Contemplative practices are increasingly mainstream in the United States. From meditation, mindfulness, and yoga, to writing, walking, and gardening, contemplative practices aim to cultivate embodied awareness, attunement, and attention. What is the political value of the attentional ecologies created by the 'Mindfulness Revolution'? In Contemplative Democracy, Shannon L. Mariotti explores how contemplative practices represent a form of world-building that is valuable for meaningful democracy and an overlooked form of ordinary political theory. As Mariotti shows, what appear to be mostly apolitical, self-cultivating activities--even ones that require withdrawal from society--can also make us more attuned to how we interact with the wider world in any given moment. Meditative practices can advance the goals of autonomy and community that are implied by the concept of democracy. Bringing disparate fields into dialogue, Mariotti highlights resonances between how theorists talk about
