CPS Lunch Forum: Alejandra Mancilla

This article is an introduction to an edited book on "Antarctica and colonialism". Ultimately, the aim is to argue that it makes sense to connect Antarctica with colonialism because doing so illuminates our understanding of both. Colonialism pushes us to ask questions not only about the practices of humans in Antarctica and the power relations established between them, but also about the overarching mindsets that have governed both specific human activities in Antarctica and larger human schemes to govern Antarctica. At the same time, Antarctica pushes us to ask where the limits of colonialism as an analytic category might lie, and how far the concept’s utility extends for providing insight not available through other tools.
The chapter notes that, while imperialism has been an uncontroversial label to describe Antarctica’s history and politics, it is much more contentious whether colonialism took place in Antarctica and, if it did, in what form. We examine different definitions of colonialism and different accounts of the specific moral wrong embedded in it and note that a common feature in the definitions is the domination of one group of people by another. We then discuss what analytic use the term could then have in Antarctica, where there were no people to subjugate. Our suggestion is that, despite of this, a certain colonial logic and attitude were as present as elsewhere. We suggest, moreover, that what happened and happens in Antarctica might entrench colonial structures still present at the international level. The chapter then considers decolonization as a concept and how it may expand the scope of the analysis in Antarctica, particularly in considering the structural legacies of colonialism worldwide.