Democracy & Nature

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Democracy & Nature

Democracy & Nature was a theoretical journal founded in 1992 by Takis Fotopoulos. Initially launched as Society and Nature, it was renamed Democracy & Nature in 1995. Four volumes of three issues each were released by Aigis Publications in the period from 1992 to 1999. From 1999 to 2003, five more volumes were released by Taylor & Francis Group. Publication ceased at the end of 2003 and since 2004 it has been succeeded online by The International Journal of Inclusive Democracy.^[1]

Democracy & Nature's stated aim was to be a forum for a "new conception of democracy", given the name Inclusive Democracy in 1997. While maintaining that core function, the journal expanded to include coverage of a spectrum of radical alternative views. The journal tried to organize each issue around a central theme, which included themes like: "The Polis and Self-Management Today", "The Expansion of the South", "Mass Media, Culture and Democracy", "Radical Movements in Neoliberal Modernity", "The 'War' against Terrorism" and "Education, Paideia and Democracy". Contributors represented groups such as socialists, radical Greens, and feminists. The journal also served as a colloquium for a wide range of more-marginalized left groups, including libertarian socialists, social anarchists, and supporters of the autonomy/democratic project,^[2] which sometimes has led to heated exchanges. ^[3], ^[4].

The editorial board changed several times over the eleven years of Democracy & Nature's existence. Takis Fotopoulos as editor and Pavlos Stavropoulos as international co-ordinator served throughout, but several other editors contributed, including Steven Best from 1999 to 2003.

The "International Advisory Board" consisted at times of some of the most notable figures of the radical left such as Noam Chomsky and Harold Pinter. The board also included Parisians Pierre Bourdieu, Cornelius Castoriadis, and Serge Latouche, as well as Americans Murray Bookchin and Andre Gunder Frank. Aside from the editorial and advisory boards, the most well known contributors to the journal included Janet Biehl, Murray Bookchin, Ward Churchill, Andre Gunder Frank, Henry Giroux, and Ken Loach,