Webs of reciprocity: Colonial taxation and the need for reparations

Abstract

My BJS lecture considered how dominant understandings of distributive justice and welfare have been conceptualised through the "nation" and argued that a more adequate framing requires them to be addressed also in the context of colonial and imperial relations. It argues that a just politics in the present has to account for this history and that one way of doing this effectively would be through a reparative frame. In this short response, I engage with the commentaries on my lecture.

Keywords: colonialism; nation-state; reparations; taxation; welfare.