Settler-Colonial Structure and Indigenous Agency: Drawing on the Sociological Cannon to Theorize Settler-Colonialism

• In Event: 21055 - Decolonizing and Intersectionalizing the Canon

Abstract

This article examines the structure-agency debate within settler-colonial theory, drawing on sociological insights to theorize Indigenous agency within settler-colonial structures. While Patrick Wolfe (1999) famously argued that settler-colonialism is a total structure, scholars have increasingly sought to theorize the spaces where Indigenous resistance, resurgence, and self-determination take form. The overdetermined nature of settler-colonial theory has led to theoretical stagnation, obscuring the ways Indigenous Peoples exert agency within and against settler-colonial systems. By incorporating William Sewell Jr.'s (1992) conceptualization of structure as the interplay between cultural schemas and material resources, this article reconceptualizes settler-colonialism as a dynamic and contested formation rather than an immutable structure. It argues that Indigenous agency is realized through the empowerment of Indigenous cultural schemas via three key mechanisms: (1) racialized organizations that redistribute power and resources, (2) racialized emotions that mobilize resistance, and (3) Indigenous future projectivity, which challenges settler conceptions of time and sovereignty. By applying sociological insights to settler-colonial theory, this article not only clarifies the conditions of Indigenous agency but also expands sociological understandings of race, colonialism, and social change. Ultimately, it calls for a sociological framework of settler-colonialism that accounts for both domination and Indigenous resilience, highlighting the ongoing negotiation of power and the possibilities for transformation within settler-colonial societies.

Author

• Dean R. Ray, York University