Community Mobilization for Environmental Problems: How a Grassro ...

Chapter 1

Welcome to Hickory Woods

While telling the history of Hickory Woods, I endeavor to situate myself in the history itself and explain my perspective. History that is captured in written form is inevitably selective history. Writing the history of a community, or even that of a single issue or event, is a complicated process because it is nearly impossible to recreate the full story of any specific time or event. I do not propose to write a comprehensive history of Hickory Woods. Instead, I provide a slice of community history guided by my involvement with that community. I focus on the history of contamination in Hickory Woods and purposely do not include the health and medical histories of the residents. Rather, this study’s emphasis is on the social construction of the contamination history, drawing attention to the time line of events and to how framing processes unfolded in Hickory Woods.

The history of a community is perceived differently by different groups. I encountered this phenomenon early in my interviews; constructions of community history varied greatly among residents. Historical methodologists often encounter this problem when attempting to represent a historical time or place (Babbie, 1999). The content validity of the account may be affected because individuals’