-This book deserves attention. . . . Gold has produced an explicitly sociological study of the energy boomtown phenomenon. The book is steeped in the sociological tradition of community studies, and it offers in return an important contribution to that tradition.-
--William R. Freudenburg, Contemporary Sociology
-Gold's ethnographic analysis of community social stresses created by coal development produces a poignant criticism of the cost/benefit emphasis in conventional strategies for social impact assessment.-
--Lewis F. Carter, Social Forces
-Gold brings sociology into the environmental impact assessment process in a way that will capture the interest of scholars, public officials, and the corporate world of natural resource development. His style is forthright and engaging, and his qualitative ethnographic approach gives the reader a view of the human social consequences of technological innovation that is uncluttered by the maze of technical considerations all too often dominant in the environmental impact assessment process. Gold set out to identify theoretically and practically important facets of social change occurring in small towns with large-scale energy production systems in progress, and he has done so in a sophisticated and telling way.-
--Craig R. Humphrey, Science
"This book deserves attention. . . . Gold has produced an explicitly sociological study of the energy boomtown phenomenon. The book is steeped in the sociological tradition of community studies, and it offers in return an important contribution to that tradition."
--William R. Freudenburg, Contemporary Sociology
"Gold's ethnographic analysis of community social stresses created by coal development produces a poignant criticism of the cost/benefit emphasis in conventional strategies for social impact assessment."
--Lewis F. Carter, Social Forces
"Gold brings sociology into the environmental impact assessment process in a way that will capture the interest of scholars, public officials, and the corporate world of natural resource development. His style is forthright and engaging, and his qualitative ethnographic approach gives the reader a view of the human social consequences of technological innovation that is uncluttered by the maze of technical considerations all too often dominant in the environmental impact assessment process. Gold set out to identify theoretically and practically important facets of social change occurring in small towns with large-scale energy production systems in progress, and he has done so in a sophisticated and telling way."
--Craig R. Humphrey, Science
"This book deserves attention. . . . Gold has produced an explicitly sociological study of the energy boomtown phenomenon. The book is steeped in the sociological tradition of community studies, and it offers in return an important contribution to that tradition."
--William R. Freudenburg, Contemporary Sociology
"Gold's ethnographic analysis of community social stresses created by coal development produces a poignant criticism of the cost/benefit emphasis in conventional strategies for social impact assessment."
--Lewis F. Carter, Social Forces
"Gold brings sociology into the environmental impact assessment process in a way that will capture the interest of scholars, public officials, and the corporate world of natural resource development. His style is forthright and engaging, and his qualitative ethnographic approach gives the reader a view of the human social consequences of technological innovation that is uncluttered by the maze of technical considerations all too often dominant in the environmental impact assessment process. Gold set out to identify theoretically and practically important facets of social change occurring in small towns with large-scale energy production systems in progress, and he has done so in a sophisticated and telling way."
--Craig R. Humphrey, Science