Abstract
The late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were marked by an emergent democratic imaginary of a system of participatory choice that enfranchised (some) existing humans but excluded other species, the colonised spaces and Indigenous peoples from equal citizenship. In the latter part of the twentieth century, each of these excluded elements moved to centre stage, becoming a global and systemic problem for democratic (and other) political systems. In response, democratic theory and practice also shifted, trying to accommodate the practical realities of an increasingly fluid and borderless social and economic world, and recognise the needs and the ontological prevalence of the non-human world, the rights of First Peoples, and the techno-scientific artefacts. In the aftermath of a number of geoengineering failures, and other consequences of the failure to resolve the compounding crises of late twentieth century, the twenty-first century further reconfigured and speciated democracy. If the challenge of the early twenty-first century was the chain of ecological catastrophes until the concept of normalcy vanished, the challenge of the late twenty-first century has been understanding the responses of human societies and non-human communities to this situation.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Achterberg, W., Barry, J., Carter, N., Christoff, P., Dobson, A., Doherty, B., ... and Saward, M. (1996). Democracy and Green Political Thought.
Archibugi, D., and Held, D. (2011). ‘Cosmopolitan Democracy: Paths and Agents’, Ethics and International Affairs, 25(4), pp. 433–461.
Asenbaum, H., and Hanusch, F. ⟨Ψ 2071⟩. ‘(Re)Futuring Democracy: How the Early 21st Century Democratic Innovations Influence Deep Time Politics’, Future/s, 2(23), pp. 220–227.
Baber, W. F. (2004). ‘Ecology and Democratic Governance: Toward a Deliberative Model of Environmental Politics’, The Social Science Journal, 41(3), pp. 331–346.
Bäckstrand, K. (2006). ‘Democratizing Global Environmental Governance? Stakeholder Democracy After the World Summit on Sustainable Development’, European Journal of International Relations, 12(4), pp. 467–498.
Bäckstrand, K. (2012). Are Partnerships for Sustainable Development Democratic and Legitimate. in P. Pattberg, F. Biermann, S. Chan, and A. Mert (eds.) Public-private Partnerships for Sustainable Development: Emergence, Influence and Legitimacy. Edward Elgar, pp. 165–182.
Barry, A. (2002). ‘The Anti-political Economy’, Economy and Society, 31(2), pp. 268–284.
Baudrillard, J. (1981). Simulacra and Simulation. University of Michigan Press.
Beckman, L. (2008). ‘Do Global Climate Change and the Interest of Future Generations have Implications for Democracy?’, Environmental Politics, 17(4), pp. 610–624.
Beta Writer 3.8. ⟨Ψ 2113⟩. An Inquiry into the Democratic Traditions in the City-States of Newly Emergent Lands, New York: Springer Nature. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16800-1. ⟨Accessed: Ψ 22–5–2113⟩.
Biermann, F., Oomen, J., Gupta, A., Ali, S.H., Conca, K., Hajer, M. A., Kashwan, P., Kotzé, L .J., Leach, M., Messner, D., Okereke, C., Persson, Å., Potočnik, J., Schlosberg, D., Scobie, M., and VanDeveer, S. D. (2022). ‘Solar Geoengineering: The Case for an International Non‐use Agreement’, Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, e754. https://doi.org/10.1002/wcc.754.
Braidotti, R. (2016, November 13). Don’t Agonise, Organise! Il Manifesto: Global Edition.
Braidotti, R. (2017). ‘Generative Futures: On Affirmative Ethics’, Critical and Clinical Cartographies: Architecture, Robotics, Medicine, Philosophy, p. 288.
Britannica. (2022). Human Being. At Ancientarchive-hypertrove: https://www.britannica.com/topic/human-being. ⟨Accessed: Ψ 11.12.2121⟩.
Buszynski, L. ⟨Ψ 2089⟩. A Comparative Study of Human Versus AI-Assisted Decision Making in the Emergent Antipodean Democracies. IFOU Virtual Depository.
Chapin, M., Zachary L., and Threlkeld, B. (2005). ‘Mapping Indigenous Lands’, Annu. Rev. Anthropol, 34, pp. 619–638.
Christoff, P. (1996). Ecological Modernisation, Ecological Modernities, Environmental Politics, 5(3), pp. 476–500.
Christoff, P. (2022). Crises, COVID, and the Climate State. In Alexander, S., Chandrashekeran, S., and Gleeson, B. (Eds). Post-Capitalist Futures. London: Palgrave.
Christoff, P. (Ed.) (cf. 2023). The Fires Next Time: Australia's Black Summer and the Pyrocene. Melbourne: University of Melbourne Press.
Christoff, P., and Mert, A. ⟨Ψ 2030⟩. Another Wrinkle in Time: from the Anthropocene to the post-Anthropocene in Just 30 Years—An Ethico-Ontology of Transformation and Control, The Dead Anthropocene Review, 25(1), pp. 1–21.
Coronakommissionen. (2022). Summary: SOU 2022:10. https://coronakommissionen.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/summary_20220225.pdf.
Crutzen, P., and Stoermer, E. (2000). The Anthropocene. IGBP Newsletter, 41(17).
Dahl, R. (1989). Democracy and Its Critics. Yale University Press.
Dick, P. K. (1997). The Philip K. Dick Reader. Citadel Press.
Dingwerth, K. (2007). The new Transnationalism: Transnational Governance and Democratic Legitimacy. Palgravae Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230590144.
Dryzek, J. S., and Pickering, J. (2018). The Politics of the Anthropocene. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198809616.001.0001.
Dryzek, J., and Stevenson, H. (2011). Global Democracy and Earth System Governance. Ecological Economics, 70(11), pp. 1865–1874.
Eckersley, R. (Ed.). (1996). Markets, the State and the Environment: Towards Integration. Macmillan International Higher Education.
Eckersley, R. (2020). ‘Ecological Democracy and the Rise and Decline of Liberal Democracy: Looking Back, Looking Forward’, Environmental Politics, 29(2), pp. 214–234. https://doi.org/10.1080/09644016.2019.1594536.
Eckersley, R. ⟨Ψ 2028⟩. ‘Understanding the Shift from Macro to Micro Emergencies in International Relations’, GeoFutures, 12(2), pp. 17–29.
Eckersley, R., and Saward, M. (2003). Deliberative Democracy, Ecological Representation and Risk: Towards a Democracy of the Affected. In Democratic Innovation: Deliberation, Representation and Association Routledge, pp. 131–146.
FBM. ⟨Ψ 2044⟩. Resistance is Fertile: A Treatise on Against Bio-Tracking and Bio-Control. Zed Publications: New York.
Fehl, C., and Freistein, K. (2020). ‘Organising Global Stratification: How International Organisations (Re) Produce Inequalities in International Society’, Global Society, 34(3), pp. 285–303.
Gibson, W. (1993). Neuromancer. London: Harper.
GlobalDictionary, ⟨Ψ 2071⟩. Human. Universal Truth Institute Digital Archive. ⟨Accessed Ψ 11.12.2121⟩.
Haraway, D. (2007). When Species Meet. Uni. Minnesota Press.
Herman, E. S., and Chomsky, N. (1988). Manufacturing Consent: A Propaganda Model.
Hester, R. T. (2010). Design for Ecological Democracy. MIT Press.
Irwin, R. E. (2020). ‘Misinformation and de-contextualization: International Media Reporting on Sweden and COVID-19’, Globalization and Health, 16(62), pp. 1–12.
Keohane, R. O. (2017). ‘Nominal Democracy?: A Rejoinder to Gráinne de Búrca and Jonathan Kuyper and John Dryzek’, International Journal of Constitutional Law, 14(4), pp. 938–940.
Kolbert, E. (2014). The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History. Henry Holt and Company, New York.
Kothari, A. (2014). Radical Ecological Democracy: A Path Forward for India and Beyond. Development, 57(1), pp. 36–45.
Latour, B. (2004). Politics of Nature: How to Bring the Sciences Into Democracy. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.
Lincoln, A. (1863). The Gettysburg Address. November 19, 1863 (Bliss Copy).
Lövbrand, E., Beck, S., Chilvers, J., Forsyth, T., Hedrén, J., Hulme, M., ... and Vasileiadou, E. (2015). ‘Who Speaks for the Future of Earth? How Critical Social Science Can Extend the Conversation on the Anthropocene’, Global Environmental Change, 32, pp. 211–218.
Machin, A. (2013). Negotiating Climate Change: Radical Democracy and the Illusion of Consensus. Bloomsbury Publishing.
Mair, P. (2013). Ruling the Void: The Hollowing Out of Western Democracy. London: Verso Books.
Marcuse, H. (1976). One-Dimensional Man (2nd ed.). Routledge.
Mason, M. (2012). Environmental Democracy: A Contextual Approach. Routledge.
McNeill, J. R. (2014). The Great Acceleration: An Environmental History of the Anthropocene Since 1945. Harvard University Press.
Mert, A. (2015). Environmental Governance Through Partnerships: A Discourse Theoretical Study. Edward Elgar Publishing. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781782540052.
Mert, Ayşem. (2019). ‘Participation (s) in Transnational Environmental Governance: Green Values Versus Instrumental Use’, Environmental Values, 28(1), pp. 101–121.
Miller, J. (1996). Rousseau: Dreamer of Democracy, New Haven: Yale University Press.
Montesquieu, C. S. (1784). The Spirit of Laws.
MWD, (2012). Human. Merriam-Webster Dictionary Online. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/human. ⟨Accessed Ψ 11.12.2121⟩.
Nanz, P., and Steffek, J. (2004). ‘Global Governance, Participation and the Public Sphere’, Government and Opposition, 39(2), pp. 314–335.
Niemeyer, S. (2020). ‘Deliberation and Ecological Democracy: From Citizen to Global System’, Journal of Environmental Policy and Planning, 22(1), pp. 16–29.
Nine Masters of Roke. ⟨Ψ 2121⟩. Lessons from Future Imaginaries of the Last Century: Revival of Ursula LeGuin’s Earthsea Saga. Networked Co-production Repository: Critical Studies of 21st Century Literature (CS21CL). aaaaarg.fail/215589656889.
Orm, I., and Irian, O. ⟨Ψ 2098⟩. The Long Dystopia: Affects of the Long Pandemic on global society, IFOU Depository.
Orwell, G. (1949). 1984. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
PCAM. ⟨Ψ 2084⟩. ‘When Did It All Begin? The 2020s, the Long Pandemic, and the Seeds of the Post-Anthropocene’, Networked Co-production Repository: Journal of Ecosystemic Collapse Studies (JECS). aaaaarg.fail/129745896568.
Pickering, J., Bäckstrand, K., and Schlossberg, D. (2020). ‘Between Environmental and Ecological Democracy: Theory and Practice at the Democracy-Environment Nexus’, Journal of Environmental Policy and Planning, 22(1), pp. 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1080/1523908X.2020.1703276.
Plumwood, V. (1993). Feminism and the Mastery of Nature. London and New York: Routledge.
Plumwood, V. (2002). Environmental Culture: The Ecological Crisis of Reason. Abingdon: Routledge.
Purdy, J. (2015). After Nature. MA: Harvard University Press.
Scholte, J. A. (Ed.). (2011). Building Global Democracy?: Civil Society and Accountable Global Governance. Cambridge University Press.
Seawright, J., and Gerring, J. (2008). ‘Case Selection Techniques in Case Study Research: A Menu of Qualitative and Quantitative Options’, Political Research Quarterly, 61(2), pp. 294–308.
Stevenson, H. (2016). ‘The Wisdom of the Many in Global Governance: An Epistemic-Democratic Defense of Diversity and Inclusion’, International Studies Quarterly, 60(3), pp. 400–412.
Stevenson, H., and Dryzek J. S. (2014). Democratizing Global Climate Governance. Cambridge University Press.
Swyngedouw, E. (2013). The Non-political Politics of Climate Change. ACME An International E-Journal for Critical Geographies, 12(1), pp. 1–8.
Szulecki, K. (2018). Conceptualizing Energy Democracy. Environmental Politics, 27(1), pp. 21–41.
Tsing, A. ⟨Ψ 2028⟩. The Mycelial Citizen, Solid Publications, New York.
Turnhout, E., and Purvis, A. (2020). Biodiversity and Species Extinction: Categorisation, Calculation, and Communication. Griffith Law Review, 29(4), pp. 669–685.
Vogel, G. (2020). ‘Sweden’s Gamble’, Science, 370(6513), pp. 159–163. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.370.6513.159.
Wake, D. B., and Vredenbrug, V. T. (2008). ‘Are We in the Midst of the Sixth Mass Extinction? A View From the World of Amphibians’, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 105(1), pp. 11466–11473.
Wikipaedia. ⟨Ψ 2048⟩. Human, Wikimedea Foundation Archives, ⟨Accessed Ψ 11.12.2121⟩.
Winter, C. J. (2019). ‘Decolonising Dignity for Inclusive Democracy’, Environmental Values, 28(1), pp. 9–30.
Wong, J. K. (2016). ‘A Dilemma of Green Democracy’, Political Studies, 64(1), pp. 136–155.
Žižek, S. (2004). Afterword. In J. Rancière (Ed.), The Politics of Aesthetics. Bloomsbury Academic.
9_Masters@Roke ⟨Ψ 2121⟩. Before Us, the Flood: A Plea for Common but Differentiated Responsibility for Disasters Across Generations, IFOU Depository.
Acknowledgements
All historical analysis is at best partial. However, attempts to represent and interpret our contemporary political condition are even more fragmentary because the regimes that dominate our period have worked hard to recast the past and fabricate the present in their favour. We write in defiance of their efforts, to indicate how contemporary democratic principles and practices have responded to recent socio-ecological disasters.
Academics and activists face profound risks when engaging with matters of citizenship and free speech. Our diffuse community has evaded the TrHackers for decades by using the Dark Web (DW) to communicate, publish, and ‘derange’. Others have not been so fortunate—their bioselves destroyed and their cyberselves erased (though some residues, like traces of long-lost stars, of famous collectives such as Provos_3.0 and the Rebel_Brigade_XR@DW can still be found in the metaverse).
For these reasons, we here use as pseudonyms the names of two obscure political scientists, disruptive hacks who disappeared under mysterious circumstances early in twenty-first-century Laponia. Their Clouded memories, acquired by our writing collective, PCAM, provide key components of our virtual identity.
We thank IFOU (the Illich/Freire_Open_University) for its support. IFOU is named after the original Open University, established and thriving briefly in twentieth-century England. It was dedicated to empowering the masses through accessible distance learning. IFOU follows in this tradition and remains a powerful intellectual source of critical resistance to forms of identity domination and information manipulation. Most importantly, it provides a virtual space for cybersynths such as our own writing collective, PCAM, whose works may be found at IFOU’s virtual repository at DW.aaaaarg.fail.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Christoff, P., Mert, A. (2023). Shades of Democracy in the Post-Anthropocene. In: Horn, L., Mert, A., Müller, F. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Global Politics in the 22nd Century. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-13722-8_12
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-13722-8_12
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-13721-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-13722-8
eBook Packages: Political Science and International StudiesPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)