Unsettled Expectations

Uncertainty, Land and Settler Decolonization

Eva Mackey

• Publisher: Fernwood Publishing
• Year: 2016
• eBook ISBN: 9781552668986
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Sociology
• Index: Social Sciences

What do local conflicts about land rights tell us about Indigenous-settler relations and the challenges and possibilities of decolonization? In Unsettled Expectations, Eva Mackey draws on ethnographic case studies about land rights conflicts in Canada and the U.S. to argue that critical analysis of present-day disputes over land, belonging and sovereignty will help us understand how colonization is reproduced today and how to challenge it. Employing theoretical approaches from Indigenous and settler colonial studies, and in the context of critical historical and legal analysis, Mackey urges us to rethink the assumptions of settler certainty that underpin current conflicts between settlers and Indigenous peoples and reveals settler privilege to be a doomed fantasy of entitlement.

Finally, Mackey draws on case studies of Indigenous-settler alliances to show how embracing difficult uncertainty can be an integral part of undoing settler privilege and a step toward decolonization.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• CONTENTS
• Dedication
• ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
• Part One CONTACT ZONES AND THE SETTLER COLONIAL PRESENT
• INTRODUCTION
• Chapter 1 GENEALOGIES OF CERTAINTY AND UNCERTAINTY
• Chapter 2 FANTASIZING AND LEGITIMATING POSSESSION
• Part Two ONTOLOGICAL UNCERTAINTIES AND RESURGENT COLONIALISM
• INTRODUCTION
• Chapter 3 DEFENDING EXPECTATIONS
• Chapter 4 SETTLER JURISDICTIONAL IMAGINARIES IN PRACTICE
• Part Three IMAGINING OTHERWISE: EMBRACING SETTLER UNCERTAINTY
• INTRODUCTION
• Chapter 5 “TURNING THE DOCTRINE OF DISCOVERY ON ITS HEAD”
• Chapter Six CREATIVE UNCERTAINTY AND DECOLONIZING RELATIONS
• EPILOGUE
• REFERENCES
• INDEX