Lecture 2: Fracturing the Colonial Paradigm

Ontology

The study of the nature of social reality.

Epistemology

The study of how we know what we know and methods for acquiring knowledge.

Destabilizing Western Truth Claims

The Indigenous challenge to the taken-for-granted validity of Western social science research.

Pathologizing Discourses

The sociology of deviance and criminology are critiqued for their "discursive power to pathologize Indigenous peoples," which justifies their mass incarceration.

C. Wright Mills' Critique

Criticized sociologists as conservative pathologists lacking historical awareness and critical acceptance.

Criminology Without Colonial Theory

Criminology traditions operate without a theory of colonialism and its effects.

Imaginary Geographies

Marginalized locations like reservations and prisons designed to 'discipline the native'.

Confederation Date

1867

Indian Act Date

1876

Problem Populations

Indigenous peoples framed as problems because their existence threatens state sovereign power.

Science of Oppression

Criminology's history as humanly created oppressive methods told from the oppressor's perspective.

Epistemic Injustice

Replacing a people's self-understanding categories with the categories of colonizers.

Knowledge as an Ideology of Oppression

Modern knowledge seeks to change the consciousness of the oppressed rather than their situation.

Cognitive Imperialism

Establishing a dominant group's experience as the universal norm.

The Illusion of Objectivity

Epistemology enabling dispassionate reason used to claim the right to dominate knowledge.

Neoliberalism

An ideology prioritizing free-market capitalism, deregulation, privatization, and reduced government spending.

Risk Thinking

Treating characteristics like drug use as discrete facts while ignoring historical colonial contexts.

Research as Imperial Enquiry

Research historically linked to colonialism as a technique to control colonized peoples.

Indigenous Ontology

Focuses on obligations and relationships to kinship groups and the natural environment.

Indigenous Epistemology

Stresses a focus on Indigenous experience and common methodologies.

Self-Determination (UNDRIP)

The right to make decisions regarding one's own priorities and community.

Axiology

A set of values, ethics, and morality underpinning research.

Cultural Safety

Foundational to restoring social order rather than state-imposed discipline.

Indigenous Standpoint Theory

Incorporates the social position of Indigenous researchers as a vital part of research.

Relationality vs. Individualism

Indigenous focus on individual relationality versus the Western focus on individual autonomy.

Intellectual Decolonization

Privileging Indigenous relational ontologies over Western individualism.