Deliberative ecologies: a relational critique of deliberative systems

• Autor(a) principal: Mendonça, Ricardo Fabrino
• Data de Publicação: 2024
• Outros Autores: Veloso, Lucas Henrique Nigri, Magalhães, Bruno Dias, Motta, Filipe Mendes, -, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6759-6249, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Fundação João Pinheiro
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Institucional da Fundação João Pinheiro
• Texto Completo: http://repositorio.fjp.mg.gov.br/handle/123456789/4052; https://doi.org/10.1017/S1755773923000358
• topic: Democratic theory; Deliberative democracy; Deliberative systems; Deliberative ecologies; Theories of complexity; Relational sociology

This paper advocates a move beyond the systemic approach in the field of Deliberative Democracy. It argues that the notion of deliberative ecology can deliver the necessary conceptual elements that deliberative democrats seek in deliberative systems without some of the problems they either overlook or embrace. To advocate the advantages of an ecological perspective to deliberation, the article focuses on six axes of comparison: (i) performances of actants (instead of functions of arenas and players); (ii) articulations and translations (instead of transmission); (iii) vulnerabilities (instead of pathologies and dysfunctions); (iv) practice (instead of institutionally-oriented design); (v) diverse temporalities (instead of linear temporality) and; (vi) hologram-based analysis (instead of systemic analysis). In a nutshell, the article claims that the ecological approach to deliberation has the advantage of conceptualizing an ever-changing web of relations of interdependency, which connects diverse entities that are either relevant to a public discussion or that hinder its enactment.