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realities at Hickory Woods. My story weaves these together with the social processes in an effort to present an intricate analysis of social-movement mobilization at the community level. I have come to realize that it often does not matter what the story is; the way it is told brings results. Current environmental controversies are bound up in this same process. Action on global warming has stalled because of scientific—and in many cases nonscientific—analyses of the issue. Debates about the causes of cancer become mired in the traditional medical rhetoric that most cancer is caused by hereditable traits, not by environmental factors. Failure to recognize that these debates are framed in these ways not based on an analysis of all the information available but according to who has the loudest voice is a failure to fully address the magnitude of modern society’s most pressing environmental concerns.
The story of Hickory Woods is the account of a community left to deal with the consequences of an industrial past—but it also demonstrates how difficult it is to tell that story in a way that makes a difference in the daily lives of those most affected.