Signs of Critical Endurance on the Marcellus Shale Landscape
Public Deposited- Last Modified
- March 21, 2019
- Creator
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Owens, Thomas C.
- Affiliation: College of Arts and Sciences, Department of American Studies, Folklore Program
- Abstract
- Bradford and Susquehanna Counties are rural communities in northeastern Pennsylvania long dependent on agricultural production, timber extraction and manufacturing. These counties also sit above the Marcellus Shale, a rock formation roughly a mile below the earth's surface containing vast deposits of natural gas. Drawing on ethnographic work conducted in the summer and fall of 2011, I illustrate herein how residents of Bradford and Susquehanna Counties critically endure the social, economic and environmental changes attributable to recent oil and gas exploration in the region. I have focused on narrative, material culture and landscape as expressive forms of resistance to the many challenges of oil and gas exploration. Expressed ambiguously and non-confrontationally, these verbal and material acts uphold a local social contract, and ensure community- and self-preservation in a time of flux.
- Date of publication
- August 2012
- Keyword
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- Resource type
- Rights statement
- In Copyright
- Advisor
- Roberts, Katherine R.
- Degree
- Master of Arts
- Degree granting institution
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- Graduation year
- 2012
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