Contemplative Praxis and Politics

Mindfulness is now a zeitgeist. The mainstreaming of mindfulness – what Time Magazine calls the “mindful revolution” – is being powered by research documenting the physical and mental health benefits of meditation. Like most revolutions, the mindful revolution is composed of multiple, competing forces. While corporate “McMindfulness” has received considerable and appropriate critical attention, less work has been done on the generative political potential of contemplative practices, particularly on how they might support the liberation goals of progressive social movements. This book is the first collection to systematically map the political implications of contemplative practices of all kinds – Buddhist meditation, yoga, and Indigenous ritual to name a few – with an explicit focus on the political, with an interdisciplinary approach, and from practitioners with firsthand experience. In addition to making a novel argument about the author’s own area of expertise, each chapter includes a literature review that maps the existing research and commentary at the intersection of contemplative praxis and applicable terrain of political struggle being covered in the chapter. Readers will come away with both a broad and deep understanding of emerging themes, new areas of research, and future directions.

James K. Rowe, Canada, University of Victoria. Rowe’s interdisciplinary research program is motivated by a desire to understand and strengthen social movements working toward social and ecological justice. His most recent book is Radical Mindfulness: Why Transforming Fear of Death Is Politically Vital (Routledge, 2024). He has published in the journals: The Arrow; BioScience; Mortality; New Political Science; Socialist Studies; Studies in Political Economy; and Theory & Event.

Shannon L. Mariotti, USA, Trinity University. Mariotti’s scholarship focuses on democratic theory and practice, in 19th century American Transcendentalism and Romanticism as well as 20th century Critical Social Theory and Modernism. She is the author of Thoreau’s Democratic Withdrawal: Alienation, Participation, and Modernity (2010), as well as Adorno and Democracy: The American Years (2016), and, most recently, Contemplative Democracy: Politics, Pedagogy, and Practice (2025). She is also co-editor of A Political Companion to Marilynne Robinson (2016) and The Witch: A Reader in Feminist Political Theory (2026).

Farah Godrej, USA, University of California, Riverside. Godrej’s areas of research and teaching include Indian political thought, Gandhi’s political thought, comparative political theory, prisons and punishment. She is the author of Cosmopolitan Political Thought: Method, Practice, Discipline (2011); Fred Dallmayr: Cross-Cultural Theory, Post-Secularity, Cosmopolitanism (Routledge, 2017); and Freedom Inside? Yoga and Meditation in the Carceral State (2022).