Brendan O’Connor
Brendan O'Connor
Hometown: Staunton, VA
Education: BA, Philosophy & Religion, James Madison Univ.; M.Ed., Community Development & Action, Vanderbilt Univ.; Geographic Information Science & Technology, Graduate Certificate (in progress at UNCC)
Advisor: Dr. Andrew Gadaire
Program Track: Community
Research Interests: Sense of community (SOC), social cohesion, loneliness/isolation, and related constructs (eg, individualism, relational and political solidarity, pluralism), and implications for political and economic democracy. Specifically interested in, understanding and developing practices, interventions, and settings that decrease loneliness, isolation, and anomie, and support social cohesion, SOC, and both political and economic democracy in diverse societies. Through a geographic lens, interested in neighborhood-based interventions and settings, utilizing GIS (Geographic Information System) mapping tools and other participatory methods (both qualitative and quantitative). Also interested in neighborhoods as sites for democratic practices, including ones that build SOC and economic democracy.
Related interests involve contributing to research and practice around participatory processes for political and economic democracy, such as models for deliberative democracy, neighborhood cooperatives, and worker ownership and governance in businesses (e.g., in worker-owned cooperatives, unions, or traditional businesses), etc.
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Hobbies: Woodworking; writing & reading poetry for open mics, etc.; Irish history & culture, including playing the guitar & bodhrán, or Irish drum, when i can; hanging around with my dog, Inis; traveling to the less-common places; watching political dramas (h/t Borgen, Madam Secretary, & Rebellion)