Into the Thick of Things

For a period of 18 months prior to my first interview in Chatham County, I closely examined planning documents, researched and collected newspaper articles, op-ed stories, countywide publications that discussed land use planning in Chatham or Briar Chapel as well as followed the daily listserv messages from the Chatham Chatlist and the relevant posts on the Chatham County Online Bulletin Board. I had informally observed numerous events, talked with people as I observed and participated in as many Chatham based activities. I poured over angry post after angry post in this rather virtual environment and from a so- called objective distance. After several false starts, I finally pushed forward and began contacting people from my long wash list of names about participating in the research project. I quickly arranged a series of 15 interviews with several past and present county commissioners, the Chatham Planning Department, real-estate developers, outspoken citizens who wrote op-ed pieces or people who took part in activist organizations. Things were rolling along, until suddenly the summer doldrums hit and I was unable to schedule interviews or find willing participants. I decided to post my institutionally approved recruitment flyer on the Chatham Chatlist in an attempt to recruit interested research participants. The Chatlist, a listserv that offers people the chance to “experience the world of Chatham, NC”, is sent to members on a daily basis and consists of posts bearing from questions about plumbing or plumbers to ongoing debates about central social issues in the county. Within minutes of posting my recruitment flyer to the Chatlist, numerous interested participants began contacting me. In the two to three weeks following the post, I interviewed 1-2 people a day and while the interviews were meant to last a half hour, none were shorter than an hour. I found myself once again overwhelmed with scheduling interviews,

interviewing, taking notes, and constantly traveling from one end of Chatham County to the other.

Although I followed the Chatlist during this period, I had neglected to read the most recent posts on the Chatham County Online Bulletin Board Service (CCOBBS). Key discussions from the bulletin board are regularly sent over the Chatlist, summarizing the main discussion threads. When things finally tapered off, I once again started sifting through past bulletin board posts. I was delighted when my keyword search for “rural character” showed several posts in a recent thread. I was less excited when I realized that my recruitment flyer was the reason “rural character” suddenly appeared in multiple recent posts. Under a forum entitled “Is There Anything Silly That Annoys You?”7, a regular CCOBBS contributor pasted the contents of my entire flyer. In response to a post where an individual complained about useless land use plans and golf courses, another individual alerted the poster to my research and suggested that he call me and “rant on”.

No other references were made to my research project, but I had an uneasy feeling about the placement of the research information, my positioning vis-à-vis the issues, and the responses I garnered from Chatlist members when I first posted my recruitment flyer. While I considered the response to my Chatlist request in positive terms, my uneasiness led me to reassess all of the e-mail responses I received as a result of the Chatlist. I was aware that the people opposing land development plans such as Briar Chapel and quite vocal, but hadn't quite heard from outspoken residents who were either for the developments were less concerned about the increase in land developments. What struck me for quite some time was that people were actually defining their positions on the issues in paradoxical terms. A large number of people actively affiliated themselves with groups that opposed recent land

development plans and they publicly supported this cause. They expressed concern for the future of Chatham as a community and the socio-economic well-being of the region. Many people, however, appeared more outspoken about their opposition to the people or ideals upheld by those who sought to restrict land development then they were about public planning issues.

The bulletin board and the Chatlist are often filled with rancorous rhetoric and county land use plans are a lightning rod for the hostile online attacks. The bulletin board and Chatlist are central sites of public debate and the often invisible or hidden presence of the contributors allows for a level of open and fearless exchange among members. Most recently under pseudonyms such as “Casper the Friendly Ghost”, “Ms. Piggy”, and “Mr. Green”, residents express their frustration with politics, the economy, land use planning, and everyday life. There is no true moderator, however, the members are active monitors and unwelcome or excessively aggressive posts are met with immediate responses. The Chatlist and CCOBBS founder, who also runs the Chatham Journal a countywide online publication that publicizes community events and chronicles public notices, gathers Chatlist submissions and forwards them to members as a daily journal digest. Rarely does he comment on the quality or content of the messages; rather, he simply passes the unedited messages onto the listserv. Fearful of inserting myself into this environment, my participation was quite passive until I submitted my recruitment flyer.

Despite this one particular incident, my participation and research remained under the radar. Keenly aware of positioning myself, or rather the possibility of mis-aligning myself, allowed me to approach the debates in terms of displaced anxiety. Soon after discovering this particular CCOBBS thread, I was struck by a parallel when discussing the place of invasive

plant species such as kudzu and wisteria in the Southern landscape. Invasive plant species such as kudzu, originally planted by government agencies to control soil erosion, quickly spread when growth was left unrestricted (Kirby 2006: 112). Recognized as harmful, the xenophobic rhetoric about invasive plant species corresponds to the deeply divisive and paradoxical terms used to present opposing stances on land use debates. The need to keep these “newcomer” species out and the fear of being outnumbered and overrun by rampant land developments mirrored the economic and social fears presented by all sides of the debate on public forums and in interviews. This displaced anxiety often contradicts the proposed logic and fosters a divide that distracts and diverts attention away from the larger issues at hand. On one hand, the newcomers attracted to the region because of the natural charm and lower house prices are also the ones who actively debated over the plans for the proposed compact community Briar Chapel. Likewise, the so called good ol’ boys or long time residents who vehemently complain about the influx of “newcomers” are also the ones who support the growth of large land developments that attract more newcomers. The anxiety provoking parallels and the paradoxical presentation made it clear to me that the debate wasn’t just about taking sides. It led me back to my earlier research in the Netherlands and to research questions that underscored the intertwined nature of the meanings, aesthetic values and beliefs, and the emotive attachment to the landscape.