Power and Just Transitions

Struggles for a Post-Coal Future in an Appalachian Valley
Author: John Gaventa and Gabe Schwartzman
Struggles over power and justice in the Clear Fork Valley
Cloth – $110
978-0-252-046933
Paper – $19.95
978-0-252-089060
Publication Date
Paperback: 01/06/2026
Cloth: 01/06/2026
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About the Book

Struggles over power and justice in the Clear Fork Valley

Published in 1982, John Gaventa’s award-winning Power and Powerlessness examined the dominance of the absentee coal industry in Central Appalachia. Gaventa and Gabe Schwartzman update the story through coal’s decline and into the present while focusing on how power relations and community mobilizing have changed and evolved during this era of transition. Their analysis tracks the impact on a place where a fossil fuel–based economy shaped political and social structures for over a century. As they show, new forms of power emerged while old ones remained, and both affected the popular struggle for a future that’s both just and more inclusive.

Original and timely, Power and Just Transitions merges historical perspective with interviews and engagement to look at how coal’s decline impacted power and resistance in an Appalachian community.

About the Author

John Gaventa is a proffesor and reasearch fellow at the Institute of Develpoment Studies at the University of Sussex. He is the author of Power and Powerless: Quiescence and Rebellion in an Appalachian Valley.

Gabe Schwartzman is an assistant professor of geography and sustainability at the University of Tennesee and has been deeply engaged in community mobilization efforts in the Clear Fork Valley.

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Power and Powerlessness cover