Restorative Practice as Everyday Democratic Resistance
Exploring how restorative practices foster solidarity, hope, and democratic resilience in our communities through everyday acts of care, dialogue, and repair.
About
A Multi-Case Study, Collaborative Research Project
Restorative Practice as Everyday Democratic Resistance is a two-year research project that brings together numerous cases of restorative practice from around the world. These approaches respond to conflict and harm through dialogue, solidarity, mutual aid and care, emphasising accountability and relational repair, and are being embedded and implemented in ‘everyday’ ways within communities.
Reactionary regimes draw support not only from those aligned with their more extreme principles, but also from those who, feeling unheard and uncared for within their own societies, are drawn to the promise of strong leadership, unity and control. Whilst public, overt and visible forms of activism and resistance remain vital in challenging such regimes and refusing to accept their actions, there are also those who are unwilling or unable to participate.
Initiatives of Everyday Democratic Resistance offer an alternative. These localised, quieter and more routine practices seek to simultaneously protect the most vulnerable members of society whilst eroding support for reactionary politics by creating voluntary, participatory spaces in which people can engage in respectful dialogue, grounded in restorative principles, around issues that are often considered too polarising to confront.
In the USA, communities organise support and communication systems for the targets of Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers; in the Netherlands, the Amsterdam municipality puts together a dialogic project between those with close connections to Palestinian, Jewish, and Israeli histories in the same public space; in the UK, a group of local artists implement restorative techniques to hold space for dialogue about 'what connects us and what divides us' in the midst of a fierce national debate over migration.
The members of the Research Hub working together on this project come from a wide range of countries, contexts and professional backgrounds. We are scholars, activists, artists, dialogue facilitators and mediators who study, support and participate in initiatives that create spaces for meaningful dialogue, strengthen relationships across difference and build the capacity of communities to resist democratic erosion.
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Glossary
Autocratisation
The process through which democratic systems gradually become more authoritarian. It often involves the erosion of civil liberties, weakening of democratic institutions, restrictions on civic participation, and concentration of political power.
Democratic Backsliding
The gradual deterioration of democratic norms, institutions, and practices within a political system. It is characterised by declining civic freedoms, weakening social trust, attacks on independent institutions, and increasing authoritarian tendencies.
Polarization
A process through which social and political groups become increasingly divided, often viewing one another as adversaries rather than legitimate participants in democratic life. Polarization can weaken trust, dialogue, and democratic cooperation.
Everyday Resistance
Subtle, dispersed, and often informal acts through which individuals and communities challenge dominant power structures and sustain alternative values. Unlike overt protest, everyday resistance frequently operates through routine practices, relationships, and local actions.
Democratic Infrastructure
The spaces, practices, relationships, and social conditions that enable democratic participation and expression. Democratic infrastructures create opportunities for people to engage with one another, deliberate collectively, and exercise democratic agency.
Everyday Democratic Resistance
The enactment of democratic values through everyday practices that foster participation, dialogue, solidarity, care, and shared responsibility. Rather than directly confronting authoritarianism through protest or institutional reform, it strengthens democratic culture by sustaining the social and relational foundations upon which democracy depends.
Restorative Democracy
A concept describing deliberative democratic practices that incorporate restorative justice principles such as inclusive dialogue, relational repair, accountability, and democratic transformation. It is not a new democratic system but a framework for understanding democratic engagement as a process of repairing damaged relationships between citizens, institutions, and communities.
Democratic Resilience
The capacity of democratic communities, institutions, and social relationships to withstand, adapt to, and recover from challenges such as polarization, authoritarian pressures, exclusion, and declining trust.
Democratic Imagination
The capacity to imagine alternative social, political, and relational possibilities beyond existing structures and dominant narratives. Artistic and restorative practices can expand democratic imagination by encouraging critical reflection and collective creativity.