Anarchist Futures: Indigenous Influences in the Speculative World-Making of Ursula K. Le Guin

Abstract: By focusing on the interventions Le Guin makes in the discipline of anthropology, theorists have missed a critical connection to radical and utopia studies—the diverse ways that anarchist thought can be and is being grounded in Indigenous radical theory. In this article, we argue that Le Guin was influenced by Native North American philosophy and political action, tracing the links between these influences and anarchism more generally. We also point out that the tradition of anarchism and critical theory, broadly speaking, that has developed in settler-colonial nations is greatly enriched by, indeed requires, Indigenous scholarship to imagine and construct truly liberated futures. In addition to critical Indigenous theory, Native-authored speculative world-making offers a poignant vantage point from which to actualize these anarchist futures in ways that do not assume the permanence of or reify settler colonialism.