Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Dividing The Blue Line: The Cultural Work Of Rural Policing In Upstate New York, Michael Branch

Dissertations - ALL

This dissertation focuses on the ways in which residents of Old Forge, New York make use of policing as a resource to structure and reproduce social and symbolic boundaries. Drawing on in-depth interviews with a combination of 40 permanent residents and second-home owners in the area, I explore how policing in this rural amenity-based tourist town is rooted in the economic and social histories of the area and how it structures access to social and moral capital for residents. I focus on how social divisions between permanent residents and second-home owners are observed and experienced by both groups and how …