Twenty-­‐first Century Deindustrialization and Uneven Development in Appalachia

The causes and consequences of deindustrialization in the United States are myriad and have created a dire situation for millions of working class people as blue-­collar jobs have mostly vanished. This reality has been particularly hard in places like Appalachia, where manufacturing and extraction were the largest, and often only, employers for most of the 20th Century. Especially for rural areas with little appeal for new markets, tourism often appears to be one way to attract people to the area to spend money, but it is unclear whether or not this strategy is helpful to local economies. In this study, I use three different levels of data to better understand the effects of uneven development in and across Appalachia and to interrogate the effects of deindustrialization and the rise of leisure and retail in the early 21st Century. First, I analyze county level data to consider differences in industry pay and employment in three Appalachian subregions, at three different county population levels, at three points in time. Next, I analyze individual level data to see if new residents to Appalachia have higher economic and occupational statuses than residents who moved within the region in the same time period while also considering economic differences by subregion. Finally, I analyzed individual survey data from rock climbers at the Red River Gorge to find out whether they spend money during their visits. Overall, I found that subregional differences associated with differences in rural and urban county concentrations within the Appalachian region were starker than the differences between the region as a whole versus the rest of the United States. I suggest that recreational tourism, though fine, is not an economic solution to the problems of Eastern Kentucky, but that rather support for innovative development strategies in those towns that investing in infrastructure may be the only way to help alleviate the long history of uneven development in the region.