A vision of ourselves: regional rhetoric's impact upon public policy relating to individuals experiencing homelessness
Date
2018
Authors
Anderson, Garrison Michael, author
Dunn, Thomas, advisor
Prasch, Allison, committee member
Scott, Ryan, committee member
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Abstract
Public policy at all levels, local, state, and national, has a profound, yet seldom, recognized impact upon the lives of citizens unless the policy directly impacts them. In the following thesis, I explore the discourse and debate that a local-level public policy can have upon the construction of space, impact upon already marginalized populations, and the use of regional identity to justify said policy. More specifically, I explore the consideration of a "appropriate-use of public space ordinance" in a mid-sized city, Fort Collins, Colorado. I argue that visions of Fort Collins regional identity are used to justify certain aspects of the ordinance that criminalize individuals experiencing homelessness. In my analysis, I make use of theories of communication and space including critical regionalism, juxtaposition, and spatial trajectories. In application of these theories to understand my text I am performing an analysis of critical rhetoric to reveal potential power struggles at play and the possibility for change.
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Subject
Fort Collins
public policy
spatial trajectories
homelessness
critical regionalism
social justice