How do race and racism underpin contemporary politics? How do racist understandings of the world affect the topics political scientists examine and the ways they study those topics? Political science has a long history of excluding people of color and not taking seriously different ways that knowledge is produced and understood in different parts of the world.
Politics
Political science has a long history of excluding people of color. – The Washington Post
Some of the most important thinkers in the field denied the full humanity of certain populations. Social scientists studying democracy, for instance, framed only certain racial groups as capable of “orderly” political behavior and “competent” citizenship. The study of international relations shaped European imperial expansion and governance, centering the global north as the “standard of civilization.”
Two new books shed light on these histories and practices, and make the case for a better way forward.
In “Decolonizing Politics: An Introduction,” international relations scholar Robbie Shilliam examines how these racial foundations have structured scientific inquiry and policy practice. Delving into both academic and political developments, “Decolonizing Politics” is an accessible, engaging overview of many eras of political thought and action. It takes readers on a journey “from the offices of the powerful to the movements of the oppressed.”
In order to understand how race and racism have organized politics and political research, Shilliam requires us to decenter well-known and widely recognized scholars. Each chapter juxtaposes influential thinkers — based most often in the global north — and the racial foundations of their work against perspectives and debates simultaneously unfolding in the global south.
Take the modernization theorists of the mid-20th century, for instance. This group of well-known social scientists, funded partly by the U.S. government, played an important role in shaping the policies and practices that aimed to raise living standards across the world. They argued that industrialized democracy — the dominant system of the global north — was the ideal type to which other countries should aspire. Countries — particularly those in the global south — should seek to “modernize” their economies and political systems to meet this standard.
But the modernizers were not neutral observers. Their research agenda was embedded in the Cold War’s global struggle between capitalism and communism. The U.S. government subsequently used these narratives to help legitimize bloody counterinsurgency programs to destabilize unfriendly regimes in the name of “modernization.” This approach to human development continues to influence research — and development interventions — today.
The modernizers were not the only thinkers working at that time, however. Based at Tanzania’s University of Dar-es-Salaam, John Saul, Giovanni Arrighi and Walter Rodney argued that globally unequal relations of power and exploitation delivered development to some — but not to others. They saw their work as reparative, locating the solution to underdevelopment in struggles against these systems, an ethical and political project that would be truly transformative for populations at the peripheries of global power.
This is the “art of decolonizing knowledge,” Shilliam contends — paying attention to ideas and perspectives on the margins. This approach requires us to think about how those margins and centers came to be, and their effect on political life and the study of politics. The arguments made in “Decolonizing Politics” have significant implications for how we approach scientific inquiry and understand its relationship to political practice.
With a similar focus on racist political structures and inequality, philosophy professor Olúfémi O. Táíwò’s new book, “Reconsidering Reparations” places arguments for reparations within a view of history he calls the “global racial empire.” This approach incorporates the ways that race and class intersect with other identities like gender, settler status, ethnicity, religion and ability.
Táíwò argues for a “constructive view” of reparations that accounts for local, national and international consequences of the global racial empire. This view is specific and forward-looking but built on a detailed historical understanding of how development and distribution constituted life for marginalized people. Táíwò brings Pan-Africanist and Black writers like Oliver Cox, Nkechi Taifa and Walter Rodney into conversations with the dominant thinkers in political philosophy, like John Rawls.
Though “Reconsidering Reparations” focuses on histories of unequal distribution, its highlight is the climate justice chapters. Táíwò explains, “it’s not that every aspect of today’s global racial empire is rooted in the impacts of climate change. But every aspect of tomorrow’s global racial empire will be … and it will reverse the gains toward justice that our ancestors fought so bitterly for.” These ancestors inspire present action to Táíwò. They remind us that justice struggles are difficult and long. But they can bear tremendous fruit.
Each of these books will inspire a wide range of readers. Both authors note that there is sometimes a powerful imperative to justify one’s work. They refuse to do so. As Táíwò puts it, “racism keeps you answering other people’s questions.” Instead, they demonstrate how to carefully interrogate topics that matter to a scholar or community.
Shilliam takes less-heard voices as the starting point for rethinking scientific agendas and policy practices. Táíwò asks “what forms of social life are compatible with our flourishing? What must our economies look like to respond to our social problems?”
Táíwò and Shilliam end on distinctly optimistic and empowering, solutions-oriented notes. Táíwò calls his approach “acting like an ancestor.” He provides a list of targets and tactics for climate reparations, as well as specific examples of organizations and activists in each area. These include unconditional cash transfers, global climate funding, ending tax havens, increasing community control, supporting citizen science and “bargaining for the common good” by knitting together more workers organizations and community organizations in response to climate initiative actions.
Shilliam proposes fewer specifics but encourages us to “be the agents of repair” in solidarity with those impacted by imperial legacies. There is both a sense of urgency but also an expansive possibility that there are activists and intellectuals whose ideas we have yet to interrogate who could guide us, and ancestors who have laid out a path to a better future.
Ankushi Mitra (@ankushi_mitra) is a PhD student at the Department of Government at Georgetown University. She studies citizenship, migration, and the political economy of development in Africa.
Lahra Smith (@LahraSmith1) is a political scientist who studies citizenship, migration and political development in Africa. She is an associate professor in the Walsh School of Foreign Service and the Department of Government at Georgetown University and the director of the African Studies Program.
Read more in this summer’s APSRS:
HALIFAX – Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston says it’s “disgraceful and demeaning” that a Halifax-area school would request that service members not wear military uniforms to its Remembrance Day ceremony.
Houston’s comments were part of a chorus of criticism levelled at the school — Sackville Heights Elementary — whose administration decided to back away from the plan after the outcry.
A November newsletter from the school in Middle Sackville, N.S., invited Armed Forces members to attend its ceremony but asked that all attendees arrive in civilian attire to “maintain a welcoming environment for all.”
Houston, who is currently running for re-election, accused the school’s leaders of “disgracing themselves while demeaning the people who protect our country” in a post on the social media platform X Thursday night.
“If the people behind this decision had a shred of the courage that our veterans have, this cowardly and insulting idea would have been rejected immediately,” Houston’s post read. There were also several calls for resignations within the school’s administration attached to Houston’s post.
In an email to families Thursday night, the school’s principal, Rachael Webster, apologized and welcomed military family members to attend “in the attire that makes them most comfortable.”
“I recognize this request has caused harm and I am deeply sorry,” Webster’s email read, adding later that the school has the “utmost respect for what the uniform represents.”
Webster said the initial request was out of concern for some students who come from countries experiencing conflict and who she said expressed discomfort with images of war, including military uniforms.
Her email said any students who have concerns about seeing Armed Forces members in uniform can be accommodated in a way that makes them feel safe, but she provided no further details in the message.
Webster did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
At a news conference Friday, Houston said he’s glad the initial request was reversed but said he is still concerned.
“I can’t actually fathom how a decision like that was made,” Houston told reporters Friday, adding that he grew up moving between military bases around the country while his father was in the Armed Forces.
“My story of growing up in a military family is not unique in our province. The tradition of service is something so many of us share,” he said.
“Saying ‘lest we forget’ is a solemn promise to the fallen. It’s our commitment to those that continue to serve and our commitment that we will pass on our respects to the next generation.”
Liberal Leader Zach Churchill also said he’s happy with the school’s decision to allow uniformed Armed Forces members to attend the ceremony, but he said he didn’t think it was fair to question the intentions of those behind the original decision.
“We need to have them (uniforms) on display at Remembrance Day,” he said. “Not only are we celebrating (veterans) … we’re also commemorating our dead who gave the greatest sacrifice for our country and for the freedoms we have.”
NDP Leader Claudia Chender said that while Remembrance Day is an important occasion to honour veterans and current service members’ sacrifices, she said she hopes Houston wasn’t taking advantage of the decision to “play politics with this solemn occasion for his own political gain.”
“I hope Tim Houston reached out to the principal of the school before making a public statement,” she said in a statement.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
REGINA – Saskatchewan Opposition NDP Leader Carla Beck says she wants to prove to residents her party is the government in waiting as she heads into the incoming legislative session.
Beck held her first caucus meeting with 27 members, nearly double than what she had before the Oct. 28 election but short of the 31 required to form a majority in the 61-seat legislature.
She says her priorities will be health care and cost-of-living issues.
Beck says people need affordability help right now and will press Premier Scott Moe’s Saskatchewan Party government to cut the gas tax and the provincial sales tax on children’s clothing and some grocery items.
Beck’s NDP is Saskatchewan’s largest Opposition in nearly two decades after sweeping Regina and winning all but one seat in Saskatoon.
The Saskatchewan Party won 34 seats, retaining its hold on all of the rural ridings and smaller cities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
HALIFAX – Nova Scotia‘s growing population was the subject of debate on Day 12 of the provincial election campaign, with Liberal Leader Zach Churchill arguing immigration levels must be reduced until the province can provide enough housing and health-care services.
Churchill said Thursday a plan by the incumbent Progressive Conservatives to double the province’s population to two million people by the year 2060 is unrealistic and unsustainable.
“That’s a big leap and it’s making life harder for people who live here, (including ) young people looking for a place to live and seniors looking to downsize,” he told a news conference at his campaign headquarters in Halifax.
Anticipating that his call for less immigration might provoke protests from the immigrant community, Churchill was careful to note that he is among the third generation of a family that moved to Nova Scotia from Lebanon.
“I know the value of immigration, the importance of it to our province. We have been built on the backs of an immigrant population. But we just need to do it in a responsible way.”
The Liberal leader said Tim Houston’s Tories, who are seeking a second term in office, have made a mistake by exceeding immigration targets set by the province’s Department of Labour and Immigration. Churchill said a Liberal government would abide by the department’s targets.
In the most recent fiscal year, the government welcomed almost 12,000 immigrants through its nominee program, exceeding the department’s limit by more than 4,000, he said. The numbers aren’t huge, but the increase won’t help ease the province’s shortages in housing and doctors, and the increased strain on its infrastructure, including roads, schools and cellphone networks, Churchill said.
“(The Immigration Department) has done the hard work on this,” he said. “They know where the labour gaps are, and they know what growth is sustainable.”
In response, Houston said his commitment to double the population was a “stretch goal.” And he said the province had long struggled with a declining population before that trend was recently reversed.
“The only immigration that can come into this province at this time is if they are a skilled trade worker or a health-care worker,” Houston said. “The population has grown by two per cent a year, actually quite similar growth to what we experienced under the Liberal government before us.”
Still, Houston said he’s heard Nova Scotians’ concerns about population growth, and he then pivoted to criticize Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for trying to send 6,000 asylum seekers to Nova Scotia, an assertion the federal government has denied.
Churchill said Houston’s claim about asylum seekers was shameful.
“It’s smoke and mirrors,” the Liberal leader said. “He is overshooting his own department’s numbers for sustainable population growth and yet he is trying to blame this on asylum seekers … who aren’t even here.”
In September, federal Immigration Minister Marc Miller said there is no plan to send any asylum seekers to the province without compensation or the consent of the premier. He said the 6,000 number was an “aspirational” figure based on models that reflect each province’s population.
In Halifax, NDP Leader Claudia Chender said it’s clear Nova Scotia needs more doctors, nurses and skilled trades people.
“Immigration has been and always will be a part of the Nova Scotia story, but we need to build as we grow,” Chender said. “This is why we have been pushing the Houston government to build more affordable housing.”
Chender was in a Halifax cafe on Thursday when she promised her party would remove the province’s portion of the harmonized sales tax from all grocery, cellphone and internet bills if elected to govern on Nov. 26. The tax would also be removed from the sale and installation of heat pumps.
“Our focus is on helping people to afford their lives,” Chender told reporters. “We know there are certain things that you can’t live without: food, internet and a phone …. So we know this will have the single biggest impact.”
The party estimates the measure would save the average Nova Scotia family about $1,300 a year.
“That’s a lot more than a one or two per cent HST cut,” Chender said, referring to the Progressive Conservative pledge to reduce the tax by one percentage point and the Liberal promise to trim it by two percentage points.
Elsewhere on the campaign trail, Houston announced that a Progressive Conservative government would make parking free at all Nova Scotia hospitals and health-care centres. The promise was also made by the Liberals in their election platform released Monday.
“Free parking may not seem like a big deal to some, but … the parking, especially for people working at the facilities, can add up to hundreds of dollars,” the premier told a news conference at his campaign headquarters in Halifax.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
— With files from Keith Doucette in Halifax
News6 hours ago
Canada’s Denis Shapovalov wins Belgrade Open for his second ATP Tour title
News6 hours ago
Talks to resume in B.C. port dispute in bid to end multi-day lockout
News6 hours ago
The Royal Canadian Legion turns to Amazon for annual poppy campaign boost
Investment5 years ago
dynaCERT Inc. Invites You to Join Us at the Vancouver Resource Investment Conference | INN – Investing News Network
Sports5 years ago
AP source: Bears acquiring quarterback Nick Foles from Jaguars – Sportsnet.ca
Media1 year ago
12 Bizarre Things People Did Just To Make Social Media Content
-
News22 hours agoFreeland says she’s ready to deal with Trump |
-
News22 hours agoNASA astronauts won’t say which one of them got sick after almost eight months in space
-
News22 hours ago43 monkeys remain on the run from South Carolina lab. CEO thinks they’re having an adventure
-
News22 hours agoFreeland rallies a united front ahead of Trump’s return to White House
-
News22 hours agoDeputy minister appointed interim CEO of AIMCo after Alberta government fires board
-
News22 hours agoMontreal says Quebec-Canada dispute stalling much-needed funding to help homeless
-
News22 hours agoS&P/TSX composite index down Friday, Wall St. extends post-election gains
-
News22 hours agoMitch Marner powers Matthews-less Maple Leafs over Red Wings