Abstract Book of the 9th International Conference on New Trends in Social Sciences
Year: 2026
[PDF]
Dismissal of the Fourth World: Why International Institutional Reporting Should Care About Settler Colonialism in the Global North
Jasmine Dionne
ABSTRACT:
This presentation will highlight the trajectory and current utility of Manuel’s (1974) Fourth World as it pertains to current constructions and ideas of what constitutes as the “global north”. Specifically noting that international institutions, like the World Bank and Amnesty International for example, either avoid discussing Indigenous peoples in the settler colonial countries of the global north or may discuss them without bringing to light the paternalistic role that colonialism plays in the state’s relationship to Indigenous people. The concept of the fourth world remains relevant as Indigenous lands and resources are usurped illicitly in settler colonial nations states of the global north which has harmful outcomes for the Indigenous populations in these nation-states but are not reflected in international data and reporting about the global north. The statistics presented about the wealth, wellbeing, and freedom of global north nation-states does not reflect those, Indigenous people, living in the fourth world. Using discourse analysis, I identify major gaps in how the global north is discussed in international reporting (financial, political, and social) that ignores the ongoing realities of settler colonialism that harms Indigenous peoples. Thus, current norms in international institutions that collect data about the global north are actively engaging in form of colonialism and erasure which skews the reliability of that data. In closing, I suggest that there is an urgency to implore further about collective disaggregated data that allows us to question where and how the data about the global north is derived from the exploitation and maintenance of the fourth world.
Keywords: Indigenous Politics, Canadian Politics, Settler Colonialism, Indigenous Rights & Title, Neoliberal Orthodoxy