NCJ Number
166002
Date Published
1996
Length
18 pages
Annotation
Using the framework of Habermas' (1987) theory of contemporary society, this chapter analyzes the experiences of urban Aboriginal youth in Canada.
Abstract
Habermas argues that as the impersonal steering mechanisms of money and power spread through the whole of a late capitalist society, instrumental (means/ends) rationality dominates all interactions, distorting and misrepresenting people's needs and normative expectations, thus "colonizing" the life-world and thwarting the potentially superior rationality inherent in the speech acts of communicative action. The solution, according to Habermas, lies in reconstructing the social order in less oppressive ways by stimulating "rational discourse" and thus rebalancing relations between life-world and system. Through uncoerced dialogue, actors openly reconcile their differences and produce a more communicatively rationalized life-world that is able to amend system excesses. In accordance with Habermas' framework, the Aboriginals' plight in Canada's urban areas can be understood in terms of their chronic inability to access system processes and the impoverishment of their life-world. This thesis is examined through a study of the daily experience of Aboriginal adolescents (12 to 18 years old) in the downtown core of Vancouver, British Columbia. The author poses the possibility of an urban life in which public institutions are responsive to the cultural traditions of Aborigines through the development of a native advocacy network. This network would authenticate the native life-world while providing access to the services and economic opportunities of the dominant culture. 23 notes and 11 references