This reply critically analyzes the concept of “solidarity” in Caroline West’s account of the role that a Universal Basic Income (UBI) could play in Central Appalachian re-development. I argue that a robust structural form of “solidarity” would necessarily play an essential role in formulating a political bloc capable of implementing an ambitious project like a UBI. In addition to this implicit role of a structural form of solidarity that can connect various communities and constituencies together into a powerful political bloc, Caroline West also articulates an important role for highly local forms of community and solidarity in this region’s transformation. Given the two distinct ways that “solidarity” functions in her account, I raise questions about how the formal features of a UBI relate to both its local and more structural forms.
Articles by Richard Todd Stafford
Richard Todd Stafford is a PhD candidate in the Cultural Studies program at George Mason University. His dissertation research examines the relationships between the discourses concerning "clean coal" and the material practices and technologies used for risk management and pollution mitigation in the coal industry. In the past year, he's been working on the GMU Cultural Studies Colloquium podcast on "Capitalism, Climate Change, and Culture," conducting interviews with Jason W. Moore, John Cook, Leigh Phillips, Christian Parenti, and doing audio work for interviews with Merlin Chowkwanyun, Toby Miller, Ashley Dawson, and Sheila Watt-Cloutier. He has previously published and presented about the politics of visual culture, especially in artistic and popular cultural engagements with the coal industry of Central Appalachia.