This is not a coaltown: what makes a coal community a ‘coal community’?

Abstract Coal has long history in Ohio and across the Appalachian region (Crowell 1995 History of Coal-Mining Industry in Ohio State of Ohio, Department of Natural Resources, Division of Geological survey ). The industry has had a major impact on the communities in various ways from underground mining, surface mining, and coal- fired electricity generation (Keenan and Robert 2010 An Ecopolitical System of Global Significance” in “Always A River: The Ohio River and the American Experience ; Lobao et al 2016 Rural Sociol. 81 343–86). As the U.S. moves away from coal, the mines and coal-fired power plants close, creating significant economic hardships for the communities that relied on the coal industry (Blaacker et al 2012 Organ. Environ. 25 385–401; Grubert 2012 Energy Policy 44 174–84; Grubert 2020 Science 370 1171–3; Haggerty et al 2018 Resour. Policy 57 69–80). Yet even after the industry has left, the residents of many towns still felt connected to coal and still consider themselves a ‘coal community’. Local history and industry messaging help re- enforce this idea, but those factors are part of a larger phenomenon around the growing and shifting image of coal (Bell and York 2010 Rural Sociol. 75 111–43; Lewin 2019 Soc. Probl. 66 51–68). This article examines how the image of coal has grown over time to be associated with many different values that coal community members identify with and want to attach to themselves. From hardworking coal miners, to town-defining power plant smokestacks, to hunting and fishing on reclaimed coal lands. The image of coal has come to represent a myriad of things that still represent these coal communities allowing them to interact with the image of coal long after the industry and tangible impact of coal has left. In analyzing interview data with fifty coal employees, local leaders and town residents from across four coal communities across southeast Ohio and northern West Virginia at varying stages of coal transition, this article uses concepts from postmodern social theory to illustrate the nature of how the meanings and identity of coal towns persist even after there is no longer coal. The findings advance our understanding of how coal-dependent communities continue to grapple with the societal transition away from coal energy and provide context for addressing the coal transition beyond economic factors.