Techno-settler colonialism: Tristan Hughes, ‘The political theory of techno-colonialism’, European Journal of Political Theory, 2024

10May24

Abstract: This paper examines an ideology I call techno-colonialism. I argue that techno-colonialism represents an attempt to selectively reproduce settler colonial practices adjusted to twenty-first century realities. This argument has implications for contemporary settler colonialism, the radical right, and climate change politics. In what follows, I discuss the techno-colonial doctrines of Nick Land, Curtis Yarvin, Peter Thiel, and Patri Friedman. These figures articulate a political theory about exploiting new technologies to escape the state and found new societies. To explore techno-colonial ideology, I focus on Seasteading—the practice of creating floating city-states to colonize the ocean––as an attempted realization of techno-colonial ideals. As I claim, techno-colonialism attempts to humanize the politics of settlement. But I argue that techno-colonialism’s ambitions fail, and techno-colonialism fails to create a harmless politics of settlement. I conclude that we should be attentive to the relations of political and economic power in which such exit projects are embedded. Moreover, this paper also promotes our understanding of climate change and the radical right’s politics. While scholars most naturally associate the radical right with climate change denialism, the techno-colonists illustrate another possibility. They welcome catastrophe, and see rising-sea levels as an opportunity to start society afresh.


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It may even end up undoing it: Ian Lustick, ‘Must Every Golem Die?’ Palestine/Israel Review, 1, 1, 2024, pp. 237-241

10May24

Abstract: Settler-colonial projects often produce states that eventually turn against the purposes of those who created them. We see this in the American and Boer revolts against the British and the sabotage by British settlers in Ireland and French settlers in Algeria of efforts to integrate the native populations of those territories into the British and French states. We see it also in the relationship between the objectives of European states and Zionists to end antisemitism by exporting the Jewish problem to the Middle East and in Israel’s increasingly pariah status on the world stage and the global increase in antisemitism—both accelerated by Israel’s ferocious response to the Hamas and Islamic Jihad attacks in October 2023. In the Jewish tradition this is the story of the golem—the legendary creature conjured by rabbinic skill and divine power to protect the Jews from their enemies in sixteenth-century Prague. At first successful, the golem became increasingly wild and eventually was put to death by the rabbi who created him out of fear for the welfare of the Jewish community itself. But not all golems must die. The key is to recognize they are not tied to their original purposes and can thus be transformed.


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It definitely did: Raef Zreik, ‘Settler Colonialism and Decolonization’, Palestine/Israel Review, 1, 1, 2024, pp. 222-227

10May24

Abstract: This essay makes two arguments. First, it argues that the analytical frame of settler colonialism is very productive in order to understand, describe, and at times even predict certain future trends of the Israeli state and society, while putting aside questions of legitimation or justification. On the other hand, this analytical frame is underdetermined when it comes to offering possible solutions for the future of Palestine-Israel. From the mere fact that Israel is a settler colonial project no particular future normative solution could be deduced logically. Future situations are political, not logical, and as such they are subject to different kinds of considerations including ethical and practical ones. Furthermore, we bear certain responsibility for political decisions that we do not while making logical judgments, and this different must be kept.


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Yes it did: Honaida Ghanim, ‘The Urgency of the Settler Colonialism Framework in Understanding 7 October and the War on Gaza’, Palestine/Israel Review, 1, 1, 2024, pp. 242-248

10May24

Abstract: The new far-right leadership under Benjamin Netanyahu has deployed the strategy of “conflict management,” which has a clear colonial marker to dismantle the Palestinian cause. This strategy involves the Judaization of the space, the alteration of demography, and the division of Palestinians into isolated communities under Israeli dominance. These policies were pursued under the auspices of international and Arab abandonment of Palestinians. Therefore, Palestinian hopelessness has intensified to an indescribable extent, leading to an intractable organic crisis that culminated in an eruption of extreme violence. Recognizing the colonial character of this dynamics is crucial for confronting it.


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Did settler colonialism do it (introducing a special feature of Palestine/Israel Review)? Sonia Boulos, Tamir Sorek, ‘Introduction: A Colonial War’, Palestine/Israel Review, 1, 1, 2024, pp. 219-222

10May24

Excerpt: The settler-colonial paradigm has gained traction in the study of Palestine/Israel in recent years. The current war in Gaza, with the International Court of Justice ruling that a genocide is plausible, has highlighted the pivotal role of settler colonialism as an analytical framework to understand and contextualize the current wave of apocalyptic violence. At the same time, references to settler colonialism have triggered discursive resistance among certain academic circles. To debate this issue, Palestine/Israel Review organized a special webinar titled “Israel–Hamas: A Colonial War?”. While the title focuses in its first part on Israel versus Hamas, the second part challenges the claim that Israel is fighting a war against Hamas, and suggests that the recent violence inflicted on Gazans is an escalation of a continuous physical and symbolic erasure of Palestine and Palestinians. 


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Something (settler colonial) in the water: K. Maria D. Lane, Fluid Geographies: Water, Science, and Settler Colonialism in New Mexico, University of Chicago Press, 2024

10May24

Description: An unprecedented analysis of the origin story of New Mexico’s modern water management system. Maria Lane’s Fluid Geographies traces New Mexico’s transition from a community-based to an expert-led system of water management during the pre-statehood era. To understand this major shift, Lane carefully examines the primary conflict of the time, which pitted Indigenous and Nuevomexicano communities, with their long-established systems of irrigation management, against Anglo-American settlers, who benefitted from centralized bureaucratic management of water. The newcomers’ system eventually became settled law, but water disputes have continued throughout the district courts of New Mexico’s Rio Grande watershed ever since. Using a fine-grained analysis of legislative texts and nearly two hundred district court cases, Lane analyzes evolving cultural patterns and attitudes toward water use and management in a pivotal time in New Mexico’s history. Illuminating complex themes for a general audience, Fluid Geographies helps readers understand how settler colonialism constructed a racialized understanding of scientific expertise and legitimized the dispossession of nonwhite communities in New Mexico.


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Indigenous sovereignty in the education landscape: Matt Henderson, Resistance, Reclamation, & Resurgence: A History of Public Education and Indigenous Reclamation in Manitoba, 1919 – 2009′, PhD dissertation, University of Manitoba, 2024

10May24

Abstract: In this dissertation I unearth the historic and present forces which inhibit Canada’s ability to remove barriers for Indigenous reclamation and resurgence as it pertains to education. My research focuses on The Manitoba Teacher, the principal publication of the Manitoba Teachers’ Society, noting that it has historically excluded the voices of Indigenous learners, educators, and families over the past century. This dissertation asks, despite this historical erasure in The Manitoba Teacher, how has Indigenous resistance, reclamation, and resurgence manifested itself in Manitoba educational settings over the past century? I argue there have always been moments and movements of Indigenous resistance, resurgence, and reclamation within education throughout the past century when Indigenous communities have taken control of the educational landscape. Based on the archival documents located within the archives of the Manitoba Teachers’ Society, the Indian and Métis Friendship Centre, the Aboriginal Council of Winnipeg, and the Verna Kirkness fonds, evidence in both colonial and Indigenous archives points to critical moments and ingredients as to when Indigenous communities have resisted colonial forms of education, and have reclaimed community-led education as a means to disrupt the colonial and oppressive grip that the Canadian state has held on communities. Through the lens of Gramsci’s notion of the subaltern and Trouillot’s theory of the silencing of history and by way of juxtaposing colonial and Indigenous archival evidence, I further argue that there has always been a disconnect or a chasm between the prohibition of Indigenous-led education and the desire of white-settlers to provide this education. Despite this gap, Indigenous peoples in Manitoba have perpetually taken back control of education through language, land, culture, and community.


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Underground Indigenous sovereignty: Gregory Smithers, Susannah Hopson,’Rainbow Serpents and Boiling Springs: Indigenous Sovereignty and the Fight for Groundwater in the United States and Australia’, Journal of American Studies, 58, 1, 2024, pp. 1-38

10May24

Abstract: Around the world, Indigenous people are preparing for futures of climate uncertainty and resource shortages. Indigenous communities are looking to the past and seeking guidance from their traditions – diverse systems of knowledge that change over time – so that they and future generations might nurture connections to the “deep time” of geological and human histories. In this essay we examine how the Wangan and Jagalingou Family Council in Australia and the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians in the United States have taken long-term views on ecological sustainability and sovereignty. We focus on these two Indigenous communities on opposite sides of the Pacific Ocean because they are among the highest-profile battles over ancient groundwater in the past decade. Set against a backdrop of global settler state interference and exploitative economic practices, both cases reveal how the concept of kinscapes – or a shared sense of relatedness to interconnected ecosystems, histories, and places (or nodes) of belonging – can sharpen our understanding of environmental stewardship and its importance to Indigenous sovereignty. Whereas mining corporations and settler governments continue to make decisions with short- to medium-term objectives in mind, Wangan and Jagalingou and Agua Caliente leaders have used legal battles over groundwater to underscore their spiritual and physical connectedness with local environments. Like Indigenous communities around the world, the Wangan and Jagalingou Family Council and the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians are making ontological choices by asserting their sovereignty through environmental stewardship.


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Settler traditions: Slade Nakoff, From Tidewater to Tennessee: The Structuring Influences of Virginia Schemata in the Settlement of East Tennessee, MA dissertation, East Tennessee State University, 2024

10May24

Abstract: Through an interdisciplinary methodological approach combining schema theory, memory studies, and material culture analysis, this study outlines the retention of mentalities from Tidewater, Virginia, to East Tennessee during the early settlement period. By utilizing the case study of John Carter of Watauga (1728-1781), the research illustrates how Virginian origins shaped settlers’ perceptions of privilege through inheritance, ordered society, and models of success, as well as commodification through ownership, resource extraction, and speculation. Findings reveal that Virginian mental frameworks were foundational paradigms, guiding settlers’ actions and perpetuating hierarchical structures within Tennessee society. Despite the opportunity for deviation that migration and community establishment provided, elite settlers chose to assimilate and reestablish the dominant position of Virginian schemata within their new environment. The persistence of Virginian schemata in Tennessee informs broader questions of identity formation, migrant nostalgia, and the enduring legacy of colonial mentalities in shaping American history.


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Indigenous food for settler thought: Julia McCartan, Julie Brimblecombe, Karen Adams, ‘Aboriginal plant foods policy in Australia: a critical discourse analysis’, Critical Policy Studies, 2024

10May24

Abstract: The Australian continent has over 6500 edible endemic plant species, fourteen of which have been certified for commercial consumption. This paper seeks to critically analyze select Australian Commonwealth Government policy relating to these Aboriginal plant foods. The aim is to purposefully examine the positioning of non-Indigenous people in Aboriginal plant foods policy discourse and reveal tacit settler colonial power relations. This is in response to a call to action from Indigenous scholars to examine how settler colonialism manifests in regulatory mechanisms, such as government policy. This paper offers a theoretically informed critical discourse analysis methodology for examining Australian Commonwealth Government policy relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander affairs. Analysis comprised an explanation of the socio-political context of Aboriginal policymaking in Australia, textual analysis of policy texts related to Aboriginal plant foods and an interpretation of discourse practice to reveal how policy discourse tacitly promotes ideological agendas. This analysis revealed that Australian Commonwealth Government Aboriginal plant foods policy is framed according to settler terms and upholds neoliberal interests. Considerable rethinking is required about how power is exercised in Commonwealth Government policy relating to Aboriginal plant foods to ensure it does not replicate and perpetuate unjust settler colonial power relations.


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