Feeling the Squeeze: A Political Ecology of Development, Race, and Inequality On the South Carolina Coastal Landscape

<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>

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Campus Access Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Geography

Year

2010

Author dc:creator

• Finewood, Michael H.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Edward R. Carr

• Geography
• Social and Behavioral Sciences
• Coastal Development
• Critical Human Geography
• Economic Geography
• Environmental Justice
• Political Ecology
• Race

Statement dc:rights

• © 2010, Michael H. Finewood

Repository record dc:identifier

https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd/1281

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholarcommons.sc.edu:etd-2282