Ecological Democracy Research Articles

Democracy and Kinship in Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind

This article argues that Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind provides generative openings for young people to imagine egalitarian political relations with non-human animals. At the same time, the film also reproduces the all-too-common image of the young monarch who almost single-handedly saves their people from destruction: an autocratic and authoritarian impulse that runs contrary to what a truly ecological democracy might look like. Nevertheless, I propose that educators might still use Nausicaä to help young people think through the politics of climate-minded media.

Beyond Statism and Deliberation: Questioning Ecological Democracy through Eco-Anarchism and Cosmopolitics

This paper decentres the predominance of statism and deliberation in ecological democracy scholarship. We use insights from eco-anarchism and cosmopolitics to identify democratic configurations beyond capitalism and its entanglement with the nation-state. These configurations are premised on the idea that sustainability transformation not only implies a move beyond capitalism and the nation-state, but might comprise their dismantling. We propose and apply an analytical framework encompassing the dimensions actors, praxis and processes and institution(s) to contrast these three political theories and bring forward a diversity of democratic praxes that revolve around the generation of autonomy and the building of multispecies political communities. Finally, we discuss transformation possibilities from within the capitalist nation-state and propose research directions for post-statist, autonomous and diverse ecological democracies.

Left populism, commons and radical democracy: counter-hegemonic alliances in our times

This paper advances the thesis that democratic populism and the commons can and should complement each other in counter-hegemonic interventions promoting egalitarian and ecological democracy in our times. After elucidating its key terms, the article makes, first, a theoretical case for the combination of egalitarian, inclusionary populism and the commons by debunking arguments which highlight the conflicts between them and by explaining the political significance of their conjugation. Subsequently, discussion builds an empirical argument for the real possibility and the democratic promises of such a convergence by considering three ways in which populist politics and the commons merge and recompose each other in contemporary social movements, from the Spanish 15M and new municipalism to Occupy and other collective contestation in the Americas over the last two decades. These cases will illustrate how late social activism has effectively blended populist mobilization with the spirit of the commons, engendering a hybrid figure of ‘common populism’ that fosters grassroots processes of democratization.

‘The Sustainable State’ of STS

What is the role of science & technology studies (STS) in the collective search for a new ‘constitutional vision’ of the sustainable state, one that respects planetary ecological boundaries and enacts a ‘great green transformation’ of state, society, and its infrastructures? In this text – originating as a keynote presentation to the 2022 DASTS conference – I discuss, first, the kind of socio-technical imagination needed for STS research to navigate this contested knowledge-political terrain. Second, based on my co-authored book The Sustainable State (“Den bæredygtige stat”), I suggest four dimensions and collective research agendas that builds on and extends STS’s contribution: new ecological citizenships, new civil society transition alliances, new institutions of ecological democracy, and new socio-ecological markets. In extending established and fostering new analytical proclivities in alliance with other select knowledge practices, STS research will be key, I claim, to this collective building-site, arguably the overarching challenge facing our more-than-human societies.

Fossil Capitalism to Climate Capitalism: Contemporary Systems for Capitalist Accumulation and Incremental Climate Action

Political economists have long developed theories to describe the relationship between our economic system, capitalism, and the environment. Laurie Adkin details some of the complexities of this issue in her work on climate capitalism and ecological democracy (2017, 3). She mentions ‘fossil capitalism,’ which is one of the foundational concepts in this ontology. More recently, the concept of ‘climate capitalism’ has emerged. Both fossil capitalism and climate capitalism are essential concepts to understand when studying the intersection of economic systems and the environment. In this paper, I will discuss the question: why have political economists developed the theoretical concept of ‘climate capitalism’ as a successor to ‘fossil capitalism?’ To address the question’s complexities, I will unpack it systematically, and consider related questions. In this paper, I argue that the shift from ‘fossil capitalism’ to ‘climate capitalism’ does not constitute a shift in the capitalist sentiment towards the environment, but rather is a strategic repositioning tactic of the capitalist accumulation class.

Capitalism at the roots: the crisis of representative democracy through the eyes of Belgian climate activists

ABSTRACT Recent climate activism has played a key role in denouncing the unsustainability of representative democracy. Previous research has investigated the attitudes of climate activists towards representative institutions along the conceptual distinction between ‘environmental’ and ‘ecological’ democracy. Yet, little attention has been paid to climate activists’ critique of capitalism and how it relates to demands for democratic reform. Our paper addresses this gap by conducting a mixed-method analysis of protest survey data collected in Belgium in 2019. Our findings show that activists display low levels of trust towards representative institutions, but still abide by the ideals of environmental democracy within the boundaries of existing institutions. At the same time, we observe a widespread critique of capitalism, signaling attraction towards the ideals of ecological democracy. Overall, our findings challenge the binary distinction between environmental versus ecological democracy, and raises normative questions about the role of environmental social movements in economic and democratic reform.

On how the ECT fuels the fossil fuel economy: Rockhopper v Italy as a case study

The central thesis of this article is that the Energy Charter Treaty can be deployed to expand the fossil fuel industry’s rights and contextually counter democratic forces that animate the ecological transition. More specifically, the article shows the entanglement between the suppression of ecological democracy and the expansion of fossil rights. To offer a more granular understanding of how the Energy Charter Treaty empowers the fossil industry, this article zooms in on the case of Rockhopper v Italy. The case was launched in 2017 by the UK company Rockhopper against the Italian Republic because the latter denied a production concession for offshore oil drilling off the coast of Italy. After a long process of resistance from local communities, in 2016, the Italian government adopted a law of general applicability banning offshore drilling within 12 nautical miles of the coast. Drawing on political theory, this article conceptualises people’s successful forms of resistance to the oil extractivist project as ecological democracy. By unpacking the main facts underpinning this case and the legal reasoning in the award, the article shows how the Rockhopper award has bestowed new property rights on the fossil fuel investor while contextually compressing democratic spaces vital for the ecological transition.

Stimmung as an Aesthetic Category: On Influx & Efflux

Stimmung as an Aesthetic Category: On Influx & Efflux Friederike Reents (bio) In order to “add something to the aesthetic” within the “formative process” (Bennett x) of “influx and efflux,” I would like to engage not only with Walt Whitman, but with Jane Bennett on the aesthetic category of the German word Stimmung, which is not widely used in English-language criticism and lacks a one-word equivalent in this language. As a “half-thing” (Schmitz 21) between the “inside and outside,” the aesthetic category Stimmung seems to offer an answer to the question being posed in Influx & Efflux: “how to think about human agency in a world teeming with powerful nonhuman influences.” Stimmung seems to be very close to the idea of Jane Bennett’s book: it represents the “hover-time of transformation” (x), the “interval between the impression and the expression” (Thoreau, qtd. in Bennett x), between the “influx and efflux.” Via Stimmung, the I becomes “absorbent and creative”; Stimmung, just like Influx & Efflux, “sketch[es] out another mode of subjectivity and action.” Stimmung, usually translated as “mood” or “atmosphere,” on the one hand, or “attunement,” on the other,1 has had a remarkable comeback not only in critical discourse of the past decade but in contemporary literature and poetics as well. This comeback seems [End Page 1042] to be connected to the bridging function possessed by Stimmung and its intellectual, potentially highly connective idea between subject and object. Stimmung belongs to the history of music theory, where it can mean simply “tuning,” but where it was also used to describe the psychological effects of the medium. The word has since been used metaphorically (intermedially) to describe everything from landscape paintings to Romantic poetry to modern art. In existential and neo-phenomenological discourse, Stimmung is understood as a “half-thing” (“Halbding”), one that can be physically sensed but which is neither visible nor touchable, etc. Through a reading of the collaborative poem State of Gunk. Swine in Full Mourning (from Helmet of Phlox, a nineteen-chapter treatise by a collective of five German poets), I will attempt to show that by means of Stimmung, to use Bennett’s words, the “forces of nonhuman agencies and the ubiquity of stupendous, ethereal influences are acknowledged, become more felt, and given more of their due, become slightly more susceptible to being inflected”—maybe even “toward an egalitarian politics” (116). The concept of Stimmung tries to add something to the idea of “influx and efflux” in order to be open and attentive, susceptible to others and welcoming influences, perhaps even to realize the idea of an ecological democracy. In the treatise Helm aus Phlox, Ann Cotten, Daniel Falb, Steffen Popp, Hendrik Jackson, and Monika Rinck include in their discussion of problems that they encounter while writing poetry the (un)translatability of the word Stimmung(en), as exemplified by their collaborative poem Status Matsch. Schweine in Volltrauer (State of Gunk. Swine in Full Mourning; 92). It is worth reading that text against the background of Jane Bennett’s explorations of “the experience of being continuously subject to influence and still managing to add something to the mix” (xiii): State of Gunk. Swine in Full MourningPig brain in the air, pig brain in the air!Who is there? Who is there?Disembodied heads on a conveyor beltblow blow mush!blow blow mush! then along came a clever little translatorthen along came a clever little translator why, you’re ill!pins and needles in the arms, pins and needles in the legsthe brains are wobbling, and flying from brain to brain!No one understands except the translator!No one understands except the translator!2 [End Page 1043] Status Matsch. Schweine in VolltrauerSchweinhirn in der Luft. Schweinhirn in der Luft!Wer nach mir ruft? Wer nach mir ruft?abgetrennte Köpfe auf einem Förderbandpust pust Brei!pust pust Brei! da kam eine kluge Übersetzerin daherda kam eine kluge Übersetzerin daher ihr seid ja krank!die Arme kribbeln, die Beine kribbelndie Hirne schwabbeln, und fliegen von Hirn zu Hirn!Das versteht nur die Übersetzerin!Das versteht nur die Übersetzerin! (92) The poem perplexes the reader with what seem to...

National and International Environmental Law and Justice - The Unresolved Issues. 3. Ecological Democracy

National and International Environmental Law and Justice - The Unresolved Issues. 3. Ecological Democracy

Legitimating the Antarctic Treaty System: from rich nations club to planetary ecological democracy?

ABSTRACT Like other international institutions, the Antarctic Treaty System (ATS) relies on the goodwill and self-binding commitment of its members. Legitimacy, understood as the belief in the ‘rightfulness’ of a governing arrangement by its stakeholders, lies at the heart of the ATS’ success as a multilateral institution. Global warming and geopolitical power shifts are poised to challenge established forms of Antarctic legitimacy and effectiveness, with external calls for Antarctic democratisation and reform increasing. Using the concepts of input, output, and throughput legitimacy, this paper explores how the ATS has been legitimated as the only authoritative decision-making context for Antarctic matters, internally amongst Treaty Partners as well as externally towards the rest of the international community. It argues that the increase of input legitimacy through the inclusion of more consultative parties led to a perceived lack of output legitimacy for some especially environmental critics which illustrates the importance but also the limits of maintaining consensus about throughput legitimacy: the agreed upon processes and rules of decision-making. Finally, the analysis problematises the inhibiting centrality of nation states and the logic of sovereignty during times of global ecological and geopolitical change and asks how an ambitiously democratic future of Antarctic governance in the Anthropocene might look like.

Участь громадськості у прийнятті державних рішень, захист навколишнього природного середовища та демократія

Аргументовано, що підвищення рівня інформаційної обізнаності громадськості з питань охорони довкілля та забезпечення її широкої участі у прийнятті державно-управлінських рішень щодо охорони навколишнього середовища має бути пріоритетом держави, яка прагне налагодити ефективну взаємодію з громадськістю. Зазначено, що, своєю чергою, участь громадськості при розробленні державної політики допомагає вирішенню складних соціальних та екологічних проблем суспільства. Доведено, що зазначене є однією з основних передумов розвитку демократії. Розглянуто основні міжнародні та національні нормативні акти у сфері охорони навколишнього природного середовища. Наведено рівні участі громадян на різних етапах процесу прийняття державно-управлінських рішень. Розглянуто поняття екологічної демократії та визначено, що розвиток освіти і поширення екологічної інформації стимулюють відповідальність громадськості у вирішенні екологічних питань.

Connections between energy and ecological democracy: Considering the Climate Council as a case of climate action in Australia

Energy democracy and ecological democracy movements and thinking are attracting considerable academic attention in the social sciences. Both encompass climate change responses and institutions that include prefigurative politics and diverse strategies for achieving more sustainable futures. However, the academic literatures on ecological democracy and energy democracy do not frequently cross-pollinate. This article presents a case study of a climate action organisation in Australia, the Climate Council, that could be read as belonging to both energy democracy and ecological democracy movements. As a result, it demonstrates that energy democracy and ecological democracy share common ground. I suggest that social scientific research on energy governance could engage with the connections between energy democracy and ecological democracy to deepen our understanding of the contradictions and tensions that exist between prefiguration and hierarchical structures in these organisations. While energy democracy is a relatively new concept, academic work in this area should acknowledge and engage with earlier work on ecological democracy given the conceptual overlaps between both areas.

Grounding Ecological Democracy: Semiotics and the Communicative Networks of Nature

Developments in biosemiotics and democratic theory enable renewed appreciation of the possibilities for ecological democracy. Semiotics is the study of sign processes in meaning-making and communication. Signs and meanings exist in all living systems, and all living systems are therefore semiotic systems. Ecological communication can involve abiotic and biotic communication, including human language, facilitating an integration of politics and ecology in the form of ecological democracy encompassing communicative networks in nature and human society.

Rethinking Development: Vikalp Sangam and the search for alternatives in India

It is increasingly becoming evident that the current model of “development” has led the world to the brink of a climate disaster, as the very fundamentals of the natural systems on which the world’s current economic structure is predicated upon stand compromised. Vast tracts of lands have become poisoned and barren, and the rising seas are threatening coastal cities and ecosystems. As people begin to make sense of this rapidly devolving situation, some serious and well-considered attempts are being made to craft an alternative model of human existence. In India, Vikalp Sangam or the “Confluence of Alternatives” is an emerging platform, which is leading this exploration through a blend of modern progressive thinking, and ancient wisdom of indigenous peoples and other traditional community worldviews. It is empowering these ideas as well as the practice of alternatives to reach a large audience and become viable for discussion, analysis and eventual replication in other places. This paper analyzes the opinions, facts, theories and data emerging out of the Vikalp Sangam process to understand the evolution of “alternatives” thinking in India, and how it can influence the process of recalibrating the larger idea of development in the country. It focuses on the process by which a fundamental and transformative systemic change could be introduced into the society for the construction of a new political-economy that moves beyond both corporate capitalism and state socialism and towards the creation of “Radical Ecological Democracy”, based on climate justice, environmental sustainability and socio-economic equality.

“You Gotta here these Stories”: An Ecocritical Analysis of mother!

Abstract By sharing the experiences of two teacher educators, this article interrogates a tendency in ecojustice education to position humans-as-saviors in climate crisis narratives. The authors postulate the use of film—specifically, Darren Aronofsky’s (2017) mother!—to facilitate the complex process of a critical ontology that decenters humans in stories of ecological relationality. The authors ask: How might we use film to disrupt the ways future teachers are commonly positioned as protagonists in the human-as-savior narrative? How might teachers be positioned to promote Holland, Lachiocotte, Skinner, and Cain’s (2001) pillars of ecological democracy: intelligent communication, recognized identity, and critical agency between multiple species? The authors share how they work with/in teacher education to address these tensions in a Social Foundations or Multicultural Education course. They conclude with pedagogical examples of how the authors envision film as part of a teacher education curriculum.

Towards the possibility of transforming consumer culture into ecological civilization

The article analyzes the prospects of ecological civilisation in a media-driven society at the end of the 20th century and the first two decades of the 21st century. The self-identity of the individual is now formed within the culture-ideology of consumerism, which is defined by the excessive production and consumption of all kinds of goods and services. Public policies of this period are shaped by neoliberal principles emphasizing the individuals’ benefit and their profit. The result of such a culture is an intensification of environmental and social destruction at the planetary level. Almost unlimited support for the growth of production and consumption faces the limits of the planetary system, its capacity to provide resources for continued growth, and to absorb pollution. Consequently, humanity faces the instability and unpredictability of the Anthropocene. From a philosophical point of view, the global environmental crisis opens up the problem of justifying regulations restricting the freedom of unlimited production and consumption. The concept of ecological culture or ecological civilization which is developing in contemporary China can be considered as the opposite of the culture-ideology of consumerism. It emerged in China in the mid-1980s as a response to the Soviet-formulated model of ‘green culture.’ This concept integrates several ‘Western’ concepts of sustainable development, eco-Marxism, ecological democracy, but it also incorporates several traditional Chinese philosophical concepts and thus can be perceived as part of the renaissance of traditional Chinese ways of thinking and interpreting the world. The question is whether the concept of ecological civilization is a real alternative to consumer culture. If the answer to this question is affirmative, then the possibilities of transforming the culture of consumption into an ecological civilization analysed in the article should be considered as trends of sustainable development.

ОСНОВИ ФОРМУВАННЯ СУЧАСНОЇ ЕКОЛОГІЧНОЇ ДЕРЖАВИ В УКРАЇНІ

The paper addresses the social, economic, environmental and legal bases of the modern Environmental state formation and prospects of this state's construction in Ukraine on the grounds of realization of the state policy. Peculiarities of realization of separate principles of the state policy, capable of promoting the formation of the environmental state, are considered. Based on the analysis of the formation of such states in some countries, the paper studies the ways to improve the legal framework for the formation of an environmentally friendly society, environmental partnership, as the main way to build an environmental state, and to ensure parity of environmental, economic and social needs in the context of sustaina-ble development. Particular attention is paid to the formation of the ecological paradigm as the basis for environmental legal consciousness of the whole society. This will allow the revision of values in relation to nature and recognize nature at the level of the Constitution of Ukraine as the basic social value. Attention is also paid to the structure, forms, methods, and content of environmental partnership, which can influence various factors in the formation of environmental state. It is proved that the main form of environmental partnership in modern conditions is a public-private partnership and that the latter is able to ensure the implementation of the effective environmental projects in the areas of natural resources restoration, waste management, eco-tourism etc. According to the structure, the environmental partnership is proposed to be considered as a set of institutional, regulatory, functional and communicative subsystems, possible content of which is also revealed. On the basis of the conducted research, the independent scientific conclusions and judgments on the analysed subjects are suggested and the ways of perfection of the current legislation of Ukraine on the outlined questions are offered. Keywords: ecological democracy, environmental paradigm, environmental legal awareness, environmental policy, the principle of environmental partnership, environmental legislation.

The Framework of Ecological Democracy: Make a City to Touch the People's Hearts and Change the World

The Framework of Ecological Democracy: Make a City to Touch the People's Hearts and Change the World

Environmentalism and Democracy

As the ecological crisis becomes increasingly pressing, the relation of environmentalism and democracy is spotlighted with new instancy. On one hand, the capability of present democratic governments to take adequate political action is seriously questioned. On the other hand, environmentalism is charged of being anti-democratic. This paper, in a first step, examines the “green” criticism of and sometimes actual departures from democracy. Drawing on that analysis as well as a pragmatist concept of democracy, the elements of an “ecological democracy” will be outlined in a second step. Democracy, then, is not only a way of collective-problem solving, but also a form of life that has an intrinsic value, even in the face of unresolvable problems and failure. Striving for transformation and the best possible scenario nevertheless, finally, demands an attitude of ecological meliorism, which will be briefly outlined.

Normalising the ‘alter-Europe’ or going beyond this Europe? Italian environmental movements’ perspectives on Europe, democracy and the ecological crisis

ABSTRACT Based on 19 interviews with key activists, the paper discusses different visions of Europe and democracy within the Italian environmental archipelago. A clear dichotomy has emerged. On the one hand, institutional ENGOs conduct lobbying activities, adapting to different multilevel political opportunities: their attempt is to reform the current structure of the EU, which also contributes to institutionalise the innovative perspectives of ‘another Europe' advanced by the Global Justice Movement in the early 2000s. On the other hand, grassroots groups suggest going ‘beyond this Europe’, as they are critical of its current geographical borders and political institutions. They normally do so by adopting contentious actions in a domestic dimension. Furthermore, two divergent democratic paradigms can be identified. I propose to call them ecological democracy and green democracy. The latter stands for a conception of the environmental issues as subordinated to, or at least unthinkable outside, the (Western) representative democracy and the gospel of economic growth. Ecological democracy involves a conception of democracy as effective only if based on ecological perspectives, within a vision which stigmatises capitalist economy and the institutions supporting it. These paradigms resonate with the interpretation of the current (ecological) critical juncture as the Anthropocene or as the Capitalocene.