Publication Type: Session Paper
Abstract: Battery technology is well known for providing access to electric current away from the confines of a power grid, making it possible for computers to move through space. At the same time, however, batteries hold data in place over time. Electricity has been a dominant transmission medium ever since the nineteenth century, but not until the coupling of batteries and information technology in the mid-twentieth century did electricity as a medium of transmission become a medium of recording. Take, for example, how batteries in early palm pilots held data in place or how batteries in video game cartridges made it possible for players to save their games. In short, batteries are both time-binding and space-binding media that negotiate between the material and symbolic layers of digital technology. This paper offers an examination of the role of batteries as a recording medium in data processing that reveals how discourses about time and communication inform contemporary notions of computing.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: The unique physical design of Battery Park City, a neighborhood adjacent to the Word Trade Center site, has had a strong influence on the community, residents, and their efforts to recover from the attacks of September 11. The preexisting design of the neighborhood, which subtly excludes nonresidents, has affected residents in three ways. First, an isolating master plan had been influential in the specific sense of community developed before September 11. Afterwards, it created particular opportunities for residents to rebuild their community in its shared public spaces. Finally, competing redevelopment proposals are being considered by residents in light of their ability to maintain the structural isolation of Battery Park City’s physical design. All three of these further underscore the importance of understanding the role of space in social processes.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: A growing literature within political science examines the extent to which the resources contained within personal networks – including the amount of political expertise, the extent of political discussion, the size of the network, and the amount of attitudinal consensus or discord – affect political behavior. A parallel literature in sociology and social psychology examines differences in networks between whites and non-whites. Few studies, however, have bridged the gap between these two literatures by examining racial differences in politically-relevant network resources. This paper examines data from social network batteries on multiple national-level opinion surveys, including the 2004 General Social Survey and the 1992, 1998, and 2000 National Election Studies, to determine whether there are significant differences in network political resources between whites, African-Americans, and Latinos. Further, I examine whether differences persist even when controlling for correlates of network political resources. Finally, I estimate a series of models testing for whether network resources function differently for whites and non-whites as determinants of political behavior.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Research examining police decision making on domestic violence arrests has focused on incident/individual level factors such as offense characteristics, offender/victim characteristics, situational factors, and attitudinal factors. None of the previous studies, however, analyze police arrest practices within the context of aggregated society, whereas societal features have given significant impact on the rational decision making of individual officers. By using incident level domestic battery data from 2000 combined with the county level census data from Illinois, the current study utilizing the hierarchical general linear model analyzes the impact of social contextual factor as well as incident level factors on police decision making on domestic battery arrest.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Battery Park City residents' debates over redevelopment plans for the adjacent World Trade Center site illustrate ways in which the design of physical spaces affects social relations. In two cases, residents took surprising positions (opposing covering a highway with green space, and supporting plans for a tourist bus depot when it was built near their homes, but opposing it if it was further away) that can only be understood by appreciating the social role of concrete elements like neighborhood design and physical barriers.