« Older posts
Newer posts »

Children settler colonialism: Roii Ball, ‘Displacement, colonization, and domestic work: children’s institutions and German imperial settlement in the Polish territories of Prussia around 1900’, Settler Colonial Studies, 2023

16Dec23

Abstract: Around 1900, Imperial Germany pursued expansion abroad and internal consolidation within its continental borders. Facing a resolute Polish national movement, Prussia, the dominant German power, sought to secure its majority Polish border region by changing the region’s ethnic composition. Large estates were purchased, land was divided, and German families were settled in small and medium farms. Colonization, however, relied on Polish workers for land preparation and farm labor. To replace Polish workers in settler-villages with Germans, the state took up the example of Child Migration in the British Empire and supported the establishment of a network of Protestant institutions that used child welfare legislation to bring about 1,500 destitute urban children from urban centers to the border region and place them with German families. The article looks at the institutional practice of child displacement and the pan-imperial networks and trans-imperial borrowings that facilitated the use of children for colonization. It discusses specific cases of children and shows that they insisted on determining their future. The interconnections of places of internment, education, care, and work across Germany’s continental empire reveal a social logic of colonization that combine repeated (dis)placement of children with child labor as a system of training and exploitation.


Filed under: Uncategorized   |  Closed

Promoting Indigenous languages as settler colonial strategy? Yann Ru Ho, ‘Analysis and Reflection of Decolonization Discourses in Advanced Indigenous Languages Textbooks – Cultural Topics’, Contemporary Educational Research Quarterly, 31, 2, 2023, pp. 45-90

15Dec23

Abstract: In Taiwan, indigenous languages and cultures were marginalized in the education system for a long time while also being neglected in the curriculum and textbooks. Recently, to promote the teaching of indigenous languages, the Council of Indigenous Peoples and the Ministry of Education commissioned the Center for Aboriginal Studies at National Chengchi University to publish the Advanced Indigenous Languages Textbooks—Cultural Topics. This set of textbooks includes a large amount of discourses on indigenous language, culture, and history. Incorporating the settler colonialism theory by Veracini (2007, 2010), this study examines whether the contents of these textbooks reveal reflections on the various settler colonization tactics utilized by mainstream society to control indigenous peoples in the past, and also depict the praxis of decolonization. Moreover, it also examines the dialectical connection between decolonization theory and praxis. Finally, this study provides reflections on the ways to overcome the obstacles of achieving decolonization praxis. Design/methodology/approach There are currently 16 officially recognized indigenous cultures in Taiwan with their own language. Of these 16 languages, some even have sublanguages, which make up a total of 42 languages. In this study, the settler colonialism theory was referenced to conduct a content analysis (Krippendorff, 2018) of the Advanced Indigenous Languages Textbooks—Cultural Topics and to interpret the textbook analysis results. To better understand the themes that indigenous peoples focus on and to investigate the frequencies of these themes in textbooks, a word cloud analysis was also conducted, and its results were compared with the results of the content analysis. Findings/results The contents of the Advanced Indigenous Languages Textbooks—Cultural Topics reveal reflections on the various settler colonization tactics used by mainstream society to control indigenous peoples in the past, which were mainly accomplished via 5 settler colonization transfer methods: transfer by assimilation, transfer by name confiscation, ethnic transfer, transfer by performance, and transfer by coerced lifestyle change. Awareness of these transfer methods sets the foundation for decolonization praxis for indigenous peoples. Furthermore, these textbooks depict the praxis of decolonization, which includes nine relevant topics: the preservation and revitalization of indigenous languages, the restoration and development of indigenous cultures, the identification of indigenous groups and restoration of indigenous surnames, the return of indigenous territory, the affirmation of political participation rights, the establishment of indigenous media, the awakening of indigenous autonomy consciousness, the designing of indigenous autonomous governments, and the establishment of holidays for indigenous seasonal rites and festivals. In these textbooks, there is a preliminary dialectical connection between the “reflections on the various settler colonization tactics used by the mainstream society to control indigenous peoples in the past” and the “praxis of decolonization.” However, the dialectics between the two are not comprehensive enough and there are still conflicts or contradictions between them. This results in obstacles to implementing the praxis of decolonization. Regarding the obstacles of implementing decolonization, this study proposes a viewpoint of the diversity of indigenous knowledge. Through the interaction of these indigenous knowledge systems with those of other communities, the former functions to generate new and innovative knowledge. This viewpoint can inspire indigenous peoples to build up their own indigenous-centered knowledge systems with confidence and can also serve as a basis for overcoming obstacles to implementing decolonization praxis. Originality/value This study reveals that the settler colonialism framework by Veracini (2007, 2010) provides an appropriate theoretical basis for analyzing indigenous decolonization discourse in indigenous language textbooks. Moreover, these textbooks are not only a teaching tool for indigenous language revitalization, but also a voice for indigenous peoples, revealing reflections on the methods whereby mainstream society has colonized the indigenous peoples in the past and presenting the praxis of decolonization. Furthermore, the preliminary dialectical connection between the theory and praxis of decolonization is also analyzed in these textbooks. Finally, these textbooks are helpful in the awareness and practice of decolonization for indigenous peoples.


Filed under: Uncategorized   |  Closed

Panafricanism as settler colonialism? Masilo Lepuru, ‘Continental Pan-Afrikanism and its Discontents: Towards the Hegemony of Garveyism in Afrika’, Journal of African Union Studies, 12, 3, 2023

15Dec23

Abstract: The problematic relationship between settler colonialism and Pan-Afrikanism is a marginalised issue. The naïve continentalism of Kwame Nkrumah, which accepts both Arab and European settlers on the continent, has resulted in the biological survival of Afrikans being in question. Both in the south and north of the continent, Afrikans are regarded and treated as immigrants in their own land. What the president of Tunisia said about Afrikans is traceable to the inherent racism of settlers and the pitfalls of continental Pan-Afrikanism, which fails to take seriously the problem of settler colonialism. Chinweizu has suggested that Afrikans abandon Nkrumah’s continentalism and embrace Garveyism in the form of Black Power Pan-Afrikanism. This paper will discuss in detail Chinweizu’s suggestion of the urgent need for Garveyism on the continent. The fundamental argument of this paper is that until Afrikans address settler colonialism in the south and north by adopting Garveyism, the dream of Afrikan unity and prosperity will not only remain elusive but will never be attained. It is in this sense that we posit that settler colonialism is the main challenge of Pan-Afrikanism in the 21st century. The AU is premised on Nkrumah’s continentalism. We postulate that it is time to rethink this formal expression of continental Pan-Afrikanism and embrace Garveyism. Given the risk of racial extermination posed by settler colonialism on the continent, we argue that it is either Garveyism or perish.


Filed under: Uncategorized   |  Closed

The settler colonial education of migrants: Theresa Burruel Stone, Pamela Rivas, ‘A call to reshape our desires: contesting the “inevitable answer” of inclusion within empire’, Race Ethnicity and Education, 2023

15Dec23

Abstract: While increased college access is widely celebrated for racialized peoples, the end goal of inclusion maintains engagement with and desires for wellbeing within the U.S. white supremacist settler state. This paper examines a culturally relevant college preparation program designed primarily for Mexican-origin youth in California to consider the college-going competencies and desires the program socializes youth through and to. Drawing from educator and youth pláticas embedded within an ethnography of the Bridge Program, this scholarship argues that the competencies youth were socialized into for college-going purposes simultaneously prepared them to uphold the settler colonial state. Engaging language socialization and settler colonial studies perspectives, this paper finds that Bridge Program youth were socialized into understandings of better lives as only possible within U.S. empire by framing college as an almost singular pathway to wellbeing. This work calls for anticolonial desires, visions of and pathways to better lives beyond empire’s boundaries.


Filed under: Uncategorized   |  Closed

Settler capitalism without wage labour: Ann Pomeroy, ‘Rethinking class, capitalism and exploitation from the perspective of family farming in Aotearoa/New Zealand’, Sociologia Ruralis, 2023

15Dec23

Abstract: Using empirical evidence and an exploration of literature on simple commodity and capitalist farm production, a theoretical argument is developed to show that, despite not employing labour, self-employed family farmers (at least in New Zealand) are capitalist, not simple commodity, producers. This has major implications for not only class theorists from a Marxist perspective, with whom we are primarily concerned, but also poses questions for Weberian inspired stratification adherents preoccupied with occupation and lifestyle. Land ownership, together with the different way capital can be generated in broad-acre livestock farming compared to other industrial settings, enables family farmers to generate profits and accumulate capital. This means that rather than being subsumed by capital, self-employed owners of farm enterprises appropriate surplus value not by directly hiring labour to generate income from their large landholdings but indirectly by utilising the labour of other enterprises and by hiring bourgeois or petit-bourgeois operators (purchasing equipment, technology and knowledge, and using the distribution, processing, marketing and other services supplied by other businesses). Buying and selling land also supports these capitalist enterprises. Although not expropriating surplus value directly to operate their enterprises, capitalised family producers have, as was pointed out in 1985 by David Goodman and Michael Redclift, achieved political legitimacy by distancing themselves at the ideological level from capitalism (despite embracing capitalism at the economic level). By disguising their class interests, such producers are adept at legitimating state policy in their interests.


Filed under: Uncategorized   |  Closed

The social-settler work of multicultural inclusion: Rupaleem Bhuyan, Sandra Osazuwa, Jill Hanley, Catherine Schmidt, Yoosun Park, ‘“Unless we are Native, we are all immigrants to Canada”: Tensions between multicultural inclusion and settler-colonial consciousness among Canadian social workers’, Journal of Ethnic & Cultural Diversity in Social Work, 2023

15Dec23

Abstract: This paper presents a discourse analysis of how social work values, knowledge, and attitudes toward immigrants are represented in 173 open-ended responses to a national survey (n = 1125) of Canadian social workers attitudes toward immigrants. Through discourse analysis of social workers’ commentary, we discuss notable tensions between social workers’ affinity for multicultural inclusion and their critiques of Canadian settler-colonialism. While respondents broadly emphasize “respect for diversity” and the need to advocate for immigrants as expressions of their Canadian and social work identity, some suggest that inequalities facing Indigenous communities should be addressed before Canada continues to increase its investment in immigration. We consider how dichotomizing concerns for Indigenous and immigrant communities reflect the limits of multicultural inclusion and the need to further decolonize social work education and practice. Paper to be submitted to Journal of Ethnic and Cultural Diversity in Social Work.


Filed under: Uncategorized   |  Closed

The settler colonial city: Lorenzo Veracini (ed.), Special Issue: Urban Indigeneities and Settler Colonial Cities, Urban History Review, 51, 2, 2023

14Dec23

Access the special issue here


Filed under: Uncategorized   |  Closed

Settling on science fiction: Lorenzo Veracini, ‘Settler Colonialism and Science Fiction: Imagining the Worlds Turned Inside Out’, Journal of Global Postcolonial Studies, 2023

14Dec23

Abstract: For those who were not Indigenous to it, the Americas were once the ‘New World’, colonies, and distant and alien places. When it comes to imagining new worlds, there is no better new world than a literally brand new one. Mars is the closest, and humans recently hurled a few sophisticated objects at it. Billionaire Elon Musk is planning to hurl a few more in that direction and turn it into a colony. Mars, however, has been mainly an imagined place. Science fiction as a literary genre has imagined it, and many other new worlds, and has routinely done so to reflect on real or impending contradictions developing in this one. The contradictions are in a sense where the new worlds are imagined from, but the new worlds are imagined as colonies located somewhere else. This paper sketches the evolution of science fiction colonialism and focuses on the ways in which it is contiguous with a political tradition I have elsewhere defined as ‘the world turned inside out’.


Filed under: Uncategorized   |  Closed

The world turned inside out today? Joseph Bernstein, ‘Who Would Give This GuyMillions to Build His Own Utopia? Dryden Brown wants Praxis to be a crypto-city for tech bros and tastemakers’, New York Times, 12/12/23

14Dec23

Excerpt: When he took the stage at a conference for “start-up societies” in Amsterdam in October,27-year-old Dryden Brown cut a rumpled figure, moving stiffly in a gray hoodie with a T-shirt poking out at the bottom. He was there to tout his company, Praxis, which has an ambitious goal: to create a newcity on the Mediterranean.


Filed under: Uncategorized   |  Closed

Boom settlers: Mary E. Thomas, Bruce Braun (eds), Settling the Boom: The Sites and Subjects of Bakken Oil, University of Minnesota Press, 2023

12Dec23

Description: Examines how settler colonial and sexist infrastructures and narratives order a resource boom. Settling the Boom studies how the disruptive forces of an oil boom in the northern Great Plains are contained through the extension of settler temporalities, reassertions of heteropatriarchy, and the tethering of life to the volatility of oil and its cruel optimisms. The collection reveals the results of sustained research in Williston, North Dakota, the epicenter of the “Bakken Boom”.


Filed under: Uncategorized   |  Closed
« Older posts
Newer posts »