January 2022
Forests as Fuel:
Energy, Landscape, Climate, and Race in the U.S. South
Sarah Hitchner, John Schelhas, and J. Peter Brosius
In the U.S. 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.
Order Here (use code LXFANDF30 for a 30% discount):
https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781793632340/Forests-as-Fuel-Energy-Landscape-Climate-and-Race-in-the-US-South