Democratic Ideals and the Politicization of Nature The Roving Life of a Feral Citizen

Democratic Ideals and the Politization of Nature introduces the feral citizen as a response to a perceived need to revitalize the disruptive, critical, and exploratory nature of democratic culture. By learning from the traditions of aimless walking and by embracing a consciously feral method of political engagement, radically-democratic citizens can prompt political moments that create conditions where the primacy of the political can be performed, realized and defended. Ultimately, this book seeks not to solve the problems and paradoxes of democracy but to assist in unleashing and celebrating them. Garside concludes that using the methodology of feral citizenship – inspired by environmentalism and democratic articulation – to reprioritize the political within the green public sphere, citizens can reclaim necessary (and welcome) tensions between representations of nature and political citizenship.

Nick Garside is Assistant Professor of Contemporary Studies at Wilfret Laurier University, Brantford, Canada.

Introduction: Democracy and the Feral Citizen
1. Why Wandering
2. Why Feral
3. Why Citizenship
4. Feral Citizenship as Method/Feral Citizen as Guide
5. Public Realm Theory: From State to State of Being/Becoming
6. A Tough Walk: Environmentalists on Democratic Terrain
7. The Obscured Promise of Green Citizenship
Conclusion