Artikelen

Reshaping civilization. Liberalism between assimilation and cultural genocide

Auteurs

  • Krieken,Robert van

Trefwoorden:

Colonialism, Aboriginal australians, Civilization, Liberalism, Australia, Historical development

Samenvatting

This paper argues for a more nuanced understanding of different meanings of the concept of "civilization" through an examination of the relationships between processes of civilization and settler-colonialism under liberal political regimes. The particular example used is that of the history of the Australian "stolen generations" -- those Aboriginal children removed from their families in the course of the twentieth century -- and its current political and normative reassessment, which provides an important stimulus toward critical reflections on the nature of liberal politics and practices in a settler-colonial context. The paper focuses on the linkages between the historical development of liberalism and changes in what is understood and experienced as "civilization," beginning with the contrast between the reliance on the concept of "civilization" both to remove Aboriginal children families up until the 1970s, and to support the subsequent critique of removal policies and practices. I observe that the concept of "civilization" has been used by social scientists in at least three different ways, and argue for the need to keep in view the relationship between civilization and colonialism in order to support a more reflexive understanding of civilization that can encompass all three meanings and pay due heed to the paradoxical possibilities of violence and barbarism coexisting alongside and within processes of civilization. 81 References. Adapted from the source document.

Biografie auteur

Krieken,Robert van

Gepubliceerd

2002-06-01

Nummer

Sectie

Artikelen