This Thesis is an exploration into social change strategies in Appalachia that are alternative to conventional economic development practices and discourses. Drawing from original interviews with social justice activists in central and eastern Kentucky, I document a diversity of subversive discourses circulating in Appalachia, and I delineate models alternative to development that are driving action in several different communities. Through what one of my interviewees described as Appalachian ingenuity,1 individuals are enacting extremely hopeful and imaginative projects, and they are conjuring unique formulations that contribute to academic theories on alternative economies, capitalocentrism, neoliberalism, postmodern economics, anti-development, post-development, and spatial strategies of resistance and liberation.

This dissertation examines the question of how communities understand their risk related to global economic and environmental problems and how communities respond to those risks. Specifically, using comparative case study, this dissertation examines the sustainability efforts of two communities, Oberlin, Ohio and Berea, Kentucky. Both communities have created advanced sustainability efforts over more than a decade of work and both communities have well-developed partnerships with the colleges in their communities. It finds that communities are responding to both global risks related to climate change and energy price volatility, but also are making efforts to resolve more localized social problems and economic challenges. This research also demonstrates that communities are particularly interested in increasing their community resilience related to local energy and food production, but also have concerns with addressing the persistent inequalities that exist in their communities.

Not so mysterious is a poster project exploring transformative alternatives to a growth-oriented economy, and experimenting with applying the idea of free and accessible to the visual process. In this report I present my personal background for the project, the systemic alternatives Doughnut Economics, wellbeing economy and The Transition Movement, and tie these together with local small-scale initiatives in my surroundings. I argue that system change can and is happening locally and I try to demystify change. I do this both through writing and through my visual project work which is also presented in this report.

Since 1970s neoclassical economics has been identified as a major obstacle for reaching sustainability. Despite the world's growing attention to sustainability education, there has been just few attempts to assess the content and the competency building of sustainable development (SD) postgraduate programs. None has been evaluating if and how economics is integrated in such curricula. This study fills this gap in the empirical research by conducting a novel assessment of six leading SD transdisciplinary master programs in Sweden. Our study uses a qualitative approach to inquire how these programs teach students to understand, challenge and reorient dominant neoclassical economics and the reasoning behind it. Results revealed that the absence of an agreed-upon definition of both the economy and sustainability lead to the wide range of approaches on how to introduce the place and the role of the economy. Every program relies on their own understanding, perspectives and resourcefulness, while agreeing that their teaching should challenge neoclassical economics and engage their students in the various scales of system change. Yet, the time allocated to economics teaching does not exceed 8% of the programs ECTS. We argue that economics should take a much bigger place in postgraduate SD education. A proposed “transdisciplinary economics” calls for more collaboration with students, academia and outside of academia in a joint search for economic alternatives.