Challenging the Threats of Democracy: Prefigurative Repertoires at the Local Level

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Published: Dec 19, 2024
DOI: https://doi.org/10.6035/recerca.8583

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Gaard Kets
Radboud University
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3706-318X
Juan Mérida
Universitat Jaume I
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5028-6420

Abstract

We are facing a time of profound political instability, environmental crisis and a clear distrust of the democratic system. In this situation, authoritarian positions appear to be gaining ground, promising hope and security in response to the uncertainty and precariousness of the present moment. The left’s traditional strategies have become obsolete, and the alternatives for new ecological transitions seem unconvincing to those who are largely excluded from the system. In this situation, the following special issue proposes local political prefiguration as a democratic repertoire that allows us to act in the present in order to imagine the societies of tomorrow. Specifically, it presents three contributions from which to reflect on past and present political prefigurations, taking into account historical and contemporary forms of organisation and institutionalisation that envisage a new emancipatory order within and beyond the state.

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How to Cite
Kets, G., & Mérida, J. (2024). Challenging the Threats of Democracy: Prefigurative Repertoires at the Local Level . RECERCA. Revista De Pensament I Anàlisi, 30(1). https://doi.org/10.6035/recerca.8583
Issue
Vol. 30 No. 1 (2025): Repertorios democráticos de la política prefigurativa a nivel local
Section
Introduction
Author Biographies

Gaard Kets, Radboud University

Gaard Kets is Assistant Professor of Political Theory at Radboud University. His research interests include the history of the labour movement, with a particular focus on the council movement of the early 20th century. He has written on the theory, institutions and practices of council democracy. A monography on the German Revolution of 1918 titled Living Democracy will be published in the Historical Materialism series of Brill in early 2025. His most recent work focuses on communalism and the afterlives of the Paris Commune, and on theories of workplace democracy.

Juan Mérida, Universitat Jaume I

Doctor por la Universidad del País Vasco (UPV/EHU). Es Licenciado en Ciencias Políticas (UAB) y tiene un máster en Sociología (FLACSO, Ecuador). Durante su carrera investigadora se ha especializado en el análisis de movimientos sociales, formas de organización autónoma, gobiernos locales, municipalismo, participación ciudadana, desarrollo territorial desigual y gentrificación. Ha participado en diferentes grupos de investigación tanto a nivel español, europeo y latinoamericano. Además, forma parte de redes de investigación a nivel nacional como internacional como CLACSO, Urban Studies Foundation o RIEPP, relacionadas con la participación, el municipalismo o la autonomía. En la actualidad está asociado como investigador postdoctoral al Departamento de Filosofía y Sociología de la Universidad Jaume I de Castelló, España.

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