Indigenous rights and the persistence of industrial capitalism: Capturing the law–ideology–power triple-helix

Abstract

This article examines the power relations that unfold when Indigenous-led struggles invoke settler-colonial law toward protection from industry’s impacts. Building on Critical Race Theory, I posit a ‘triple-helical’ relationship between law, power, and ideology, which coproduce one another, mediated by nudges from individual agents. I argue that the triple-helix of Indigenous rights to protection from industry’s impacts has stagnated, due to industrial capitalism’s pushback through social regularization processes as well as its capture of formal and informal regulators and of discourses and ideologies. I conclude with a research agenda for applying the triple-helix framework to Indigenous-led engagements with industry.