Ali Aslam
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- December 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780190601812
- eISBN:
- 9780190601836
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190601812.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Democratization, Political Theory
Ordinary Democracy examines the organizing practices of contemporary social movements to suggest how citizens are insisting on having a share in governing the forces that shape their lives. Rather ...
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Ordinary Democracy examines the organizing practices of contemporary social movements to suggest how citizens are insisting on having a share in governing the forces that shape their lives. Rather than seeing the Arab Spring and movements sparked by it as failures or examples of purer democracy than those possible within the state, it sees these as efforts to democratize relationships of sovereignty in order to enlarge the sphere of active citizenship. Written with and for citizens who feel overwhelmed by political and economic forces that appear outside of their control, Ordinary Democracy spotlights how citizens are addressing the feelings of impasse that keep them from engaging in collective action. It focuses on efforts to democratize sovereignty across the Idle No More, Occupy Wall Street, Occupy Sandy, and Strike Debt movements, in addition to offering a fresh analysis of protests in Tahrir Square, in order to revise competing theories which view democracy, sovereignty, and citizenship as opposing rather than related concepts. Ordinary Democracy argues for the adequacy of democratic politics to address the challenges associated with neoliberalism and the growth of emergency politics. It rejects cynicism about democratic citizenship by examining the practices of ongoing movements, bridging the social detachment that has traditionally separated academic investigations of democracy and activists in order to add another layer to the public philosophy produced within these movements. Ordinary Democracy argues that democratizing sovereignty calls for both the revitalization of citizen agency and the refusal to cede the state to undemocratic forces.Less
Ordinary Democracy examines the organizing practices of contemporary social movements to suggest how citizens are insisting on having a share in governing the forces that shape their lives. Rather than seeing the Arab Spring and movements sparked by it as failures or examples of purer democracy than those possible within the state, it sees these as efforts to democratize relationships of sovereignty in order to enlarge the sphere of active citizenship. Written with and for citizens who feel overwhelmed by political and economic forces that appear outside of their control, Ordinary Democracy spotlights how citizens are addressing the feelings of impasse that keep them from engaging in collective action. It focuses on efforts to democratize sovereignty across the Idle No More, Occupy Wall Street, Occupy Sandy, and Strike Debt movements, in addition to offering a fresh analysis of protests in Tahrir Square, in order to revise competing theories which view democracy, sovereignty, and citizenship as opposing rather than related concepts. Ordinary Democracy argues for the adequacy of democratic politics to address the challenges associated with neoliberalism and the growth of emergency politics. It rejects cynicism about democratic citizenship by examining the practices of ongoing movements, bridging the social detachment that has traditionally separated academic investigations of democracy and activists in order to add another layer to the public philosophy produced within these movements. Ordinary Democracy argues that democratizing sovereignty calls for both the revitalization of citizen agency and the refusal to cede the state to undemocratic forces.
