This dissertation seeks to illuminate the political dimensions of environmental change in Bluffton, South Carolina. In particular, I focus on regional debates, the ways discourses of environmental health and private property rights serve to legitimize these debates, and the uneven material outcomes that manifest from them. Thus I argue that politicians, planners, developers, and other active stakeholders utilize ideas from environmental health science and market environmentalism to facilitate a particular type of development-driven future in Bluffton. While these discourses often project a vision of coastal development that creates a healthy environment while boosting local economies, framing environmental change this way also obscures a set of class-based and race-based inequalities that are codified on the landscape as the outcome of regulations and land use changes. As these visions are put into material practice, the outcomes they advance tend to `squeeze' out existing residents and render alternative futures impossible.
","abstract_html":"<p>This dissertation seeks to illuminate the political dimensions of environmental change in Bluffton, South Carolina. In particular, I focus on regional debates, the ways discourses of environmental health and private property rights serve to legitimize these debates, and the uneven material outcomes that manifest from them. Thus I argue that politicians, planners, developers, and other active stakeholders utilize ideas from environmental health science and market environmentalism to facilitate a particular type of development-driven future in Bluffton. While these discourses often project a vision of coastal development that creates a healthy environment while boosting local economies, framing environmental change this way also obscures a set of class-based and race-based inequalities that are codified on the landscape as the outcome of regulations and land use changes. As these visions are put into material practice, the outcomes they advance tend to `squeeze' out existing residents and render alternative futures impossible.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Finewood, Michael H."],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Ph.D.","degree_level":"Campus Access Dissertation","degree_discipline":"Geography","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Edward R. Carr"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2010,"date_issued":"2010-01-01T08:00:00Z","date_published":"2010-01-01T08:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T04:36:50Z","subjects":["Geography","Social and Behavioral Sciences","Coastal Development","Critical Human Geography","Economic Geography","Environmental Justice","Political Ecology","Race"],"languages":[],"rights":["© 2010, Michael H. Finewood"],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd/1281","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Edward R. Carr"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Finewood, Michael H."]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Geography"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Campus Access Dissertation"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Ph.D."]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Geography","Social and Behavioral Sciences","Coastal Development","Critical Human Geography","Economic Geography","Environmental Justice","Political Ecology","Race"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["© 2010, Michael H. Finewood"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd/1281"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["This dissertation seeks to illuminate the political dimensions of environmental change in Bluffton, South Carolina. In particular, I focus on regional debates, the ways discourses of environmental health and private property rights serve to legitimize these debates, and the uneven material outcomes that manifest from them. Thus I argue that politicians, planners, developers, and other active stakeholders utilize ideas from environmental health science and market environmentalism to facilitate a particular type of development-driven future in Bluffton. While these discourses often project a vision of coastal development that creates a healthy environment while boosting local economies, framing environmental change this way also obscures a set of class-based and race-based inequalities that are codified on the landscape as the outcome of regulations and land use changes. As these visions are put into material practice, the outcomes they advance tend to `squeeze' out existing residents and render alternative futures impossible.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Feeling the Squeeze: A Political Ecology of Development, Race, and Inequality On the South Carolina Coastal Landscape"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Edward R. Carr"],"dc:creator":["Finewood, Michael H."],"dc:description.abstract":["This dissertation seeks to illuminate the political dimensions of environmental change in Bluffton, South Carolina. In particular, I focus on regional debates, the ways discourses of environmental health and private property rights serve to legitimize these debates, and the uneven material outcomes that manifest from them. Thus I argue that politicians, planners, developers, and other active stakeholders utilize ideas from environmental health science and market environmentalism to facilitate a particular type of development-driven future in Bluffton. While these discourses often project a vision of coastal development that creates a healthy environment while boosting local economies, framing environmental change this way also obscures a set of class-based and race-based inequalities that are codified on the landscape as the outcome of regulations and land use changes. As these visions are put into material practice, the outcomes they advance tend to `squeeze' out existing residents and render alternative futures impossible.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd/1281"],"dc:rights":["© 2010, Michael H. Finewood"],"dc:subject":["Geography","Social and Behavioral Sciences","Coastal Development","Critical Human Geography","Economic Geography","Environmental Justice","Political Ecology","Race"],"dc:title":["Feeling the Squeeze: A Political Ecology of Development, Race, and Inequality On the South Carolina Coastal Landscape"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Geography"],"thesis:degree_level":["Campus Access Dissertation"],"thesis:degree_name":["Ph.D."]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T04:36:50Z"}