Claiming Territory in the Name of Indigeneity: A Framework for Analysis

• In Event: 20481 - Section on Sociology of Development Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 1. Mobilization and Social Movements

Abstract

This paper proposes a framework for analyzing the intersection of indigenous identity politics,
claims over ancestral territories, and opposition to extractive industries, with special attention to
the reach of indigenous rights as established in international law. Drawing on the Mexican case, it
argues that ILO Convention No. 169 has been a relatively ineffective tool for securing rights to
ancestral land and for resisting the expansion of extractivism. Still, it has had numerous other
socio-political implications, such as shaping frames of resistance to the dominant development
paradigm. To best understand the role and limits of the mobilization of indigeneity in relation to
territorial struggles, it proposes a three-pronged analytical framework that calls for the place-
specific investigation of the interrelationships between: (1) indigenous identity politics; (2)
citizenship regimes; and (3) land tenure regimes; in the context of a global capitalist economy
that depends on the systematic expansion of the extractive frontier.

Author

• Tamara Wattnem, Trinity University