Indigenous Rights as a Field of Sociological Research

Abstract

This paper sets out a new reconstruction of indigenous rights as a field of sociological research. Questioning the dominant pluralist paradigm in such inquiry, it claims that indigenous rights are primarily the results, not of socially embedded customs, but of interactions between international law and national law. It then proceeds to explain that, to capture such rights, a focus on social integration and national citizenship is required. It uses this framework to explain indigenous rights as elements of a global legal order that facilitates the construction of citizenship, especially in societies in which citizenship has been subject to deep strain.