Research & Academics

Current Work:
The Legal Boundaries of Space and Place: The Case of Oil City

“Space is becoming the principal stake of goal-directed actions and struggles.” – Henri LeFebvre

Space and place, once touted only by critical and post or neo Marxist social and urban thinkers, is now fast becoming a legitimate backdrop for research in more distinct areas of sociology. While both concepts represent markedly different speculative locales, they are intrinsically interconnected in urban studies, requiring mutual consideration. Such has been the case in my previous and ongoing considerations of the rapid and sweeping urban development in areas in and around Syracuse, NY. Space and place have already been duly considered as theoretical vessels, especially in my assessments of resistance and confrontation in the arenas of development. To date, little of my consideration has focused on the advancement of law, and how legal activity, legal development and how the more diffuse aspects of legal precedent and historic continuation have impacted the current and past material and social developments of the city. Of course, the impact of advancing narratives laid out by challenges in court was extensively considered in Historic Syracuse (Hanford 2003), however the manner in which law has indelibly impressed an enduring pattern on the social and material spaces of Syracuse has not been more extensively measured. Consequently, this dissertation seeks to draw together the varied and broad articles of research I have previously produced while considering Syracuse, while simultaneously developing a new integrative premise that will seek to develop a foundation for drawing together the spaces of law, and its impact on the spaces of urbanity.

Both the discursive and affective consequences of law in many senses mirror the discursive practice of negotiation in social and material space in cities. Precedent, historic development and implicit understanding of the nature, boundaries and aims of space are reflected in both arenas. Certainly we can more straightforwardly discover and analyze the directives of law, and understand how laws seek to affect, change or control daily life. However, what is largely still misunderstood is the manner in which law has impacted and affected the lived experience – or to use the term most applied to urban studies – place. Law, just like the confluence of symbols, material developments and social conditions that make up locality in urban environments, also create a locality, or lived experience akin to the further individuated lived and affectively experienced concept of place in physical space. What is unique about this endeavor is the conduit this research seeks to extend -- to consider the abstract spaces of law in light of its effect on the abstract spaces of urban development and to reconcile one against the other.

Historic Syracuse: A Postindustrial City's Historical Expression In New Development

Drawing heavily on theoretical work supporting the new urbanism, de-industrialization, urban crisis, and the production of space and place, this ongoing work analyzes Syracuse, NY's modern development in key development zones in terms of the historic symbolism present in modern architecture and land use. This is a multi-method project incorporating content analysis, semiotic analysis, GIS modeling, theoretical synthesis and qualitative field research.

Syracuse and Central New York's Modern Waterside Community Development

Deals with the continuing importance of water in the Central New York region. Traces historically the importance of water via examination of CNY's river network, the Erie Canal, canalside urban development and the trade routes they facilitated. Examines statewide emphasis on canal preservation, and trends in funding and support for gentrification and redevelopment projects spliced to canal preservation.

The Examination of Diversion as a Modern and Unique Concept

This paper examines the concept of juvenile diversion in terms of its evolution, its goals and its current form. I also create an overview of arguments for and against diversion, cite some inherent problems in the concept, and issue a prescription for integrating the juvenile court's goals and diversion projects.

Sovereignty and the Normalized 'New Interventionism:' Ideological Justifications and Evolutions Bolstering the Advancement of Modern Intervention in Transnational Civilian Affairs (Master's Thesis)

Intrinsic to the new interventionism is the propensity to intervene in enduring ways - the desire to build stability and "restore" nations and stabilizing institutions therein. Of the many efforts undertaken, we must include the need, and the growing realization of the need, for stable and effective international civilian police forces. The United Nations, the European Union and individual nations have all begun developing policies, agendas and mechanisms for the employment, development and advancement of civilian police forces in other nations. Unlike the traditional humanitarian enterprises prior to the close of the Cold War, the new agenda includes the continued presence in areas of conflict and unrest. These areas of "humanitarian emergencies" have evoked a barrage of responses by the international community, as International Institutions, NGO's and individual governments intervene to provide "humanitarian support." Policing, peacekeeping and military intervention are key examples of the new humanitarianism, all of which have their genesis in traditional humanitarian and non-military intervention constructs.

Also Presenting at the 2004 New York State Sociological Association Conference, See "Presentations"

International Criminal Justice and the Art of War: U.S. Involvement in "International Policing" and Peacekeeping's Role in Advancing the Western Police Model

The Cold War is a central "event" in the evolution of the modern international policing era. The Cold War, was a conflict of extreme international concern, sparking the alliance of military organizations and the strengthening of an international military model in the shadow of potential nuclear war. The highly visible military buildup and assertion of force and technology created a well-defined show of force and reasserted the war-focussed agenda of a militarized unit. The primary focus of the U.S. military, along with the U.S.S.R. was not one of peacekeeping, nation building or "peace maintenance" but rather one of defense and containment. This report researches the movement to the expansion of the international crime model and how it forms the basis for new forms of world policing generally. The new report, Sovereignty and the Normalized 'New Interventionism' deals with the application of intervention in civilian affairs in conflict zones, but builds upon the same justifications used to create an international crime model normalizing international policing tenets.

Also developed colloquium series where this was presented at the University at Buffalo, See "Presentations"

Habermas and Online Social Space: Considering an Online Public Sphere, Unchecked Optimism, Social Control and the Possibility of Rational-Discursive Communication

Theory work dealing with the formulation of social "space" in a virtual environment. This paper deals heavily with Habermas and other contemporary theorists.