Principal Investigator: Dr. Carmela Murdocca, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies (LA&PS), York University, and CFR Research Associate
Funder: SSHRC Insight Development Grant
Project Description:
In the post-World War II period, there has been a global trend towards amending historical injustices through practices of reparation in liberal multicultural states. Over the same time period, neoliberalism, a form of reason and governance “that configures all aspects of existence in economic terms,” has grown in global significance. In what ways does the rise of neoliberalism shape reparations discourse reflected in claims to justice by Indigenous racialized peoples. In the last few years, two prominent social movements, the Idle No More movement and the Black Lives Matter Toronto coalition group, have focused their activism and demands on the interconnections between historical and ongoing injustices for Indigenous and Black people. Despite differences in the issues that animate these social movements, organizing efforts have demonstrated a burgeoning solidarity movement between Idle No More and Black Lives Matter in the Canadian context. In particular, these movements are connected in their economic and political demands for justice through colonial histories of racialized violence – genocide, slavery, programs of assimilation, segregation, environmental racism, police brutality and incarceration. Attending to these distinctions and similarities, this project asks: how are claims to justice advanced by these groups framed within neoliberal reparations discourse?