Introduction to Special Issue

What hopes exist and persist for democratic and ecological flourishing in these perilous times?This special issue of Democratic Theory gathers thinkers from diverse perspectives to engage themes related to ecological and democratic flourishing-themes that have become increasingly urgent as democratic attempts to address the climate crisis have faltered while democracy itself appears to approach extinction.In our 2024 book, Earthborn Democracy (EBD), we argued that the twin crises of ecology and democracy stem from a failing cultural and political story, a story that occludes the entanglement of humans and non-humans, both the fact of interdependence and the histories of successful democratic entanglement which might inspire political action today.The contributions collected here, both direct engagements with EBD and explorations beyond it, take up the challenge of envisioning a democratic politics born of our earthly entanglements.Seven original research articles expand and think alongside the arguments of EBD, with particular focus on myth, ecology, alternative forms of political engagement, and imagination.The symposium that follows assembles four distinguished scholars to respond to EBD and includes a response from us, the authors.The issue closes with an exclusive interview with Anne Norton, political theorist and author, most recently, of Wild Democracy, on the intersections of materiality, ecology, myth, and democratic politics.As we see it, the work assembled here embodies visionary political theorizing, in two different senses of the word vision (Aslam, McIvor, and Schlosser 2023).On the one hand, visionary political theory names the work of accurately describing the world, identifying the exact nature of the problems we face together.On the other hand, visionary political theory also envisions creative responses to those problems, responses not limited to the terms or assumptions with which the problems present themselves.All the contributions here begin from a lucid assessment of the current crises, yet they also imagine alternatives that take us beyond present impasses.These essays thus illustrate Sheldon Wolin's observation that political crisis begets new modes of theorizing, when the need for re-vision reaches its peak.EBD introduces a new mode of theorizing with its explicit turn to conscious myth-making as part of an effort to empower democratic practice and innovation

Democracy · Democratic Theory · Flourishing · Political philosophy · Politics · Foucault, Power, and Ethics · Political Theology and Sovereignty · Water Governance and Infrastructure