settler colonial studies blog

Incorporating indigenous law within the settler one: Natalie Coates, ‘The Recognition of Tikanga in the Common Law of New Zealand’, New Zealand Law Review, 1, 2015, pp. 1-34

15May15

Abstract: This article examines the capacity of the common law to provide for the recognition of tikanga and Māori customary law. It details the limited and mixed way in which courts have treated Māori customary law within the common law thus far, focusing particularly on the recent articulations in the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court. It then looks at the many inherent limitations and barriers that are erected by the common law and argues that there is potential for the common law to be developed so that it becomes a limited vehicle for Māori customary law to be afforded recognition in the state legal system in the 21st century.

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A blast from the past (a comparative analysis of the performance and shape of the settler economies): Reto Bertoni, Henry Willebald, ‘Do energy natural endowments matter? New Zealand and Uruguay in a comparative approach (1870 – 1940)’, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of the Republic [Uruguay], 2015

15May15

Abstract: Settler economies are characterized by abundant natural resources, but natural capital is not homogeneous between countries and it can produce different consequences in terms of economic performance. This paper discusses the effect of natural resources on economic performance as part of the debate about the “curse of natural resources hypothesis”. We consider energy natural resources and focus on two settler societies, New Zealand and Uruguay. There is very little literature about the economic development of settler economies that identifies differences within the “club” count ries that have different natural resources. We look for differences in energy natural endowments, basically coal and suitable conditions for hydroelectric generation, to explain at least partially the different welfare levels between the two economies. In the nineteenth century and the early decades of the twentieth century, New Zealand and Uruguay were similar in many ways such as production structure, movements in production factors and insertion in international markets, but there were huge differences in income per capita levels. To explain this, we need to study other aspects of the economic system. The analytical framework associated with the curse of natural resources offers some interesting lines of argument for our inquiry. The conformation of a “modern” production structure requires the re to be sufficient energy supply at competitive costs, to justify exploiting the corresponding natural resources. Our analysis shows that New Zealand’s better performance in coal production and better natural conditions to generate electric energy at low cost – thus offering energy at low prices – explain those differences. New Zealand’s advantage in energy endowments at least partially explains the development of a dairy sector, certain energy – intensive manufactures and a more efficient use of railways.

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Interpreting the displacement of settlers: Leonid Borodkin, ‘Spatial Analysis of Peasants’ Migrations in Russia/USSR in the First Quarter of the 20th Century’, Information Fusion and Geographic Information Systems, 2015, pp 27-40.

15May15

Abstract: The role of migrations in Russian history is immense and cannot be underestimated. This paper is the first one attempting to analyze (using specialized aggregation statistical method and GIS) the macrostructure of the migration flows of Russia’s rural population since the end of the 19th century and to the first quarter of the 20th century to create an integral spatial distribution of Russia’s rural population inter-regional movement. For such enormous country as Russia it’s necessary to use macro-analysis of the migration data. The second section of the paper gives short overview of the peasants’ migrations in Russia and reveals the “bottlenecks” in the relevant research literature. The third section shows that these “bottlenecks” can be overcome using the materials of the 1926 All-Union Population Census. The method is applied for the aggregation of the migration flows network according to the data on all the 29 regions of the country (the fourth section); our NetAgg program permits to construct a macrostructure of the inter-regional migration, to reveal the groups of the main regions—the “consumers” and “suppliers” of rural migrants, to determine the intensities of the migration flows between the revealed homogeneous groups of regions. The fifth section gives interpretation of the obtained macro-structure of peasants’ migration flows and the last one contains GIS maps to visualize the results of spatial structure of the migration flows.

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Tourism and the reproduction of colonial enclaves: Uma Kothari, ‘Reworking colonial imaginaries in post-colonial tourist enclaves’, Tourist Studies, 2015

15May15

Abstract: This article critically explores the complex politics of reworking colonial imaginaries in post-colonial tourist enclaves. It examines the persistence of colonial spaces and representations in the tourist industry along with the reproduction of boundaries that sustain distinctions between people. Based on research in Mauritius, this article identifies the distinctive characteristics of generic tropical, luxury hotel resorts and the specific strategies used to distinguish them as they compete to attract tourists. Through an investigation of a luxury hotel in Mauritius, designed to evoke the theme of the colonial sugar plantation, it is suggested here that these strategies rework and reproduce colonial representations in the present day.

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On neoliberalism as settler colonialism: David Lloyd, Patrick Wolfe, ‘Settler colonial logics and the neoliberal regime’, Settler Colonial Studies, 2015

13May15

Abstract: It is often assumed that while both capitalism and the modern state may originate in processes such as primitive accumulation, imperialism and colonialism, and conquest, modernization in both the political and economic spheres gradually leaves those stages behind, allowing for some form of cosmopolitan transnational globality to emerge. In particular, settler colonialism and primitive accumulation have been understood to belong to early stages of capital expansion and accordingly to be formations lodged in the past. This introduction argues that the ongoing history of settler colonialism forms a crucial terrain through which to understand military occupation and the formations and practices of the neoliberal state that has emerged to regulate and promote a new regime of accumulation. It also explores the ways in which the formations of the contemporary state, whether military, economic, political, legal or cultural, may remain grounded in apparently peripheral or outmoded modes of domination. Understanding the neoliberal regime of accumulation in terms of its continuing debt to such histories will have a crucial bearing on the organization and articulation of resistance and dissent in the present.

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The settler colony as a laboratory for current global practices: Brenna Bhandar, ‘Title by Registration: Instituting Modern Property Law and Creating Racial Value in the Settler Colony’, Journal of Law and Society, 42, 2, 2015, pp. 253–282

13May15

Abstract: The transformation in prevailing conceptualizations of property and the drive to render land as fungible as possible, the desire to commoditize land that had been pursued in earnest since the seventeenth century in England, was realized in the space of the settler colony decades before it would be implemented in the United Kingdom. The author explores how the commodity logic of abstraction that subtended new property logics during this time, reflected in the Torrens system of title by registration, was accompanied by a racial logic of abstraction that rendered the land of the Native, or Savage vacant and ripe for appropriation. By way of conclusion, the author speculates on the ways in which the imposition of English property law in the settler colony influenced the development of modern property law in England.

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Protecting cultural forms through displacement; New Scotland in Cape Breton Island: Diane Williams, ‘Women’s Roles as Tradition-Bearers: Equality and Revitalization’, Symposium Of University Research and Creative Expression (SOURCE), 2015

10May15

Abstract: At the very core of anthropology is the ongoing question of how cultures develop, change, and adapt. Cultural perspectives on gender roles, for example, can change based on decisions made by both men and women as the members of emigrant populations navigate ways to survive in new environments. For centuries, the contributions of Scottish women as active tradition-bearers in Scotland have often been overshadowed by a focus on the many public roles of men. Since arriving in Cape Breton Island in the mid-eighteenth century, the culture of the original Scottish settlers has experienced significant changes relative to the political and economic changes in the larger context of the region. Previous research from the 1970s predicted the Gaelic language and culture would disappear from the island by the year 2000. My research examines the changing roles of contemporary Cape Breton Highland women (1950 to 2014) in the maintenance and transmission of Scottish culture and traditions, and challenges the assumptions of previous scholars that the language and culture are dying out. Data were collected over a seven-week period through participant-observation at cultural events, archival research at the Beaton Institute, and thirteen face-to-face interviews with women of Gaelic descent. The analysis clearly indicates that not only have women’s roles as tradition-bearers changed, but their contributions are being acknowledged and supported by the Gaelic community in the movement towards maintenance and revitalization of the language and the culture.

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Settler decolonisation? Teodora Todorova, ‘Reframing Bi-nationalism in Palestine-Israel as a Process of Settler Decolonisation’ Antipode, 2015

10May15

Abstract: This paper examines some of the emerging critical civil society debates in relation to the one-state solution being the most appropriate geo-political arrangement for the articulation of freedom, justice and equality in Palestine-Israel. This is done with reference to the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions’ 2012 statement in support of a bi-national state and the ensuing critiques it attracted from Palestinian supporters of the one-state position. Drawing on these debates which have largely revolved around Jewish Israeli rights to political self-determination in Palestine-Israel, this paper proposes that alternative versions of self-determination as cultural rights for the established Hebrew-speaking national community represent a more inclusive form of self-determination in the eventuality of decolonisation.

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On settler capitalisms: Erik Green, ‘The development of agrarian capitalism revisited: Measuring the role of tenant labour on settler farms in Southern Rhodesia, 1900-1960’, Workshop on Colonialism, Growth and Development in the Southern Hemisphere, 1800-2000, 2015

10May15

Abstract: In this paper we have used primary and secondary sources to make, to our knowledge, the first attempt ever to quantify the role non-wage labour on settler farms in colonial Africa. We have used Southern Rhodesia as a case in point and focused primarily on the role of tenant labour. Our findings show that the rise of wage labour did not mark the end of the latter. On the contrary, the two forms of labour acted as complements rather than substitutes. Our results find support in the more theoretical literature on agrarian labour contracts, which is a strand of literature that has been surprisingly neglected in studies of rural labour relations in colonial Africa. Based on our new estimate we call for an empirical and theoretical more grounded understanding of the rise of agrarian capitalism in colonial Africa.

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More on indigenous sovereignty: James S. Phillips, ‘The rights of indigenous peoples under international law’, Global Bioethics, 2015

10May15

Abstract: International law guarantees rights to indigenous peoples regarding traditional lands, knowledge, cultural preservation, and human security. This paper will examine the sources of these rights and legal remedies for violations of law. Protection of indigenous peoples’ cultures and resources contribute to the protection of the global environment.

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