Last Updated on April 10, 2025
When I first began commenting on other peoples’ blogs ten years ago, I did not have one of my own. When asked why by like-minded commenters I’d recently befriended, I said that everything I’d written was in an academic format or style. Their response was that was exactly what was missing from our conversations.
Since then, I’ve developed a new style in my many blogs that incorporates notable academic contributions to our conversations by scholars near and far. Some of these scholars are focused on indigenous studies, and others are engaged in theories and reflections about social relations that include both indigenous peoples and settler societies.
One of the most interesting papers I’ve come across in comprehending our changing world is Tribes, Institutions, Markets, Networks: A Framework About Societal Evolution by David F. Ronfeldt. In his 1996 paper, Ronfeldt — then Senior Social Scientist at RAND — examined the challenges and dynamics embedded in combining forms of organization, and proposed a new epoch of conflict and cooperation.
A key proposition about the information revolution, said Ronfeldt, was that it favors and strengthens network forms of organization, and that power and influence at that time appeared to be migrating toward making life difficult for traditional hierarchies. Indeed, he proposed the trend in 1996 augured major social and political transformations.
For those who wish to explore ideas about cooperation and coexistence within an ongoing conflict between the four forms defined by Ronfeldt, this paper serves as a reliable guide. How we apply these ideas is up to us.
Across the world right now, Indigenous peoples are facing a renewed assault on their lands, rights, and ways of life.
From extractive industries pushing deeper into ancestral territories, to governments rolling back hard-won protections,
the threat is global—and it is growing.
What makes this moment especially dangerous is how little attention it receives.
Stories like this are disappearing in real time. Mainstream media
barely covers it and the coverage is fragmented. The public is left without the context
needed to understand what is truly at stake.
That is exactly why IC Magazine exists..
For more than 20 years, IC has reported on Indigenous struggles worldwide — consistently, independently, and without compromise.
We don’t follow news cycles; we trace patterns. We don’t sensationalize; we provide context.
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John Ahni Schertow
Founder and Editor in Chief
