Corporate versus Community Power: A Santa Barbara Story

Authors

  • Richard Flacks University of California Santa Barbara

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5195/jwsr.2019.904

Keywords:

Oil corporations, Community power, Environmental movement

Abstract

Fifty years ago, a massive oil well blowout and subsequent oil spill triggered community resistance to oil company operations in Santa Barbara county and its surrounding waters. The county has had surprising success in regulating and reducing oil development. That success is due to the combined effectds of grassroots mobilization, longterm organization, and the availability of state agencies and laws that legitimize community  participation in corporarte development approvals. Despite Santa Barbara's relative affluence, its ongoing battle with the oil industry may be useful for formulating a theory of community empowerment globally.

Author Biography

Richard Flacks, University of California Santa Barbara

Research Professor, Department of sociology

References

Eve Bach; Thomas Brom; Julia Estrella; Lenny Goldberg and Edward Kirschner. 1976. The Cities’ Wealth: Programs for Community Economic Control in Berkeley, California. Washington: National Conference on Alternative State and Local Public Policies

Jeremy Brecher & Tim Costello. 1999. Global Village or Global Pillage: Economic Reconstruction from the Bottom Up. Boston: South End Press.

Martin Carnoy & Derek Shearer. 1980. Economic Democracy. New York: Routledge

Mark McGinnes. 2018. In Love With Earth. Santa Barbara Communty Environmental Council.

Paul Relis. 2015. Out of the Wasteland. Santa Barbara Community Environmental Council.

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Published

2019-03-25

How to Cite

Flacks, R. (2019). Corporate versus Community Power: A Santa Barbara Story. Journal of World-Systems Research, 25(1), 35–41. https://doi.org/10.5195/jwsr.2019.904

Issue

Vol. 25 No. 1 (2019): Volume 25, Issue 1: Winter/Spring 2019

Section

Symposium: Corporate Power and Local Democracy

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