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Acting out Citizenship in Global and Local Contexts Whitney Nicole Hardin Wayne State University

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Acting out Citizenship in Global and Local Contexts Whitney Nicole Hardin Wayne State University Wayne State University Wayne State University Dissertations 1-1-2014 Acting Out Citizenship In Global And Local Contexts Whitney Nicole Hardin Wayne State University, Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/oa_dissertations Part of the Rhetoric Commons Recommended Citation Hardin, Whitney Nicole, "Acting Out Citizenship In Global And Local Contexts" (2014). Wayne State University Dissertations. Paper 1049. This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@WayneState. It has been accepted for inclusion in Wayne State University Dissertations by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@WayneState. ACTING OUT CITIZENSHIP IN GLOBAL AND LOCAL CONTEXTS by WHITNEY N. HARDIN DISSERTATION Submitted to the Graduate School of Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 2014 MAJOR: ENGLISH (Rhetoric & Composition) Approved by: _________________________________________ Advisor Date _________________________________________ _________________________________________ _________________________________________ ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This project would never have been completed if not for the network of supportive and tolerant people around me, some of whom I want to recognize here. Richard Marback, for his thoughtful direction, and for allowing me the space to explore ideas without direction, even when I don't want to. I often arrive at his office in a panic, and never leave it without feeling better. Jeff Pruchnic, Stephen Schneider, and Sarika Chandra, my other committee members, for their patience with this project, and its author. Jeff in particular has always been willing to answer my many, many questions. My fellow graduate students, but especially Conor Shaw-Draves and Michael McGinnis, who adopted me my first semester in Detroit, and still stand by that decision; Adrienne Jankens, who has listened to more than her share of writing woes; and my sister, Ashleigh Hardin, whose scholarship and teaching I am still trying to live up to. Mary Hardin, and Norma and Walter Figg, who never fail to be proud of what I'm doing, even when they don't understand why I'm doing it, and who love their oldest child and granddaughter in spite of her infrequent visits home. Peter Halabu, Nathaniel Bell, and Rich Barkman, for listening to and engaging with my ideas when I need to talk them out, and for putting up with me when I am too busy and distracted to return phone calls or plan outings. Finally, Srs. Sue and Maryfran, the "Seattle" veterans who shared their experiences with me, the amazing people I met with Occupy Detroit, and all the engaged citizens everywhere trying to shape the world we share. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgments ......................................................................................................................... ii List of Figures ..................................................................................................................................v Chapter 1 Citizens and Denizens: Civic Engagement in the Nation-State ...............................1 Modern Citizenship ......................................................................................................................3 Destabilized Borders ....................................................................................................................5 The Institutions of Citizenship .....................................................................................................8 Extra-Institutional Citizenship ...................................................................................................11 Rhetoric and Citizenship ............................................................................................................15 Chapter 2 Rhetorical Ecology in the "Keep Louisville Weird" Movement ...........................20 Why Buy Local? .........................................................................................................................21 Keep Louisville Weird ...............................................................................................................26 From Situation to Ecology .........................................................................................................28 A Sticky Ecology .......................................................................................................................32 Weird Citizens ............................................................................................................................36 Conclusions ................................................................................................................................38 Chapter 3 Co-operative Competition and the "Battle in Seattle" ..........................................41 Overview ....................................................................................................................................43 "5 Days that Shook the World" ..................................................................................................50 Seattle's Legacy ..........................................................................................................................55 "The Whole World is Watching" ...............................................................................................60 Consequences .............................................................................................................................64 Conclusions ................................................................................................................................68 iii Chapter 4 Rhetorical Agency and the "Shoe-Throwers' Index" ............................................73 Mapping the Path of Protest .......................................................................................................75 Contributing Factors ...................................................................................................................78 "The Shoe-Throwers' Index" ......................................................................................................81 Limitations of Prediction ............................................................................................................86 We are all Khaled Said ...............................................................................................................89 Conclusions ................................................................................................................................92 Chapter 5 Toward a Rhetorical Approach to Citizenship .......................................................94 One Person, One Vote ................................................................................................................96 Limitations of Institutional Citizenship ......................................................................................98 "Just Talk" ................................................................................................................................105 So Why Bother? .......................................................................................................................108 Situating this Project .................................................................................................................110 References ...................................................................................................................................113 Abstract .......................................................................................................................................121 Autobiographical Statement ........................................................................................................122 iv LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: "Poor performance" ....................................................................................................... 22 Figure 2: "The shoe-thrower's index" ........................................................................................... 83 v 1 Chapter 1 "Citizens and Denizens: Civic Engagement in the Nation-State" Residents of a community make a point of shopping at locally owned businesses or patronizing restaurants using organically grown food. Chanting students gather outside the university president's office, demanding a response to their objections about a curriculum change. A small crowd stands on a street corner, holding signs that call for peace and urge motorists to honk in support. Examples like these surround us. Individuals use a variety of means - protest, personal choices, public discourse of all varieties - to share and act on their convictions. Often individuals make these expressions of conviction about what they most immediately experience, because they occupy a particular place. Although they may engage with questions of national or global importance - such as questions of resource use, economic policy, the rights of marginalized groups, the responsibilities of one group of people to another - they engage with these questions from a specific location, and from a particular class, heritage, or ideology They respond to these questions as people who are from a particular place, physically and metaphorically. They want to create change around them, or they want to work with others near them to create change elsewhere. We do not always recognize examples like those above as the acts of concerned citizens, however. Instead,
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