| Bradford and Susquehanna Counties are rural communities in northeastern Pennsylvania long dependent on agricultural production, timber extraction and manufacturing. These counties also sit above the Marcellus Shale, a rock formation roughly a mile below the earth’s surface containing vast deposits of natural gas. Drawing on ethnographic work conducted in the summer and fall of 2011, I illustrate herein how residents of Bradford and Susquehanna Counties critically endure the social, economic and environmental changes attributable to recent oil and gas exploration in the region. I have focused on narrative, material culture and landscape as expressive forms of resistance to the many challenges of oil and gas exploration. Expressed ambiguously and non-confrontationally, these verbal and material acts uphold a local social contract, and ensure community- and self-preservation in a time of flux. |
