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.

Share

COinS
 
 

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.