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

Abstract

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.

Becoming‐Interdependent: Democratic Praxis In‐Against‐and‐Beyond Capitalism in Agrifood Collectives

“…We define democratic praxis as the diversity of political practices that contribute to an infinite, collective, continuous, and practical interrogation on how to live together based on the presupposition of equality and the generation of autonomy (Purcell 2013; Smessaert and Feola 2023). This praxis is founded on the “critique of the very separation of politics from the rest of our everyday activity, on the overcoming of the separation of politics from doing” (Holloway 2010:133).…”

“…For this reason, Holloway (2010:134) refers to the state as “a removal, a displacement, a drawing away of our struggle for a different world” and as an externalisation of our power that is continuously created, performed, and reproduced. Drawing on Castoriadis (2010), Smessaert and Feola (2023) refer to this movement as the generation of heteronomy by the state and capitalism. The generation of heteronomy refers to those movements, actions, or structures that create situations wherein the rules, norms, and limits that govern society are attributed to an external authority that cannot be questioned or changed.…”

“…proposing concrete resistance strategies and outright attacks to its configurations) and proposing alternative configurations (i.e. prefiguration through subtraction) that go beyond capitalism (Smessaert and Feola 2023).…”