This article describes a place and people undergoing rapid transition using some of the preliminary findings from two years of ongoing ethnographic field work. Through exploring what ethnographic evidence is revealing concerning the impacts of Marcellus shale gas development in Bradford County, in Northeastern Pennsylvania, I illustrate the ways that rapid social and economic change processes are impacting daily lives and community dynamics in one traditionally agricultural and rural place. I provide a broad overview of the social history and current social dynamics in order to understand the significance of the short-term changes agricultural landowners and other local residents have witnessed and experienced. I discuss some of the most significant short-term changes in quality of life as seen by a small group of agricultural landowners, in relation to the cultural significance of place, home, and family, and what this tells us about the sociocultural and psychological impacts of rapid energy development. Finally, I comment on what my ethnographic data show so far with regard to the short-and long-term individual and collective impacts being experienced in this one community. [shale gas development, social impacts, collective trauma] bs_bs_banner Culture, Agriculture, Food and Environment Vol. 34, Issue 1 pp. 81-92, ISSN 2153-9553, eISSN 2153-9561.

The ethnographer's toolbox has within it a variety of methods for describing and analyzing the everyday lives of human beings that can be useful to public health practitioners and policymakers. These methods can be employed to uncover information on some of the harder-to-monitor psychological, sociocultural, and environmental factors that may lead to chronic stress in individuals and communities. In addition, because most ethnographic research studies involve deep and long-term engagement with local communities, the information collected by ethnographic researchers can be useful in tracking long- and short-term changes in overall well-being and health. Set within an environmental justice framework, this article uses examples from ongoing ethnographic fieldwork in the Marcellus Shale gas fields of Pennsylvania to describe and justify using an ethnographic approach to monitor the psychological and sociocultural determinants of community health as they relate to unconventional oil and gas development projects in the United States.

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This article proposes a framework for addressing societal costs-psychological, social, community, and human health risks and uncertainties-associated with natural gas extraction and production from tight shale, tight sand, or coalbed methane formations that use hydraulic fracturing processes. The US Environmental Protection Agency's 2011-14 study of hydraulic fracturing and the risks posed to drinkingwater resources is used as a case study of how such a framework could be applied. This report also discusses some of the current regulatory and institutional barriers that make incorporation of societal costs into science-based and proactive decisions regarding unconventional oil and gas exploration and production in the United States more difficult and recommends some general steps for getting past those barriers. Environmental Practice 14: 352-365 (2012)

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