VertigO ()
Territoires et urbanités autochtones face aux défis socio-écologiques au Canada : enjeux d’inclusion et de gouvernance
Abstract
This research note proposes a reflection on indigenous urbanities and environmental governance. In Canada, the scientific literature has extensively studied the models of governance and the co-management of resources in indigenous territories, emphasizing their important natural resources and the existence of cosmologies that can contribute in an alternative way to collective action in the face of contemporary socio-ecological challenges. While most indigenous people in Quebec live outside the reserve, little work has been dedicated to the governance models involving indigenous people in urban areas, and even less on the environment. The dominant modes of governance have also been criticized on the grounds that they risk perpetuating unequal frameworks of collaboration and hindering truly inclusive governance. One of the reasons for this is that colonial power structures tend to disqualify alternative epistemologies and practices. In this regard, the urban context requires a reconsideration of the issues associated with governance in the face of contemporary socio-ecological challenges due to the diversity of actors involved, which is what this article focuses on by critically examining the relevant literature. The presence of Aboriginal people in Canada's major urban centers is not new, and their absence from environmental governance seems to reflect a lack of recognition of this reality and the exclusion of their perspectives. To remedy this, urban governance should be rethought from the point of view of the representativeness of the different voices as well as alternative models of considering the commonality that Aboriginal people can enrich the city with.
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