Downriver Detroit - The Working Class, the Environment, and the Bonds of Place

This exploration of an industrial suburb south of Detroit takes seriously the connections to place and the natural world among the working-class people who lived, worked, and played in the region. After a consideration of this type of analysis and demographic and environmental features of this highly industrialized region, each chapter considers a different topic or episode in the on-going efforts of the working-class citizens to create a humane and habitable community. Efforts to combat environmental pollution in this highly industrialized region predate the start of the environmental movement. When working-class people worked to pursue clean water or preserve precious marsh lands along the Detroit River and its tributaries, they worked through sportsmen's organizations, appealed to state agencies, or engaged in grass roots organizing. Local unions objected to the building of an atomic power plant in the regions in the1950s. And, amidst the challenges of deindustrialization, one group of steel workers attempted to buy their own company to secure their families and communities in the region. When faced with economic and environmental challenges, the working-class of Downriver Detroit expressed an enduring connection to their region, a 'bond of place.'