A Fermented Myth of Democracy

Document Type

Journal Article

Role

Author

Published In

Democratic Theory

Haverford Libraries Support

APC Waiver - Cambridge University Press

Volume

13

Issue

Special Issue 1: Earthborn Democracy

First Page

61

Last Page

77

Publication Date

4-28-2026

Abstract

Drawing on fermentation materially and metaphorically, this article argues an earthly democracy must be understood not only through inclusion and participation but through multispecies myths and transformations. Engaging Earthborn Democracy alongside the transdisciplinary art constellation Fermenting Feminism, the article develops three central contributions: it reconceives the demos as materially composed through multispecies processes; it advances exit and transformation as democratic values alongside inclusion; and it articulates a democratic necropolitics that treats death not as political failure but as a generative condition of democratic life. By foregrounding fermentation’s intertwining of liveliness and decay, the article expands democratic imaginaries beyond life-centered and anthropocentric frameworks, offering a political vocabulary attuned to multispecies flourishing and dying well together.

Keywords

death, democracy, fermentation, microbiopolitics, multispecies politics, necropolitics

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