Is Race Political?

Abstract

Abstract. This article demonstrates that though the political nature of race is evident and constitutes an important area of research, there is a dearth of literature on race in English Canadian political science particularly as compared to other social sciences. The article provides explanations for this disciplinary silence, including methodological fuzziness, dominant elite-focused and colour-blind approaches to the study of politics, and the prevalence of ideas and foci about the nature of Canadian politics. In order to avoid the danger of disciplinary lag, it concludes with several ways of addressing this disparity between the political science and the society it purports to analyze.Résumé. Malgré l'essence politique évidente du concept de «race» et son importance indéniable comme sujet de recherche, la littérature de science politique canadienne-anglaise s'y attarde très peu, surtout en comparaison des autres sciences sociales. L'article explique les causes de ce silence disciplinaire. Celles-ci incluent un flou méthodologique, une approche surtout centrée sur l'élite, une perspective «daltonienne» concernant l'étude de la politique, ainsi que la prédominance de certaines idées quant à la nature de la politique canadienne. Afin d'éviter un danger de lacune disciplinaire, l'article propose des solutions permettant de réduire l'écart entre la science politique et son objet d'étude, soit la société réelle.

The Future of Canadian Political Science: Boundary Transgressions, Gender and Anti-Oppression Frameworks

“…Returning to these abstracts but using the terms (and their derivatives): oppression, dominance, settler colonialism, colonization, exploitation, marginalization, sexism, heterosexism, homophobia, heteronormativity, homonormativity, racism, poverty, settler, privilege, whiteness, white supremacy, intersectional, resistance, justice, liberation, Indigenous, citizenship, anti-oppression, and Aboriginality, yielded 22 more articles in CJPS/RCSP. Articles in CJPS/RCSP and CPSR that adopt an intersectional antioppression approach disrupt specific concepts that have defined CPS including, but not limited to, identity (Hakivinsky and Dhamoon, 2013;Nath, 2011;Page, 2017;Thompson, 2008), Aboriginality (Ladner, 2017;Lugosi, 2011, D. MacDonald, 2007Murray, 2017;Panagos, 2007), sovereignty (Bruyneel, 2010;Green 2001Green , 2006Hudon, 2017;Voth, 2016), mobilization (Tungohan, 2017) and equality (Abu-Laban and Couture, 2010;Hakivinsky, 2005Hakivinsky, , 2012. While these concepts are an intrinsic part of CPS and are discussed extensively in CJPS/RCSP and CPSR, analysis typically reproduces structural forms of power inside and outside the discipline.…”

Engaging with Identity Politics in Canadian Political Science

“…Accordingly, we do not follow the convention of placing the term "race" in quotation marks to denote that the term is problematic and lacks scientific legitimacy, since we do not consider the material "realness" of race to depend on biological determinants, but rather social relations of power. 10 While only five articles included race/racialization, it is important to note that other articles referred to race but did not refer to it as constituting identity politics; in particular, Thompson (2008) and Smith (2009) take up race as a distinct analytic category. 11 While we are all subject to racialization, we use the language of racialized to designate those marked as divergent from a socially and historically constructed, though often unarticulated, racial norm.…”

Racialized Precarious Employment and the Inadequacies of the Canadian Welfare State

“…Nath (2011) claims that "the absence of 'race' in Canadian Political Science is not straightforward because 'race' is often recorded as culture or ethnicity" (p. 166). Thompson (2008) holds that this "conflation or equation of race with ethnicity often diminishes the claims of racial minorities" (p. 527). When racial and ethnic identities are equated, the challenges encountered by racial minorities when striving for inclusion can be blamed on ideological differences and cultural practices that allegedly pose challenges for social integration.…”