What’s unsettling about On Settling

Discussing the settler colonial present

Bibliographic Data

ID12609640
AuthorsL Veracini (0000-0002-3481-8535, Swinburne University of Technology, corresponding author)
Year2013
Volume17
Issue2
Pages235-251
Publication date2013-11-14
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueCritical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1369-8230 • E-ISSN: 1743-8772
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/13698230.2013.857923
OpenAlexW1975615873
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited29

This article considers the current relevance of settler colonial tropes, narratives and idioms by discussing the opening section of On Settling (2012), a recently published book authored by respected political scientist Robert E. Goodin. While Goodin argues that ‘settling’ should be considered a ‘normatively defensible practice’, my critique focuses on his assumed link between ‘settling’ in general and settler colonialism in particular. The first section of this article follows the narrative of settlement that underpins Goodin’s book. The second section discusses this narrative’s inherently exclusionary character, a characteristic that undermines claims to universal normative validity; while the third section appraises the language that supports it. In the fourth, conclusive, section On Settling’s apology of settler colonialism is used as a starting point for an analysis of the settler colonial present in an ‘age of unsettlement’

Character (mathematics · Colonialism · Epistemology · Linguistics · Narrative · Normative · Political science · Politics · Relevance (law · Section (typography · Settlement (finance · Settling · Sociology · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Computer Science · Indigenous Health, Education, and Rights · Law · Mathematics · Philosophy · Political Philosophy and Ethics