the candidates to focus on interacting with voters and learning of communities concerns and needs, rather than fundraising. This was exactly the type of change that Genevieve was talking about when she came to visit me. So I gathered as much information on the bill as I could and brought it, along with the phone numbers and addresses of the senators and delegates that represented the Cabin Creek area, to

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our next Photovoice meeting to give to the women. We discussed what the women could say when they called their representatives, and they began to see that becoming engaged with their political system was not an impossible task; it actually could be quite easy. Another major theme that arose during our reection sessions was the large amount of litter in Cabin Creek and how much the women wished that residents would show enough respect for their community to keep it clean.

During the legislative session that year, there was a bill introduced in both the West Virginia Senate and the House of Delegates to initiate a bottle deposit in West Virginia. If this bill passed, citizens would receive a three cent deposit on cans, glass bottles, and plastic bottles that they brought to redemption centers. The hoped-for outcomes of this container deposit

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were reductions in the quantity of litter in communities such as Cabin Creek, and an increase in jobs through the opening of redemption centers. I gathered information on this bill for the women, and we discussed it at one of our reection sessions. Ann, one of the Photovoice women, told the group that in the state where she grew up, there is a bottle deposit, and their streets and roads are clean (unlike many West Virginia roads). What is more, she told us, low-income people in the state can have a source of income from picking up bottles and cans from the roadsides. Ann became very excited about the possibility of West Virginia initiating a bottle deposit, and she contacted each of the legislators on the list that I provided her to express her enthusiasm for this bill. ThenSenator Larry Rowe had his secretary return Anns phone call to ask if she could provide him with some additional information about why the bottle deposit would be such a good thing for West Virginia communities. I still remember the day Ann received that phone call. She came running into my ofce, eyes wide with excitement, and told me that she needed to put something together for Senator Larry Rowe. So that morning, I helped her organize the pictures she wanted to send to Senator Rowepictures showing piles of litter in Cabin Creek, followed by pictures of clean streets in her home state of Maine, which has a bottle deposit. She wrote a

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narrative to send to him as well. We made copies of her work and put the originals in the mail to Senator Rowe. A week later, Ann received a thank you letter from the senator, and, once again, she came running into my ofce, excitement in her eyes, waving the letter above her headHe read what I sent him! And he said what I sent him was very important informationwhat I had to tell Senator Larry Rowe was important! She reported her news at the next Photovoice meeting. Everyone was very excited for her. Although neither the Bottle Deposit Bill nor the Clean Elections Act passed that legislative session, the Photovoice women felt, many for the rst time, the power they possessed within themselves to speak outthey had something important to share, and people in policymaking positions needed to hear that voice. Another Photovoice participant had a similar story to tell at one of our reection meetings, revealing the power that just one individual truly can have, once she decides to become civically involved. Due to the tremendous amount of coal truck trafc on Cabin Creek Road, it becomes pretty rough in some spots. This participant took some pictures of the bad places in the road and called the state highways department about those spots. A few weeks later, she was able to take a picture of the state highway department actually xing one of the spots she complained about. She too was surprised and excited to see that through simply making a phone call, people listened to and took action on her complaint.

Promoting community pride through Photovoice

The Photovoice Project was not only an excellent tool for identifying the major issues and problems that needed to be acted upon, it was also an important tool for revealing some of the hidden beauty and strengths in Cabin Creek, and increasing community pride and condence in the process. There are many negative stereotypes about Cabin Creek that youths and adults must face in their interactions with others from outside the community. However, as the Photovoice women will assert, there is a great deal of beauty and heritage to be proud of in Cabin Creek. Many of the women took beautiful landscape photographs of their community, images of beauty which surprised many non-Cabin Creek residents. As previously noted, these pictures were so beautiful that Cabin Creek Health Center decided to make a calendar out of the pictures to give away as a promotion and fundraising tool. The success of the calendar inspired the Photovoice women to take more pictures of beauty in order to make greeting cards to sell as a fundraiser for community improvement activities.

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Building community and social capital through Photovoice

Photovoice has been a successful tool for increasing levels of civic involvement in Cabin Creek. Through this empowering process, the women have seen the personal power they have to bring about change, in the way their community is seen by outsiders and in speaking up for what they believe needs to occur on a political level. The project goals of Photovoice cannot be reached by an expert outsider producing beautiful photographs of the pain and toil communities go through (Wang and Burris 1994, 184). The entire premise of the Photovoice approach, as Wang and Burris (1994) assert, is to allow meaningful change to come from the center (184). In addition to addressing issues of powerlessness among participants, Photovoice has the potential to build social capital. Post-project interviews from the Cabin Creek Photovoice Project indicate that, for many of the participants, the Photovoice group had become a network of support in their lives (Bell 2006). One woman reported that through Photovoice, for the rst time in her life she has community. Another stated that the group of women felt like a family to her. When the husband of one of the participants fell ill, the group members chipped in to provide food and

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money for this participant when her husbands medical bills became more than she could afford. As previously noted, because of the social benets that participants received, group members decided to continue meeting to develop community improvement projects even after the project funding was over. Thus, notable among the Cabin Creek Photovoice Projects outcomes were the growth of social networks, social trust, and civic engagement among participants. These three outcomes are the key components of social capital. Based on these ndings, we can conclude that a benet of the Cabin Creek Photovoice Project was the regeneration of social capital among the group participants.

Conclusion

Mobilizing against the injustices and massive inequalities in Central Appalachia has historically been a difcult task (Gaventa 1980). The replication of power and powerlessness in this region has meant that many in the population have been taught that rising up against the powerelite engenders little progressand great disappointment. Thus, many in Central Appalachia have remained silent about the great injustices they face. In addition, the depleted levels of social capital in the coalelds (Bell 2009) has meant that residents remain disconnected from each other, unable to see that the individual problems they face are actually larger structural problems that affect the entire community. In addition, without the generalized social trust that comes with high levels of social capital, residents nd it difcult to collaborate with others in the community to confront the structures of inequality. In order to be successful, organizing efforts in Central Appalachia need to overcome both of these barriers to mobilization. The Photovoice method may offer one such avenue for organizing efforts.

Notes

1. Acknowledgements: Many thanks to the women of the Cabin Creek Photovoice Project for their participation and all that they taught me through this wonderful experience: Jessica Adkins, Kathy Adkins, Ann Boswell, Louise Crockett, Betty Farley, Amber Foster, Lori Foster, Ronda Foster, Sally Foster, Carol Hossler, Genevieve Kitchen, Nellie Porco, Kathy Stout, Loretta Watkins, and Carissa Wilson. I am very appreciative of the generous support provided by Cabin Creek Health Systems, Canaan Valley Institute, The Greater Kanawha Valley Foundation, and the Mountain State Geriatric Education Center. Thank you also to Nancyellen Brennan and Rachel Dash, both of whom helped with the facilitation of the early Photovoice reection sessions, and to Amber Crist, who helped with the administrative aspects of this project.

References

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Bell, Shannon E. 2006. Photovoice: A tool for promoting community empowerment, social change and cultural education. A manual for facilitators. West Virginia University Center on Aging and the Mountain State Geriatric Education Center. Available at www.wvphotovoice. org. Bell, Shannon Elizabeth. 2009. There aint no bond in town like there used to be: The destruction of social capital in the West Virginia coalelds. Sociological Forum 24(3), 631 - 658. _____________ and Yvonne A. Braun. 2008. Our roots run deep as ironweed: Women and the ght for environmental justice in the Appalachian coalelds. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Pacic Sociological Association, April 10 - 13, in Portland, Oregon. Eades, Rick. 2000. Brushy Fork Slurry ImpoundmentA preliminary report, http://www. ohvec.org/issues/slurry_impoundments/articles/brushy_fork.pdf (accessed January 3, 2006). Erikson, Kai T. 1976. Everything in its path: Destruction of community in the Buffalo Creek Flood. New York: Simon and Schuster. Flood Advisory Technical Taskforce (FATT). (2002). Runoff analyses of Seng, Scrabble, and Sycamore creeks. June 14. West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection. (http://www.dep.state.wv.us/item.cfm?ssid=9&ss1id=401). Gaventa, John. 1980. Power and powerlessness: Quiescence and rebellion in an Appalachian valley. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press. Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition. 2005. Coaleld residents speak. Huntington, West Virginia: Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition. Onyx, Jenny and Paul Bullen. 2000. Measuring social capital in ve communities. Journal of Applied Behavioral Science 36(1): 23 - 42. Orem, William H. 2006. Coal slurry: Geochemistry and impacts on human health and environmental quality. U.S. Geological Survey, Eastern Energy Resources Team. PowerPoint presentation to the Coal Slurry Legislative Subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee, West Virginia Legislature, 15 November, 2006. Paxton, Pamela. 1999. Is social capital declining in the United States? A multiple indicator assessment. American Journal of Sociology 105(1): 88 - 127. Pena, Maria-Valeria Junho and Hector Lindo-Fuentes. 1998. Community organization, values and social capital in Panama. Economic notes No. 9. Washington, D.C.: The World Bank. Peoples Election Reform Coalition. 2003. Report on coal and the 2003 legislature: How the coal industry inuences legislation in West Virginia, http://www.ohvec.org/issues/ campaign_nance_reform/articles/perc_coal_report_2003.pdf (accessed December 10, 2007). Putnam, Robert D. 1993. Making democracy work. Princeton: Princeton University Press. _____________. 1995. Bowling alone: Americas declining social capital. Journal of Democracy 6: 65 - 78. _____________. 2000. Bowling alone: The collapse and revival of American community. New York: Simon & Schuster. United States Census Bureau. 2000. American fact nder. Census 2000 summary le 1, table P27: Relationship by household typeUniverse: Total, state data, added geographic components: Rural. Retrieved March 23, 2006 (http://factnder.census.gov). United States Environmental Protection Agency. 2005. Mountaintop mining/valley lls in Appalachia, nal programmatic environmental impact statement, (http://www.epa.gov/ region03/mtntop/(accessed September 28, 2007). Wang, Caroline and Mary Anne Burris. 1994. Empowerment through photo novella: Portraits of participation. Health Education Quarterly 21(2): 171 - 186. _____________ and Yanique Redwood-Jones. 2001. Photovoice ethics: Perspectives from Flint Photovoice. Health Education and Behavior 28(5): 560 - 572.

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