Relational Colonialisms and a Turn to Place Based Epistemologies

This paper introduces a Relational Colonialisms Framework informed by Indigenous Pasifika epistemologies tā (time), vā (relational space), and teu le va (the ethic of relational care) to expand dominant sociological understandings of U.S. settler colonialism beyond the contiguous United States. I show how the temporal, spatial, and relational assumptions of settler colonial theory often obscure the layered, shifting, and entangled colonial logics operating across the U.S. territories. By foregrounding Indigenous ways of knowing, I argue for a place-based, relational approach that resists totalizing explanations and offers new tools for understanding the United States as both settler state and empire. I emphasize the centrality of the territories to the settler imperial structure, highlighting ongoing militarism, jurisdictional ambiguity, and oceanic governance. This paper offers an invitation to theorize settler colonialism in place, with attention to specificity, grounded in Indigenous relationality, and accountable to the communities who live with and resist empire.