Date of Award
5-2022
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Rhetorics, Communication, and Information Design
Committee Chair/Advisor
David Blakesley
Committee Member
Michelle Smith
Committee Member
Ufuk Ersoy
Committee Member
Kyle Jensen
Abstract
This dissertation critiques the systems theory approach to incarceration policy, practice, and research and proposes a rhetorically informed spatial theory approach as an alternative. Offering a non-hierarchical complexity theory as a bridge between systems and space, I then integrate rhetorical listening as a strategy for navigating and operationalizing our proposed spatial theory approach. I then apply our proposed methodology to archival research, focusing on the South Carolina Penitentiary as a case study, and offer two heuretic experiments to explore the range of this methodology for archival research. I also explore potential applications of this rhetorically informed spatial theory approach in terms of civic engagement among incarcerated populations through deliberative democracy theory. Finally, I conclude that this methodology offers an avenue for elaborating the ambiguity in myriad social organizational practices that are conceived in terms of systems, crucial insights into uses of complexity in contemporary rhetorical studies, and a valuable approach for argument analysis and civic engagement in composition classrooms.
Recommended Citation
Hunter, Cody, "Walking Back the System Trope: Reimagining Incarceration and the State Through a Spatial Theory Approach" (2022). All Dissertations. 2994.
https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/all_dissertations/2994
Included in
Criminal Law Commons, Criminal Procedure Commons, Digital Humanities Commons, Film and Media Studies Commons, Law and Economics Commons, Law and Philosophy Commons, Law and Politics Commons, Law and Race Commons, Prison Education and Reentry Commons, Rhetoric and Composition Commons