Sources And Methods In Histories Of Colonialism

Sources and Methods in Histories of Colonialism encourages readers to think more critically and analytically about the archives in which they work as well as about their research methods, their sources and their conceptual approaches. This volume provides an in-depth and critical survey of the now substantial and influential scholarly literatures on the functions and scope of the 'imperial archive' and on the relationships between the archive, knowledge and power. It allows readers to develop a deeper understanding of the challenges of working with a range of specific source genres within imperial and colonial archives. It explores the ways in which newer approaches to, and ways of thinking about, the past have challenged more traditional views of 'the archive', provoking new questions about what archives are and where their conceptual, geographical and chronological boundaries might lie. And, it assesses the implications of these shifts for those interested in researching and writing about colonial and postcolonial societies. Focusing on the period from the late eighteenth century to the present, the authors examine issues, themes and case studies pertaining to a broad range of modern empires including those established by Britain, France, the Netherlands, Spain and the United States. The source genres discussed illustrate and exemplify a range of core themes and debates regarding the writing of colonial and postcolonial histories, covering a range of subjects including government papers, censuses, petitions, case-files, and orality. Many of the chapters combine an overview of the current state of research and writing about a particular source genre or conceptual theme with a case study. This combination of overview and case study will enable readers to explore and examine the issues in a grounded, hands-on and applied fashion.

Cover -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- List of figures -- Acknowledgements -- List of contributors -- Introduction -- PART I -- 1 Democratising the photographic archive -- 2 Archival detours: sourcing colonial history -- 3 Decolonizing the archives: a transnational perspective -- PART II -- 4 Archiving Algeria: power, violence and secrecy -- 5 Colonial knowledge and subaltern voices: the case of an official enquiry in mid-nineteenth-century Java -- 6 Making people countable: analyzing paper trails and the imperial census -- PART III -- 7 Institutional case files: insanity's archive -- 8 Gender, geopolitics and gaps in the records: women glimpsed in the military archives -- 9 Entanglement of oral sources and colonial records -- 10 Living empire -- Index

Intended for those interested in the African continent and the diversity of human history, this work looks at Africa's past and reflects on the changing ways it has been imagined and represented. It illustrates key themes in modern thinking about Africa's history with a range of historical examples.

Debates about the origins and effects of European rule in the non-European world have animated the field of economic history since the 1850s. This pioneering text provides a concise and accessible resource that introduces key readings, builds connections between ideas and helps students to develop informed views of colonialism as a force in shaping the modern world. With special reference to European colonialism of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in both Asia and Africa, this book: • critically reviews the literature on colonialism and economic growth; • covers a range of different methods of analysis; • offers a comparative approach, as opposed to a collection of regional histories, deftly weaving together different themes. With debates around globalization, migration, global finance and environmental change intensifying, this authoritative account of the relationship between colonialism and economic development makes an invaluable contribution to several distinct literatures in economic history.

Considers what aspiring and mature historians need to know about the discipline of history in the United States today.

'A landmark in the process of decolonizing imperial Western knowledge.' Walter Mignolo, Duke University To the colonized, the term 'research' is conflated with European colonialism; the ways in which academic research has been implicated in the throes of imperialism remains a painful memory. This essential volume explores intersections of imperialism and research - specifically, the ways in which imperialism is embedded in disciplines of knowledge and tradition as 'regimes of truth.' Concepts such as 'discovery' and 'claiming' are discussed and an argument presented that the decolonization of research methods will help to reclaim control over indigenous ways of knowing and being. Now in its eagerly awaited second edition, this bestselling book has been substantially revised, with new case-studies and examples and important additions on new indigenous literature, the role of research in indigenous struggles for social justice, which brings this essential volume urgently up-to-date.

Sources and Methods in Indigenous Studies is a synthesis of changes and innovations in methodologies in Indigenous Studies, focusing on sources over a broad chronological and geographical range. Written by a group of highly respected Indigenous Studies scholars from across an array of disciplines, this collection offers insight into the methodological approaches contributors take to research, and how these methods have developed in recent years. The book has a two-part structure that looks, firstly, at the theoretical and disciplinary movement of Indigenous Studies within history, literature, anthropology, and the social sciences. Chapters in this section reveal that, while engaging with other disciplines, Indigenous Studies has forged its own intellectual path by borrowing and innovating from other fields. In part two, the book examines the many different areas with which sources for indigenous history have been engaged, including the importance of family, gender, feminism, and sexuality, as well as various elements of expressive culture such as material culture, literature, and museums. Together, the chapters offer readers an overview of the dynamic state of the field in Indigenous Studies. This book shines a spotlight on the ways in which scholarship is transforming Indigenous Studies in methodologically innovative and exciting ways, and will be essential reading for students and scholars in the field.

In Pollution Is Colonialism Max Liboiron presents a framework for understanding scientific research methods as practices that can align with or against colonialism. They point out that even when researchers are working toward benevolent goals, environmental science and activism are often premised on a colonial worldview and access to land. Focusing on plastic pollution, the book models an anticolonial scientific practice aligned with Indigenous, particularly Métis, concepts of land, ethics, and relations. Liboiron draws on their work in the Civic Laboratory for Environmental Action Research (CLEAR)—an anticolonial science laboratory in Newfoundland, Canada—to illuminate how pollution is not a symptom of capitalism but a violent enactment of colonial land relations that claim access to Indigenous land. Liboiron's creative, lively, and passionate text refuses theories of pollution that make Indigenous land available for settler and colonial goals. In this way, their methodology demonstrates that anticolonial science is not only possible but is currently being practiced in ways that enact more ethical modes of being in the world.