Global configurations of indigenous identities, movements and pathways

Thesis Eleven ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 145 (1) ◽  
pp. 10-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Priti Singh
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Identity Politics ◽  
Race And Ethnicity ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Science Literature ◽  
Policy Regimes ◽  
Indigenous Groups ◽  
Indigenous Social Movements ◽  
National Boundaries

The social science literature on identity politics around questions of race and ethnicity is profuse, prolix and contentious. Indigenous identity politics have seen a parallel growth and are equally complex. While there are analogies and overlaps, indigenous identities and social movements are neither conceptually nor empirically a sub-set of ethnic identities. The central issue of indigenous groups is the place of first peoples in relation to the nation-state system. This takes different forms in old world states of Asia and Africa to those of new world settler (ex-colonial) states of the Americas and Australasia. While the major issues of the indigenous peoples have expanded beyond their national boundaries, their modes of participation in the national political arenas vary. They share a gradual nationalization of indigenous movements, including stronger links with socio-political forces of the respective countries in the region, a heightened consciousness of global processes and the broadening and enrichment of their socio-cultural and economic objectives. This paper looks at trans-national dimensions of indigenous social movements and identity politics in relation to nation-state policy regimes and examines the varying routes taken by indigenous peoples to achieve their goals.

Indigenous Politics and Resistance in Latin America: Continuity and Change

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pascal Lupien
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Latin America ◽  
Collective Identity ◽  
Indigenous Movements ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Political Autonomy ◽  
Continuity And Change ◽  
High Profile ◽  
Indigenous Groups ◽  
Indigenous Social Movements

Indigenous social movements have become influential political actors in Latin America over the past three decades. Indigenous peoples continue to experience higher than average political, social and economic marginalization throughout the region. The powerful organizations created by Indigenous groups and the positive outcomes they have achieved despite these barriers have produced a body of research that examines how these social movements emerged, why some have succeeded in influencing policy, the construction of collective identity, and the strategies and tactics used. Indigenous movements have made claims based on their status as pre-colonial peoples; their demands include land rights, control over natural resources, cultural recognition, and political autonomy. Indigenous movements in countries such as Bolivia, Ecuador, and Mexico have used disruptive tactics such as marches and roadblocks to demand the attention of governments, the public and media. They have also strategically participated in building alliances across borders, supporting political parties, and undertaking legal action against powerful actors including the state and extractive industries. The high-profile Indigenous protest cycle that marked the 1990s and early 2000s across Latin America began to wind down during the first decade of the 21st century, but Indigenous movements continue to engage in both politics and protest. In the digital age, they have adapted their tactics to include social media and other technologies.

Why No Mayan Party? Indigenous Movements and National Politics in Guatemala

2013 ◽  
Vol 55 (03) ◽  
pp. 117-138 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin Pallister
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Political Party ◽  
Institutional Environment ◽  
Political Representation ◽  
Local Level ◽  
National Politics ◽  
Indigenous Groups ◽  
Indigenous Social Movements

AbstractUnlike indigenous social movements in several other Latin American countries, Mayan movements in Guatemala have not formed a viable indigenous-based political party. Despite the prominence of the Mayan social movement and a relatively open institutional environment conducive to party formation, indigenous groups have foregone a national political party in favor of a more dispersed pattern of political mobilization at the local level. This article argues that the availability of avenues for political representation at the municipal level, through both traditional political parties and civic committees, and the effects of political repression and violence have reinforced the fragmentation and localism of indigenous social movements in Guatemala and prevented the emergence of a viable Mayan political party. The result has been a pattern of uneven political representation, with indigenous Guatemalans gaining representation in local government while national political institutions remain exclusionary.

The local translation of global indigeneity: A case of the Chittagong Hill Tracts

2019 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 68-85
Author(s):  
Nasir Uddin
Keyword(s):  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Identity Politics ◽  
The Political ◽  
Local Translation ◽  
Chittagong Hill Tracts ◽  
International Support ◽  
Indigenous Groups ◽  
Public Debates ◽  
Indigenous Movement ◽  
Societal Relations

Indigeneity, a concept and construct, is increasingly gaining currency in academia, in the political sphere, and in public debates. Indigeneity as an active political force with international support has become a resource in identity politics. This article focuses on the dynamics of how the transnational idea of indigeneity has been nationally installed and locally translated within the context of the ethnohistory of an Indigenous movement that stemmed from local–societal relations with the state. The idea of indigeneity is seen as both local and global because it is globally circulated but locally articulated as well as globally charged but locally framed. Focusing on the Chittagong Hill Tracts, in the borderlands of South and Southeast Asia and home to 11 Indigenous groups in Bangladesh, the article argues that the local translation of global indigeneity is necessary for ensuring the rights and entitlements of Indigenous Peoples.

Is Indigeneity like Ethnicity? Theorizing and Assessing Models of Indigenous Political Representation

2019 ◽  
Vol 52 (4) ◽  
pp. 677-696 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meaghan Williams ◽  
Robert Schertzer
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Ethnic Groups ◽  
Ethnic Minorities ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Political Representation ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Political Mobilization ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Indigenous Representation ◽  
Indigenous Groups

AbstractWithin the broader literature on political representation, studies exploring Indigenous forms of representation are rather limited. Where they exist, they tend to explore how Western models of political representation include Indigenous peoples, conflating Indigenous groups with ethnic minorities. This article asks whether and how Indigenous political representation might be distinguished from the representation of ethnic minorities. Our argument is that Indigenous groups’ identities tend to be based on different claims and relationships to the state than ethnic groups, which leads to political mobilization seeking a means to respond to the colonial nation-state project. We develop a theoretical framework that identifies three principles that ought to inform an effective and legitimate model of Indigenous political representation: recognition, protection and decolonization. We then apply this theoretical framework to assess the extent to which existing models of Indigenous representation in Bolivia, Canada, New Zealand and Norway correspond with these three principles.

Other People's Struggles

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas Owen
Keyword(s):  
Social Psychology ◽  
Social Movements ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Identity Politics ◽  
Global Justice ◽  
British History ◽  
Original Theory ◽  
The Past ◽  
Contemporary Politics ◽  
Do So

Other People’s Struggles is the first attempt in over forty years to explain the place of “conscience constituents” in social movements. Conscience constituents are people who participate in a movement but do not stand to benefit if it succeeds. Why do such people participate when they do not stand to benefit? Why are they sometimes present and sometimes absent in social movements? Why and when is their participation welcome to those who do stand to benefit, and why and when is it not? The work proposes an original theory to answer these questions, crossing discipline boundaries to draw on the findings of social psychology, philosophy, and normative political theory, in search of explanations of why people act altruistically and what it means to others when they do so. The theory is illustrated by examples from British history, including the antislavery movement, the women’s suffrage and liberation movements, labor and socialist movements, anticolonial movements, antipoverty movements, and movements for global justice. Other People’s Struggles also contributes to new debates concerning the rights and wrongs of “speaking for others.” Debates concerning the limits of solidarity—who can be an “ally” and on what terms—have become very topical in contemporary politics, especially in identity politics and in the new “populist” movements. The book provides a theoretical and empirical account of how these questions have been addressed in the past and how they might be framed today.

Settler Histories and Indigenous Pasts: New Zealand and Australia

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bain Attwood
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Cultural History ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Race And Ethnicity ◽  
First Generation ◽  
Historical Writing ◽  
Younger Generation ◽  
The 1950S

This chapter focuses on historical writing in New Zealand and Australia, which has been transformed since 1945. In the 1950s and 1960s, as the number of academic historians increased exponentially and growing professionalization occurred, a project of constructing a progressive story of masculinist nation-making and nationalism became dominant, while in the 1970s and 1980s, a younger generation of historians—many of them women and first-generation Australians—challenged this triumphant nationalist story of self-realization as they embraced social and cultural history and their emphases on the differences of class, gender, sexuality, race, and ethnicity. There is one area in which historical writing in New Zealand and Australia has undoubtedly been distinctive, at least in terms of its public impact; namely, that concerning the pasts of the indigenous peoples. The chapter then looks at the historiography of aboriginal–settler relations in Australia and New Zealand.

Kissing the Old Class Politics Goodbye

2005 ◽  
Vol 67 ◽  
pp. 54-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dorothy Sue Cobble
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Identity Politics ◽  
Economic Justice ◽  
Class Politics ◽  
Working Classes ◽  
Working People ◽  
History Of ◽  
Multiple Class ◽  
Alternative Reading

Verity Burgmann's call for a reinvigorated class politics and language is timely. This essay shares her goal of strengthening social movements in which class is taken seriously. It argues, however, that her efforts to resuscitate an antiquated class politics dressed up in identity clothes will not further that goal. This response offers an alternative reading of the nature and history of the “new” and the “old” social movements, of what can be learned about class and class-conscious movements from “identity politics” and from cultural theorists, and of what is needed to encourage future movements for social and economic justice. It calls for a class politics that recognizes the diversity of the working classes, embraces multiple class identities, reflects the fluid and multitiered class structures in which we live, and honors the aspirations of working people for inclusion, equity, and justice.

Globalization, Social Movements, and Education

2011 ◽  
Vol 113 (6) ◽  
pp. 1196-1213
Author(s):  
Regina Cortina
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Public Education ◽  
John Dewey ◽  
Human Agency ◽  
Historical Background ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Columbia University ◽  
Teachers College ◽  
The Social ◽  
New Meanings

Background/Context This essay is a part of a special issue that emerges from a year-long faculty seminar at Teachers College, Columbia University. The seminar's purpose has been to examine in fresh terms the nexus of globalization, education, and citizenship. Participants come from diverse fields of research and practice, among them art education, comparative education, curriculum and teaching, language studies, philosophy of education, social studies, and technology. They bring to the table different scholarly frameworks drawn from the social sciences and humanities. They accepted invitations to participate because of their respective research interests, all of which touch on education in a globalized world. They were also intrigued by an all-too-rare opportunity to study in seminar conditions with colleagues from different fields, with whom they might otherwise never interact given the harried conditions of university life today. Participants found the seminar generative in terms of ideas about globalization, education, and citizenship. Participants also appreciated what, for them, became a novel and rich occasion for professional and personal growth. Purpose/Objective With globalization—a term that signifies the ever-increasing interconnectedness of markets, communications and human migration—social and economic divides in countries around the world are hindering the access of many people to the major institutions of society, including and especially education. My goal in this essay is to reflect on the dilemma that John Dewey identified in Democracy and Education regarding the “full social ends of education” and the agency of the nation-state. Against the historical background of the nation-state's control of the meaning of public education, my intent is to search for new meanings defining public education through human agency and social movements, using Mexico as an example. My essay, written on the 200th anniversary of Mexico's Independence in 1810 and on the 100th anniversary of the Mexican Revolution, reflects on these two major events and how they contributed to shifts in the social meaning of education over time. Two groups—women and indigenous people—did not benefit proportion-ately from education, citizenship and social opportunity. My argument is that the empowerment of women and indigenous groups took place not because of state action but because of social movements contesting the restricted identity and incomplete citizenship provided for them through the capacity of the nation-state. It is crucial to understand the “full social ends of education” to see the way forward in strengthening education, citizenship and social opportunity. Conclusions/ Recommendations My participation in the faculty seminar and the readings we discussed led me towards the rediscovery of the writings of John Dewey, which stimulated my thinking about the “full social ends of education” against the historical background of the nation-state's control of the meaning of public education and my own inquiry to search for new meanings of public education through human agency and social movements. Moreover, the writings of Dewey during his visit to Mexico in 1926 opened a new research agenda for me. I have become increasingly interested in a period of Mexican education that is not well researched, particularly the role of John Dewey's students at Teachers College, Columbia University in the development of Mexico's public education system during the 1920s and 1930s and the creation of the Mexican rural schools and the middle schools during that era.

Colonial Ideologies, Narratives, and Popular Perceptions of Ethno-racial Otherness in the Dynamics of Urban Exclusion: Debates and Evidence from Mexico, Colombia, Chile, and Argentina

2021 ◽  
Vol 48 (6) ◽  
pp. 48-66
Author(s):  
Javier Ruiz-Tagle ◽  
Carolina Aguilera
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Residential Segregation ◽  
Urban Studies ◽  
Race And Ethnicity ◽  
Research Agenda ◽  
Critical Perspective ◽  
Indigenous Social Movements ◽  
New Research ◽  
The Impact

Although ethnic differentiations began with colonialism, racism was not widely addressed in Latin American social sciences until recently, since class perspectives were predominant. Within this, studies on residential segregation and urban exclusion have ignored race and ethnicity, with the exceptions of Brazil and Colombia. However, these issues have recently become crucial because of the adoption of multiculturalism, the impact of postcolonialism and postmodernism, the emergence of black and indigenous social movements, changes in state policy, and new trends in migration. A review of debates and evidence from Mexico, Colombia, Chile, and Argentina shows that persistent colonial ideologies, narratives, and popular perceptions of ethno-racial denial sustain various kinds of urban exclusion in the region. The evidence calls for a new research agenda to decolonize urban studies that adopts a critical perspective on the coloniality of power. Aunque las diferenciaciones étnicas comenzaron con el colonialismo, el racismo no se abordó ampliamente en las ciencias sociales latinoamericanas hasta hace poco, ya que predominaban las perspectivas de clase. Los estudios sobre la segregación residencial y la exclusión urbana han ignorado la raza y el origen étnico, con excepción de Brasil y Colombia. Sin embargo, estas cuestiones se han vuelto cruciales recientemente debido a la adopción del multiculturalismo, el impacto del poscolonialismo y el posmodernismo, la aparición de movimientos sociales negros e indígenas, los cambios en la política estatal y nuevas tendencias en la migración. Una revisión de los debates y evidencia en México, Colombia, Chile y Argentina muestra que las ideologías coloniales persistentes, las narrativas y las percepciones populares de la negación etnoracial sostienen varios tipos de exclusión urbana en la región. La evidencia exige una nueva agenda de investigación para descolonizar los estudios urbanos y adoptar una perspectiva crítica sobre la colonialidad del poder.

scholarly journals What Does Being a Settler Ally in Research Mean? A Graduate Students Experience Learning From and Working Within Indigenous Research Paradigms

2018 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 160940691877048 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathy Snow
Keyword(s):  
Graduate Students ◽  
Narrative Inquiry ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Doctoral Dissertation ◽  
Indigenous Research ◽  
Research Paradigms ◽  
Social Contracts ◽  
Indigenous Groups ◽  
Institutional Expectations ◽  
Conducting Research

Research with Indigenous peoples is fraught with complexity and misunderstandings. The complexity of negotiating historical and current issues as well as the misunderstandings about what the issues really mean for individuals and communities can cause non-Indigenous researchers to shy away from working with Indigenous groups. In conducting research for my doctoral dissertation, I was a novice researcher faced with negotiating two very different sets of social contracts: the Western Canadian university’s and my Indigenous participants’. Through narrative inquiry of my experience, this article explores issues of ethics, institutional expectations, and community relationships. Guided by Kirkness and Barnhardt’s “Four R’s” framework of respect, relevance, reciprocity, and responsibility, I aimed to meet the needs of both the groups, but it was not without challenges. What do you do when needs collide? This article shares my process of negotiating the research, the decisions made, and how I came to understand my role in the process as a Settler Ally. It closes with some implications for other researchers who are considering their own roles as Settler Allies.

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