Date of Award
Spring 6-15-2025
Document Type
Thesis
Language
English
Subjects
Capitalist Realism, Indigenous Sovereignty, Relational Ontologies, Colonial Modernity, Political Imagination, Ecological Worldviews
Abstract
This paper engages Mark Fisher's Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative? as a foundational critique of late capitalism's ideological dominance, and proposes Indigenous worldviews as both a critical lens and a generative alternative. Fisher defines capitalist realism as a pervasive structure that colonizes imagination, depoliticizes systemic crises, and renders other ways of living unthinkable. He illustrates how capitalism commodifies resistance, pathologizes dissent, and obscures accountability, particularly through institutions like the call center and discourses on mental health and climate change. In contrast, the paper turns to Indigenous political theories—drawing on thinkers such as Kim TallBear, Daniel Heath Justice, Ocean Ripeka Mercier, and Queenie Quilo—to foreground ontologies grounded in relationality, ecological reciprocity, and spiritual continuity. Concepts such as tino rangatiratanga challenge the individualism and disconnection central to capitalist realism, offering models of governance rooted in mutual obligation and respect. Through holistic knowledge systems that integrate the metaphysical, social, and ecological, Indigenous philosophies confront capitalist realism's flattening effects and restore possibilities for cultural renewal and political imagination. Ultimately, the paper argues that while Fisher reveals the psychic and structural impasse of contemporary capitalism, Indigenous thought offers practical and philosophical foundations for envisioning—and enacting—alternative futures beyond capitalist constraint.
Persistent Identifier
https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/44723
Recommended Citation
Jessup, Celine, "Beyond Capitalist Realism: Indigenous Worldviews as Critique and Alternative" (2025). University Honors Theses. Paper 1776.