Appalachia Research Project // Connecting Spaces-Connecting Places
My particular research for the spring semester focused on the larger scale and infrastructural issues particular to Clay County so as to get a firm understanding of the regional framework over such a large area. This involved trying to answer some of the basic question of where places are, what was there, and how different remote places interact with each other. This developed into a study of mapping population concentrations, resource distribution, and infrastructural analysis that became a decentralized node network as the regional framework for the county.
Continuing into the spring semester as a thesis research project, I am studying in more detail the individual nodes within this network to develop proposals that could strengthen both the site and local community themselves and better reestablish connections to the greater county area. This includes a central node at the county seat of Manchester, Kentucky, which faces many of the same issues that face contemporary small towns such as shifting populations, aging infrastructure, and a postindustrial economy. A particular proposal would be developed on continuing cooperation with community leaders and would hope both to stitch together a fragmented downtown and provide a for future economic livelihood.
submitted by Phillip Geiman