Reassembling Democracy: Ritual as Cultural Resource

Diverse processes of democratic participation– and exclusion – are closely bound by ritual acts and complexes. This collection isthe result of collaborations and conversations between international researchers who have focused onthe use of those cultural resources identifiable as "ritual" as they reassembledemocracy. The main question integrating the collection concerns the ways in which the performativequalities of ritual resources achieve their potential as forms of personal and political empowermentin our changing and challenging world. The contributors seek to define the key terms"ritual" and "democracy" with reference to fieldwork-informed casestudies from selected locations and communities. They critically address democracy as a concept,practice, model or vision in a time of climate crisis, nationalism, religious re-traditionalizing,fake news and aspirational fascism. Furthermore, they discuss ways in which ritual and ritualizedpractices such as memorial gatherings, festivals, protest actions, pilgrimages, worship servicesgive rise to modes of feeling, processes of representation, and patterns of interaction in whichdemocratic explorations, collective resistance and/or involvement with the larger than human worldare given pride of place.