Engaging with Identity Politics in Canadian Political Science (original) (raw)
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"Abstract. This article maps how Canadian political science has considered and shaped the logic of “identity” across the institutional, societal and governance dimensions of this disciplinary subfield. Focusing on the ubiquitous analytic absence of “race” in the mainstream literature, this article argues that mainstream Canadian political science reproduces a logic that limits the conversation to particular dimensions of ‘identity’ (‘identity’ as a basis of political action, a collective phenomenon denoting sameness and a core aspect of individual/collective selfhood) at the expense of others (‘identity’ as a product of social or political action, a product of multiple and competing discourses and a governmentality). In addition to this logic of ‘identity’, eight methodological tendencies in the mainstream literature further impede analyses of ‘race’. By challenging these methodological tendencies, abandoning ‘identity’ as an analytic category and reflecting on the consequences of deactivating and erasing ‘race’, Canadian political scientists may become better equipped to interrogate the operating logic of ‘identity’, to substantively incorporate ‘race’ as a conceptual, analytic and explanatory device, and perhaps most critically, begin to redefine the canon. Résumé. Cet article retrace la manière dont la science politique canadienne a considéré et façonné la logique de «l'identité» dans certaines dimensions particulières de cette discipline, soit celles des institutions, de la société et de la gouvernance. En se concentrant sur l'absence prédominante du concept de «race» dans les analyses de la littérature conventionnelle, l'article soutient que la science politique canadienne dans la ligne du courant dominant reproduit une logique qui limite la conversation à certaines dimensions de «l'identité» (soit «l'identité» en tant que base de l'action politique, en tant que phénomène dénotant l'uniformité et en tant qu'aspect essentiel du moi individuel ou collectif) au détriment des autres (soit «l'identité» en tant que produit de l'action politique ou sociale, produit de discours multiples et rivaux, et gouvernementalité). Outre cette logique de «l'identité», huit tendances méthodologiques de la littérature conventionnelle entravent davantage les analyses de la «race». En contestant ces tendances méthodologiques, en abandonnant «l'identité» en tant que catégorie analytique et en réfléchissant aux conséquences de la désactivation et de l'effacement de la «race», les politicologues canadiens pourraient devenir mieux équipés pour interroger la logique opérante de «l'identité», pour incorporer la «race» de manière substantielle en tant que dispositif conceptuel, analytique et explicatif, et peut-être le plus important, pour commencer à redéfinir le canon."
Identity Politics: Conservative Style
Labour / Le Travail, 2014
Stephen Harper is not the first, and he will not be the last prime minister to manipulate the symbols of Canadian history and alter political institutions in order to reshape Canadian political identity. Chrétien was accused of just such a manipulation during the sponsorship scandal of the 1990s and, before Chrétien, Trudeau fundamentally altered our institutions and identities through the Constitution Act and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. After 1982, gone were historic pillars of Canadian political identity such as the supremacy of parliament and British-style “implicit” rights protections. Canadians became the bearers of codified individual rights, and provinces, including Québec, became bound by the policy-based decisions of a philosophically-minded Supreme Court. So profound were the changes brought about by Trudeau’s efforts that subsequent attempts to alter his constitutional reforms by reclaiming some of the provincial powers lost in 1982 failed, perhaps less because of...
Rethinking Identity in Political Science
Political Studies Review, 2020
Political science engages similar types of identity on different terms. There are extensive literatures describing phenomena related to national, ethnic, class, and gender identity; however, these literatures in isolation give us little insight into broader political mechanics of identity itself. Furthermore, many of the theoretical approaches to identity in political science tend to proceed from the macro-level, without conceptualizing its building blocks. How should we conceptualize and operationalize identity in political science? In this article, we examine the existing literature on identity in ethnic politics, nationalism studies, and gender politics to show this disconnect in conceptualizing identity across research agendas. We then provide an integrated model of identity, focusing on how gradations of visibility, conceptualization, and recognition form the basis of claims and conflicts about the politics of identity. We conclude by elucidating a path to overcoming these issues by opening space for a rethinking of identity in political science.
Canada is beginning to slowly embrace an ethic of Indigenous-Settler biculturalism. One model of change is afforded by the development of biculturalism in Aotearoa New Zealand, where recent Indigenous Māori mobilization has created a unique model in the western settler world. This article explores what Canada might learn from the Kiwi experience, focusing on the key identity marker Pākehā, an internalized and contingent settler identity, using Indigenous vocabulary, and reliant on a relationship with Indigenous peoples. This article gauges Pākehā's utility in promoting biculturalism, noting both its progressive qualities and problems in its deployment, including continued inequality, political alienation, and structural discrimination. While Canada has no Pākehā analogue, terms such as settler are being operationalized to develop a larger agenda for reconciliation along the lines recommended by the TRC. However, such terms function best when channeled towards achieving positive concrete goals, rather than acting as rhetorical screens for continued inaction.
“Canadian Experience” discourse and anti-racialism in a “post-racial” society
Ethnic and Racial Studies, 2018
"Canadian Experience" is a paradox for many immigrants in Canada and contributes to their exclusion from the labour market. Through an analysis of Canadian English print media, from 2006 to 2011, we illustrate how "Canadian Experience" discourse places the responsibility of immigrant labour market integration on immigrants themselves and constructs their experiences of exclusion as non-racial. This is theorized as a "post-racial" strategy that relies on anti-racialism (avoidance of racial references) to deny the existence and effects of racism, thereby allowing the Canadian public to maintain its façade of innocence but perpetuates "racism without racists". The discourse dehistoricizes postcolonial racial hierarchy and promotes a de-racialized neoliberal model for immigrant inclusion. This has implications for anti-racism and settlement service provision.
Canadian Journal of Political Science, 2021
Canadian political science has changed over the past 50 years; however, these changes have come slowly and lag behind larger societal demographic transformations. While early attention to diversity concentrated on the place of women within the discipline, more recent attention focuses on the presence of Black, Indigenous and other political scientists of colour. Accompanying a diversification of personnel has been a broadening of the substantive focus of our research, as well as an expansion in the epistemological and methodological approaches applied to the study of politics. Yet despite these adaptations, the study of political science in Canada remains siloed and often exclusionary, challenging our ability to train the next generation of scholars to be capable of addressing the issues facing a world that is increasingly complex and diverse.