Document Type
Article
Publication Date
Summer 2009
Abstract
The cultural and political implications of landscape change and urban growth in the western U.S. are well-documented. However, comparatively little scholarship has examined the effects of urbanization on sense of place in the southern U.S. We contribute to the literature on competing place meanings with a case study from the rural “Sewee to Santee” region of northern Charleston County, SC. Our research highlights conflicting cultural, environmental, and racial politics and their roles in struggles over place meanings. Using focus groups, interviews with elected officials, and participant observation, we document initial African American resistance and eventual compliance with the prevailing anti-sprawl discourse and associated sense of place promoted by the Charleston County Planning Commission and others. Our research suggests that dynamics driving development in the rural, U.S. South are similar in kind to those in the Third World where natural resource decisions are informed by class, cultural, and racial politics.
Recommended Citation
Johnson, Cassandra Y.; Halfacre, Angela C.; and Hurley, Patrick T., "Resistant Place Identities in Rural Charleston County, South Carolina: Cultural, Environmental, and Racial Politics in the Sewee to Santee Area" (2009). Environment and Sustainability Faculty Publications. 1.
https://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/environment_fac/1
Included in
African American Studies Commons, Environmental Studies Commons, Nature and Society Relations Commons, Other Political Science Commons, Place and Environment Commons, Urban Studies and Planning Commons
Comments
This is the final version of the work originally published by the Society for Human Ecology in Human Ecology Review, Volume 16, Summer 2009, Number 1.
Patrick T. Hurley was associated with the College of Charleston at the time the manuscript was accepted for publication.