Building on foundations in modern European thought, my academic interests over the last decade and a half have been concentrated in the areas of critical urban and cultural studies, political theory, and the environmental humanities. After teaching for nine years at University College Dublin, I moved to Portland Oregon in 2010 and have worked continuously at Portland State University since then. Supervisors: Friedrich-Wilhelm von Herrmann (PhD) and John Llewleyn (MA) Address: Portland State University Philosophy Department 724 SW Harrison Neuberger Hall, 393 Portland, OR 97207-0751
This is an early draft of the sixth and final chapter of my book Constructing Community (Lexingto... more This is an early draft of the sixth and final chapter of my book Constructing Community (Lexington 2010). It considers David Harvey's idea of dialectical utopianism as a theoretical frame for a variety of urban practices that claim to exemplify participatory democracy. Orthodox practices of public outreach such as visioning exercises are critiqued as instances of pacification rather than empowerment. Finally, the 'right to the city' notion is used to frame more authentic instances of urban democracy in practice.
This is a draft of the fourth, penultimate chapter of my forthcoming book, Natural Catastrophe: C... more This is a draft of the fourth, penultimate chapter of my forthcoming book, Natural Catastrophe: Climate Change in the Age of Neoliberal Governance. It examines the claims of urban sustainability against the realities of rampant neoliberal gentrification. Theoretically, the work of Lefebvre, Arendt and Marcuse on the nature of work are examined in order to highlight dimensions of social sustainability that remain hidden in the current sustainability paradigm. This chapter also builds on the work of critical geographers such as David Harvey and Neil Smith in order to outline a more truly progressive production of the urban.
Up until 1924 Heidegger planned to publish an extensive work on Aristotle as his first major phil... more Up until 1924 Heidegger planned to publish an extensive work on Aristotle as his first major philosophical investigation. The unfavorable economic conditions in Germany at the time meant that this work never saw the light of day, as planned, in Edmund Husserl's phenomenology journal. Heidegger's eventual publication of Being and Time in 1926/7 betrayed only the slightest trace of the years he had spent intensively studying and teaching Aristotle. Only with the publication of Heidegger's lectures from the early 1920s are we now in a position to reconstruct in detail the pivotal significance of Heidegger's work on Aristotle. Anfang und Ende in der Philosophie offers a systematic appraisal of Heidegger's early interpretation and appropriation of Aristotelian thinking. It thereby sheds important new light on the underlying structure and presuppositions of Being and Time.
The underlying intention of this study is to advocate a particular understanding of community, on... more The underlying intention of this study is to advocate a particular understanding of community, one that centers on collective, grassroots oppositional action. While it draws on certain current theories and practices, the model of community put forward is far from the orthodox position, which favors non-oppositional dialogue between civil society and dominant powers. The argument against this orthodoxy is simple: dominant institutions and agencies will never redress social inequalities and injustice through reasonable dialogue alone. Instead, grassroots organizations need to devise effective forms of non-violent direct action that are initially local but capable of broader application. Constructing Community is a provocative and original analysis of the question of urban politics in contemporary liberal democracies. It offers a strong case for reconsidering current debates on democratic politics in light of the connection between political power and the control of public space and the built environment.
In five thematic chapters this book examines the relevance of Benjamin's thought to modern and co... more In five thematic chapters this book examines the relevance of Benjamin's thought to modern and contemporary architecture. Not only does Benjamin write about the modern city, his attempt to develop a new mode of theory inspired by the avant-garde method of montage is a direct response to what he considered a new metropolitan quality of experience. Across the chapters the intimate interconnections between Benjamin's theory and his sense of political engagement is highlighted.
A detailed examination of the role imagination plays in the phenomenology of Husserl and Heidegge... more A detailed examination of the role imagination plays in the phenomenology of Husserl and Heidegger. The first part focuses on Husserl's notion of intentionality and how his concept of imagination and theory of knowledge more generally is profoundly determined by its neo-Kantian intellectual context. In the second part Heidegger's early interpretation of Kant takes centre stage. A final chapter charts the apparent disappearance of imagination as Heidegger's political appreciation of art develops in the mid 1930s.
International Journal of Philosophical Studies, 2009
A critical notice of Beatrice Hanssen (ed.) Walter Benjamin and The Arcades Project. Walter Benja... more A critical notice of Beatrice Hanssen (ed.) Walter Benjamin and The Arcades Project. Walter Benjamin Studies Series, Continuum, 2006. ISBN 0826463 878, ÂŁ22.99, paperback. In his novel Au Bonheur de...
The underlying intention of this study is to advocate a particular understanding of community, on... more The underlying intention of this study is to advocate a particular understanding of community, one that centers on collective, grassroots oppositional action. While it draws on certain current theories and practices, the model of community put forward is far from the orthodox position, which favors non-oppositional dialogue between civil society and dominant powers. The argument against this orthodoxy is simple: dominant institutions and agencies will never redress social inequalities and injustice through reasonable dialogue alone. Instead, grassroots organizations need to devise effective forms of non-violent direct action that are initially local but capable of broader application. Constructing Community is a provocative and original analysis of the question of urban politics in contemporary liberal democracies. It offers a strong case for reconsidering current debates on democratic politics in light of the connection between political power and the control of public space and the built environment.
Introduction 1. Metropolitanism and Method 2. Radicalism and Revolution 3. Modernism and Memory 4... more Introduction 1. Metropolitanism and Method 2. Radicalism and Revolution 3. Modernism and Memory 4. Utopianism and Utility 5. Participation and Politics 6. Benjamin's Memorial
Journal of the British Society for Phenomenology, 2000
Soulignant le processus hermeneutique d'appropriation de l'histoire de la philosophie che... more Soulignant le processus hermeneutique d'appropriation de l'histoire de la philosophie chez Heidegger, l'A. etudie la confrontation du penseur de Marbourg a l'ontologie d'Aristote consideree comme l'essence archeologique de la philosophie grecque. Mesurant la reception de la notion de phronesis comme dimension pratique du Dasein, l'A. montre que Heidegger developpe une approche theologico-technique de la metaphysique a partir de l'ethique artistotelicienne.
Phenomenology and Imagination in Husserl and Heidegger Of all movements and schools of thought in... more Phenomenology and Imagination in Husserl and Heidegger Of all movements and schools of thought in twentieth-century European philosophy, it is undoubtedly phenomenology that has proved the most pervasive and influential. Following its founding by Edmund Husserl at ...
This paper examines the recent history of urban planning policy in and around Portland, Oregon wi... more This paper examines the recent history of urban planning policy in and around Portland, Oregon with respect to efforts to enhance local agriculture. Despite recent and ongoing efforts to promote distribution and direct sale of local food products in the city, I argue that the dominant effect of the Urban Growth Boundary (UGB) in place since the 1970s has been to push agricultural production further from the most populous areas of the city. Whereas the UGB at present cannot include areas zoned specifically for agricultural use, I argue that it must reformed to allow for agricultural reserves within the boundary. While there are challenges to having residential, industrial, and residential areas in close proximity, it is essential to meet these challenges if urban agriculture is to be anything more that transitory experiments destined for future residential construction
... Page 11. Notes The author wishes to acknowledge the support of the Irish Research Council for... more ... Page 11. Notes The author wishes to acknowledge the support of the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences. ... 175–6. 20. Giorgio Agamben, The Coming Community (Minneapolis: Minnesota University Press, 1993), p. 43; hereafter cited as CC. ...
This is an early draft of the sixth and final chapter of my book Constructing Community (Lexingto... more This is an early draft of the sixth and final chapter of my book Constructing Community (Lexington 2010). It considers David Harvey's idea of dialectical utopianism as a theoretical frame for a variety of urban practices that claim to exemplify participatory democracy. Orthodox practices of public outreach such as visioning exercises are critiqued as instances of pacification rather than empowerment. Finally, the 'right to the city' notion is used to frame more authentic instances of urban democracy in practice.
This is a draft of the fourth, penultimate chapter of my forthcoming book, Natural Catastrophe: C... more This is a draft of the fourth, penultimate chapter of my forthcoming book, Natural Catastrophe: Climate Change in the Age of Neoliberal Governance. It examines the claims of urban sustainability against the realities of rampant neoliberal gentrification. Theoretically, the work of Lefebvre, Arendt and Marcuse on the nature of work are examined in order to highlight dimensions of social sustainability that remain hidden in the current sustainability paradigm. This chapter also builds on the work of critical geographers such as David Harvey and Neil Smith in order to outline a more truly progressive production of the urban.
Up until 1924 Heidegger planned to publish an extensive work on Aristotle as his first major phil... more Up until 1924 Heidegger planned to publish an extensive work on Aristotle as his first major philosophical investigation. The unfavorable economic conditions in Germany at the time meant that this work never saw the light of day, as planned, in Edmund Husserl's phenomenology journal. Heidegger's eventual publication of Being and Time in 1926/7 betrayed only the slightest trace of the years he had spent intensively studying and teaching Aristotle. Only with the publication of Heidegger's lectures from the early 1920s are we now in a position to reconstruct in detail the pivotal significance of Heidegger's work on Aristotle. Anfang und Ende in der Philosophie offers a systematic appraisal of Heidegger's early interpretation and appropriation of Aristotelian thinking. It thereby sheds important new light on the underlying structure and presuppositions of Being and Time.
The underlying intention of this study is to advocate a particular understanding of community, on... more The underlying intention of this study is to advocate a particular understanding of community, one that centers on collective, grassroots oppositional action. While it draws on certain current theories and practices, the model of community put forward is far from the orthodox position, which favors non-oppositional dialogue between civil society and dominant powers. The argument against this orthodoxy is simple: dominant institutions and agencies will never redress social inequalities and injustice through reasonable dialogue alone. Instead, grassroots organizations need to devise effective forms of non-violent direct action that are initially local but capable of broader application. Constructing Community is a provocative and original analysis of the question of urban politics in contemporary liberal democracies. It offers a strong case for reconsidering current debates on democratic politics in light of the connection between political power and the control of public space and the built environment.
In five thematic chapters this book examines the relevance of Benjamin's thought to modern and co... more In five thematic chapters this book examines the relevance of Benjamin's thought to modern and contemporary architecture. Not only does Benjamin write about the modern city, his attempt to develop a new mode of theory inspired by the avant-garde method of montage is a direct response to what he considered a new metropolitan quality of experience. Across the chapters the intimate interconnections between Benjamin's theory and his sense of political engagement is highlighted.
A detailed examination of the role imagination plays in the phenomenology of Husserl and Heidegge... more A detailed examination of the role imagination plays in the phenomenology of Husserl and Heidegger. The first part focuses on Husserl's notion of intentionality and how his concept of imagination and theory of knowledge more generally is profoundly determined by its neo-Kantian intellectual context. In the second part Heidegger's early interpretation of Kant takes centre stage. A final chapter charts the apparent disappearance of imagination as Heidegger's political appreciation of art develops in the mid 1930s.
International Journal of Philosophical Studies, 2009
A critical notice of Beatrice Hanssen (ed.) Walter Benjamin and The Arcades Project. Walter Benja... more A critical notice of Beatrice Hanssen (ed.) Walter Benjamin and The Arcades Project. Walter Benjamin Studies Series, Continuum, 2006. ISBN 0826463 878, ÂŁ22.99, paperback. In his novel Au Bonheur de...
The underlying intention of this study is to advocate a particular understanding of community, on... more The underlying intention of this study is to advocate a particular understanding of community, one that centers on collective, grassroots oppositional action. While it draws on certain current theories and practices, the model of community put forward is far from the orthodox position, which favors non-oppositional dialogue between civil society and dominant powers. The argument against this orthodoxy is simple: dominant institutions and agencies will never redress social inequalities and injustice through reasonable dialogue alone. Instead, grassroots organizations need to devise effective forms of non-violent direct action that are initially local but capable of broader application. Constructing Community is a provocative and original analysis of the question of urban politics in contemporary liberal democracies. It offers a strong case for reconsidering current debates on democratic politics in light of the connection between political power and the control of public space and the built environment.
Introduction 1. Metropolitanism and Method 2. Radicalism and Revolution 3. Modernism and Memory 4... more Introduction 1. Metropolitanism and Method 2. Radicalism and Revolution 3. Modernism and Memory 4. Utopianism and Utility 5. Participation and Politics 6. Benjamin's Memorial
Journal of the British Society for Phenomenology, 2000
Soulignant le processus hermeneutique d'appropriation de l'histoire de la philosophie che... more Soulignant le processus hermeneutique d'appropriation de l'histoire de la philosophie chez Heidegger, l'A. etudie la confrontation du penseur de Marbourg a l'ontologie d'Aristote consideree comme l'essence archeologique de la philosophie grecque. Mesurant la reception de la notion de phronesis comme dimension pratique du Dasein, l'A. montre que Heidegger developpe une approche theologico-technique de la metaphysique a partir de l'ethique artistotelicienne.
Phenomenology and Imagination in Husserl and Heidegger Of all movements and schools of thought in... more Phenomenology and Imagination in Husserl and Heidegger Of all movements and schools of thought in twentieth-century European philosophy, it is undoubtedly phenomenology that has proved the most pervasive and influential. Following its founding by Edmund Husserl at ...
This paper examines the recent history of urban planning policy in and around Portland, Oregon wi... more This paper examines the recent history of urban planning policy in and around Portland, Oregon with respect to efforts to enhance local agriculture. Despite recent and ongoing efforts to promote distribution and direct sale of local food products in the city, I argue that the dominant effect of the Urban Growth Boundary (UGB) in place since the 1970s has been to push agricultural production further from the most populous areas of the city. Whereas the UGB at present cannot include areas zoned specifically for agricultural use, I argue that it must reformed to allow for agricultural reserves within the boundary. While there are challenges to having residential, industrial, and residential areas in close proximity, it is essential to meet these challenges if urban agriculture is to be anything more that transitory experiments destined for future residential construction
... Page 11. Notes The author wishes to acknowledge the support of the Irish Research Council for... more ... Page 11. Notes The author wishes to acknowledge the support of the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences. ... 175–6. 20. Giorgio Agamben, The Coming Community (Minneapolis: Minnesota University Press, 1993), p. 43; hereafter cited as CC. ...
This is an unpublished draft of the fifth and final chapter of a book to be published by Edinburg... more This is an unpublished draft of the fifth and final chapter of a book to be published by Edinburgh University Press in 2016. In the book I argue that progressive environmentalism should avoid presenting climate change as an imminent natural catastrophe. Instead, climate change should be seen as a key "contradiction" produced by neoliberal capitalism. Accordingly, the generations-long work of undoing neoliberal governance constitutes an adequate response, rather than the wishful thinking that a sudden convergence of climate activism is likely to meet the complex social and political challenges entailed in global climate change.
The European Union's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) has been under sustained attack for several... more The European Union's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) has been under sustained attack for several decades as an outmoded protectionist mechanism. Against those who advocate for agricultural global free trade, I argue that the maintenance of the CAP can be largely justified on the grounds of environmental and social sustainability. Given the reluctance of nation states to stand up to global big business on sustainability issues, the CAP should be retained as an important source of guaranteed funding for maintaining rural vitality and the viability of perennial agricultural landscapes. Agricultural subsidization used by the global North to undermine the farming systems and resilience of developing nations is in no way justified, however. It is essential to separate this use of "food as a weapon" from policies that genuinely promote agricultural sustainability.
This paper examines the recent history of urban planning policy in and around Portland, Oregon wi... more This paper examines the recent history of urban planning policy in and around Portland, Oregon with respect to efforts to enhance local agriculture. Despite recent and ongoing efforts to promote distribution and direct sale of local food products in the city, I argue that the dominant effect of the Urban Growth Boundary (UGB) in place since the 1970s has been to push agricultural production further from the most populous areas of the city. Whereas the UGB at present cannot include areas zoned specifically for agricultural use, I argue that it must reformed to allow for "agricultural reserves" within the boundary. While there are challenges to having residential, industrial, and residential areas in close proximity, it is essential to meet these challenges if urban agriculture is to be anything more that transitory experiments destined for future residential construction.
Since the idea of charter schools took hold in the 1990s, the school reform movement in the Unite... more Since the idea of charter schools took hold in the 1990s, the school reform movement in the United States has expanded rapidly. Ideologically defending itself in the name of school choice and accountability, in reality the movement focuses on dismantling school boards in favor of direct mayoral control and allowing private companies to supply school services. Recently a spate of documentary films - most notably Waiting for Superman - have carried the ideological message to greater swathes of the American public. This paper argues that the US school reform movement is radically regressive, led by an economic elite, and essentially at odds with the democratic civic and political role of a public school system.
Following the seminal work Learning from Las Vegas by Venturi, Scott-Brown and Izenour published ... more Following the seminal work Learning from Las Vegas by Venturi, Scott-Brown and Izenour published in 1972, in the 1980s Postmodern Urbanism came to prominence as the preferred corporate style of architect in the 1980s. How did the rhetorical populism of the 1972 manifesto transform into the projection of corporate and bureaucratic power within a decade? This paper examines the underlying social and political ideology of postmodern architecture and urbanism and asks whether there is anything genuinely progressive that can be salvaged from this paradigm.
Andre Breton's official announcement of surrealism in his 1924 Manifesto put what he called 'psyc... more Andre Breton's official announcement of surrealism in his 1924 Manifesto put what he called 'psychic automatism' at the heart of his anti-aesthetic. Automatism was a method that sought to bring the aesthetic-creative process into line with a machine-like working of the unconscious. While surrealism can be readily viewed as bourgeois escapism, I argue here that its practice contains important clues for understanding a unofficial but intrinsic strand of twentieth-century European modernism. More specifically, as Walter Benjamin recognized, surrealism was able to highlight the phenomenon of material obsolescence that stands at the heart of advanced commodity culture. I argue here that surrealism's legacy should be recognized primarily as having paved the way towards an alternative appreciation of the urban environment to the paradigm that become hegemonic architectural modernism in the mid twentieth-century. In this way, one may speak of a surrealist counter-urbanism that was later developed in the theory and practice of Henri Lefebvre and the Situationist International.
In this presentation I examine the ongoing sub-prime mortgage crisis in the US as the latest symp... more In this presentation I examine the ongoing sub-prime mortgage crisis in the US as the latest symptom in the neoliberal reconfiguration of urban space. In the first part I offer a brief overview of the devastating effects this development has had on the less economically privileged sectors of American society. In a second part I take up the idea of a "Right to the City," first formulated by Henri Lefebvre in the 1960s and recently revived by the critical urban sociologist David Harvey. I argue that the housing crisis can only really be addressed by grassroots efforts to appropriate the functions of urban development so jealously guarded by business and municipal government.
Latest iteration of a class I have taught at Portland State since 2011. The class is largely take... more Latest iteration of a class I have taught at Portland State since 2011. The class is largely taken by non-philosophy majors as a general education requirement. The thematic focus overall is climate change, with environmental politics and activism dominating discussion in the second half of the ten-week term.
We are living through a period of mature neoliberal governance in which the disorientation of wor... more We are living through a period of mature neoliberal governance in which the disorientation of working-class politics in affluent liberal democracies has reached a critical state. A salient feature of neoliberalism is the devaluation and virtual erasure of the rich heritage of a generations-long struggle waged by the working class to achieve political visibility at the formative stages of industrialized capitalism. This paper is an unpublished draft of the fourth and final chapter of my book, Landscape and Labour: Work, Place and the Working Class in Eliot, Hardy and Lawrence (Rowman & Littlefield). Motivated by the spirit of the British cultural theorists Raymond Williams and Richard Hoggart, the book examines crucial evocations of working-class life in the novels of Eliot, Hardy and Lawrence with a view to renewing contemporary democratic political culture.
The phenomenon of populism is attracting widespread attention in the wake of the Brexit referendu... more The phenomenon of populism is attracting widespread attention in the wake of the Brexit referendum and the election of Donald Trump in 2016. While the general assessment, both in academic and in media accounts, claims that populism is a distortion or subversion of democracy, I question this assertion. The spirit of dissent witnessed across contemporary liberal democracies should instead be seen as the result of the long-term political and social effects of neoliberalism and its inherently anti-democratic tendencies
Walter Benjamin exhaustively studied the Paris arcades in order to uncover the primordial history... more Walter Benjamin exhaustively studied the Paris arcades in order to uncover the primordial history of commodity capitalism. In late Ottoman Istanbul there was a flurry of arcade construction in the last few decades of the nineteenth century in an effort to give a distinctive western architectural feel to the Pera district of the city. This paper, derived from an extended spent in the city between 2001 and 2005, attempts to apply Benjamin's analysis of the social function of the arcades to the modern history of Istanbul. This remains an unpublished manuscript, though the author does intend to edit it for publication in the near future.
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