scholarly journals The Complexity of Indigenous Identity Formation and Politics in Canada

2009 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 36-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joyce Green
Keyword(s):  
Identity Formation ◽  
Identity Politics ◽  
Political Discourse ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Constitutional Amendment ◽  
Indigenous Identity ◽  
Canadian Context ◽  
Community Identities ◽  
Provincial Identity

Identity politics have been especially prominent in Canadian political discourse since the hegemonic white Anglophone identity was challenged in the 1970s. However, indigenous identity and nationalism have not received the same attention. In the politics of federalism and constitutional amendment, the contestation of the dominant view of Canada and the advancement of citizen and community identities, rather than provincial identity, was met with bemusement by the gatekeepers of Canadian federal and constitutional processes. In this article I trace some of the complexity of the formation and mobilization of Aboriginal identities in the Canadian context, to raise some theoretical and political problems and possibilities that attend to self determination and decolonisation.

Structuring Local Identity: Nation, Province and County in Shanxi During the 1990s

2002 ◽  
Vol 172 ◽  
pp. 837-862 ◽  
Author(s):  
David S.G. Goodman
Keyword(s):  
Identity Formation ◽  
Identity Politics ◽  
Local Politics ◽  
National Level ◽  
People’S Republic Of China ◽  
Local Identity ◽  
People's Republic Of China ◽  
National Politics ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
Provincial Identity

One of the more interesting aspects of politics in the People's Republic of China during the 1990s was the attempt by many provincial leaders to create a specifically provincial discourse of development that entailed the reformulation of provincial identity. Both inside and outside the People's Republic of China, provincialism has often been held to challenge the unity of the Chinese state. However, an examination of the provincial discourse of development in Shanxi during the 1990s suggests that provincial and indeed more local identity politics are more complex and finely nuanced than might at first seem to be the case. Shanxi's new provincial identity was neither exclusive nor opposed to other identities, but one of a series of multiple and overlapping identities, structured within a hierarchy of place and identity that reached down to and interacted with the more local levels of county and village, as well as up to the national level. At the same time it is clear that the appeal to localism has started to influence the ways in which provincial leaders participate in national politics. Moreover, there is some indication that the emphasis on localism may have resulted in the county and the town or city becoming more significant locales for identity formation than the province, though the consequences of this for provincial and local politics remain unclear.

Engaging the White Possessive

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Aileen Moreton-Robinson
Keyword(s):  
Native American ◽  
National Identity ◽  
Identity Politics ◽  
New Work ◽  
White People ◽  
Indigenous Identity ◽  
Identity Fraud ◽  
Power Property ◽  
Genetic Science ◽  
Drag Queens

In this issue of Kalfou, my book The White Possessive: Power, Property, and Indigenous Sovereignty receives attention from three scholars whose work I admire and respect. George Lipsitz’s The Possessive Investment in Whiteness: How White People Profit from Identity Politics was seminal in conceptualizing the possessive logics of patriarchal white sovereignty, while Fiona Nicoll’s From Diggers to Drag Queens: Configurations of Australian National Identity heavily influenced my work on the formation of white national identity. Kim TallBear’s Native American DNA: Tribal Belonging and the False Promise of Genetic Science has been instructive in shaping my new work on the possessive racial logics of Indigenous identity fraud. I am honored they ha

scholarly journals Reclaiming Romani-ness

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ioanida Costache
Keyword(s):  
Gender Identity ◽  
Ethnic Group ◽  
Identity Politics ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
Gendered Identities ◽  
The World ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Epistemic Systems ◽  
Porous Boundaries

Drawing on theories of identity postulated by cultural theorists, scholars of gender identity, and critical race theorists, I explore issues of identity politics and “Otherness” as they pertain to Romani identity, history and activism. By critiquing the latent bifurcation of identity and subjectivity in Judith Butler’s theory of performativity as well as her explicit adherence to universalism, I begin to outline a (post-Hegelian) hermeneutic in which narratives of self enable political processes of self-determination against symbolic and epistemic systems of racialization and minoritization.[1] Roma identity both serves as an oppressive social category while at the same time empowering people for whom a shared ethnic group provides a sense of solidarity and community. In re-conceptualizing, reimagining and re-claiming Romani-ness, we can make movements towards outlining a new Romani subjectivity – a subjectivity that is firmly rooted in counterhistories of Roma, with porous boundaries that both celebrate our diversity and foster solidarity. I come to the subject of Romani identity from an understanding that our racialized and gendered identities are both performed and embodied – forming part of the horizon from which we make meaning of the world. I wish to recast the discourse surrounding Romani identity as hybridized and multicultural, as well as, following Glissant, embedded into a pluritopic notion of history.

scholarly journals White envy and piggy-backing privilege : exploring adult Korean transracial adoptees' identities in the Canadian context

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kelsea Goss
Keyword(s):  
Identity Formation ◽  
Adoptive Parents ◽  
Main Question ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
White Family ◽  
Predominately White ◽  
Canadian Context ◽  
Transracial Adoptees ◽  
Adoptive Identity

The purpose of this study is to explore how adult Korean transracial adoptees reflect on their racial and adoptive identities throughout their lifetimes, developing a unique sense of belonging and membership in the Canadian context. The main question under investigation is: If transracial adoptees have been raised among predominately white family and community members, then how do their processes of racial and adoptive identity formation fit into to critical theories of racialization and frameworks of normalized whiteness and colour blindness: Six interviews explore processes in which Korean transracial adoptees develop complex identities to navigate through difference, engaging with ethnic communities and their birth cultures to develop a distinctive membership in society. Research in the field of transracial adoption is crucial for revising policy and practice, engaging with adoptive parents' racial (in)sensitivities, expanding the notion of the traditional family, and pushing social workers and adoption agencies to step outside their comfort zones.

THE MAIN STAGES OF THE FORMATION OF THE UKRAINIAN DIASPORA IN THE UNITED STATES

2021 ◽  
pp. 86-101
Author(s):  
Ol’ga A. Pylova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Identity Formation ◽  
The United States ◽  
Russian Empire ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Historical Period ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Russian Empire

The article focuses on the emigration of Ukrainians to the US and the formation of a Ukrainian diaspora there. Emigration from ethnic Ukrainian territories began at the end of the nineteenth century and has continued to the present day. The generally accepted periodisation considers five waves of emigration (before 1914, 1914–1945, 1945–1986, 1986–2014 and after 2014) and therefore five stages of the diaspora formation. As the study shows, the stages or waves of emigration from Ukraine largely coincide with the migration processes in the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union and finally in the post-Sovi- et space, but there are also a number of differences that need to be understood. The diaspora issues were often linked to issues of emigrant self-determination, identity formation as well as the policies of the recipient state. Political, social, educational and other organisations have been formed within the diaspora over the course of its existence, with the diaspora institutionalisation pro- cesses varying according to the specific historical period. In the context of the continuation of the next stage of Ukrainian emigration to the United States and the evolution of the diaspora today, a historical and genetic study of the transmigration of Ukrainians overseas and the formation of diaspora structures acquires particular relevance.

5. Identity in politics

2019 ◽  
pp. 52-64
Author(s):  
Florian Coulmas
Keyword(s):  
Deliberative Democracy ◽  
Identity Politics ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Democratic Rule ◽  
Multiple Levels ◽  
Natural Child ◽  
Supranational Level

‘Identity in politics: promises and dangers’ concludes that identity in politics is a challenge to democratic rule rooted in the principle of self-determination. As a natural child of nationalism, it gives rise to conflicts that political scientists study at multiple levels. At the subnational level, the focus is on ethnicities and group affiliations. At the supranational level, they are concerned with civilization identities. Considering conflicts in terms of civilization identities is sometimes persuasive for there is the risk of stereotyping, while identities are historically contingent and can be instrumentalized for various political purposes. Because identities tend to be presented as non-negotiable, identity politics is hard to reconcile with deliberative democracy as it makes compromise difficult to achieve.

Unpacking the role of religion in political transnationalism: the case of the Shi'a Iraqi diaspora since 2003

2020 ◽  
Vol 96 (2) ◽  
pp. 305-322 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oula Kadhum
Keyword(s):  
Identity Formation ◽  
Identity Politics ◽  
Cultural Production ◽  
International Politics ◽  
National Unity ◽  
Civic Activism ◽  
Political Transnationalism ◽  
Role Of Religion

Abstract This article explores the role of religion in political transnationalism using the case of the Shi'a Iraqi diaspora since 2003. The article focuses on three areas that capture important trends in Shi'a transnationalism and their implications for transnational Shi'a identity politics. These include Shi'a diasporic politics, transnational Shi'a civic activism, and the cultural production of Iraqi Shi'a identity through pilgrimages, rituals and new practices. It is argued that understanding Shi'a Islam and identity formation requires adopting a transnational lens. The evolution of Shi'a Islam is not only a result of the dictates of the Shi'a clerical centres, and how they influence Shi'a populations abroad, but also the transnational interrelationships and links to holy shrine cities, Shi'i national and international politics, humanitarianism and commemorations and rituals. The article demonstrates that Shi'a political transnationalism is unexceptional in that it echoes much of the literature on diasporic politics and development where diaspora involve themselves from afar in the politics and societies of their countries of origin. At the same time, it shows the exceptionalism of Shi'a diasporic movements, in that their motivations and mobilizations are contributing to the reification of sectarian geographical and social borders, creating a transnationalism that is defined by largely Shi'a networks, spaces, actors and causes. The case of Shi'a political transnationalism towards Iraq shows that this is increasing the distance between Shi'is and Iraq's other communities, simultaneously fragmenting Iraq's national unity while deepening Shi'a identity and politics both nationally and supra-nationally.

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