Toward a Sociology of Indigenous Placemaking: New Chapter by Rocha Beardall
Posted: 3/21/2024 (CSDE Research)
CSDE Affiliate Theresa Rocha Beardall authored a chapter, titled “Toward a sociology of Indigenous placemaking” in the edited volume New Approaches to Inequality Research with Youth. This chapter shares the concept of Indigenous placemaking to counter the erasure of Indigenous knowledge and experiences from sociological study. Drawing from the work of several Indigenous Studies scholars and thinkers, Rocha Beardall defines Indigenous placemaking in three parts. By foregrounding Indigenous perspectives in sociological research, Indigenous placemaking illustrates that sociality is place-based, lived experiences must be centered, and that land is and always will be a mode of relationality. Sociological research can learn to better analyze how place matters, not only for its geography but as part of a dynamic social space defined by Indigenous relationality and imbued with the possibility for interdependent futures.