Towards an Indigenous Institutionalism: The Case of Greenlandic Representation

• In Event: Responding to Challenges and Threats to Indigenous Communities

Abstract

Within the recent decade feminist institutionalism has proven useful for studies of politics and gendered power relations. Accordingly, feminist institutionalist scholars have theorized that other parts of political science that invistigate relations between institutions, identity and power may benefit from the theoretical frame work and the analytical tools it provides. This paper takes this speculation to a test; based on a case study of the substantive representation of Greenlandic interests in the Danish Parliament, it explores if – and if so then how - feminist institutionalism may guide the analysis of the way in which parliamentary institutions are marked by a colonial heritage and have colonial effects. Hence, besides investigating the specifics of the Greenlandic case, an overall aim of the paper is to develop an indigenous institutionalism based on the tools and assumptions of feminist institutionalism, thereby contributing to the literature on substantive representation of indigenous peoples in national parliaments, which is still rather scarce.

Author

• Mette Marie Staehr Harder, Stockholm University