Welcome to the website of the Democratic Theorizing Project!

Democratic theory emphasizes the need for equality, bottom-up participation, and pluralism. Yet, democratic theorists hardly apply these ideals to their own work. Rather, democratic theory is generated in exclusive academic circles. It is a product of the “ivory tower”.

The Democratic Theorizing Project challenges this exclusivity. It sets out to apply democratic values to the process of theorizing and hence democratize theorizing itself. To this end, it invites non-academics, activists, and politically interested people into the project of making sense of democracy.

Democratic theorizing is oriented towards three democratic values:

Inclusion Shifting the focus to those who are marginalized or under-represented in public discourse.

Agency Realizing the agency of participants throughout the theorizing process.

Transparency Communicating findings to participants and the broader public through an ongoing dialogue.

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