Living Structures: The Phenomenology, Praxis, and Politics of Forms of Life

Dear Colleagues,

In contemporary philosophical discourse, the concept of the “form of life” (FoL) has often been relegated to the descriptive realms of sociology or the philosophy of culture. However, there is a growing necessity to reclaim the form of life as a fundamental ontological foundation that constitutes contemporary subjectivity. This research area is of vital importance as it moves beyond the traditional distinction between the individual and the state, focusing instead on how the “living structures” we inhabit pre-delineate our identity, our affects, and our very capacity for praxis. Understanding these structures is essential in diagnosing the crises of digital capitalism and recognizing the resilience of marginal modes of being.

We are pleased to invite you to contribute to this Special Issue, which will synthesize phenomenology, social ontology, and critical theory to explore the constitutive nature of our shared realities. We aim to investigate the form of life as the executive engine of human existence. While “culture” often refers to a collection of symbols, a “form of life” represents the dynamic unit of praxis that grants those symbols meaning. We seek to map the “ontological battlefields” where hegemonic forms of life collide with marginal and resistant modes of being—from the “entrepreneur of the self” to ancestral communalism and the intentional frugality of the artist or the ascetic.

The subject matter aligns closely with the scope of Philosophies, as it promotes a world-level philosophical dialogue between diverse traditions (Western phenomenology, decolonial thought, and social ontology). These perspectives converge on the understanding that human existence is never neutral; rather, to live within a specific form of life—be it the neoliberal mandate of profit maximization, a religious community, or an alternative social movement—is to adopt a specific anthropical image and a worldview (Weltanschauung) that dictates how we look at the world. This Special Issue will investigate how these “living structures” are not just external frameworks but internalizing engines that shape our habits, our emotional repertoires, and our social behavior.

We are interested in exploring the diverse ontological foundations that govern both hegemonic and marginal existence. If the neoliberal form of life is predicated on the negation of austerity and the pursuit of optimization, how do alternative communities—from anarcho-communist collectives to indigenous modes of being or intentional spiritual communities—construct their reality upon different axioms? How do these “marginal” structures resist reification? We seek to understand how various emotions—from neoliberal anxiety to the “mutual aid” solidarity of the oppressed—function as the “affective glue” of these structures.

For this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

i. The Constitution of Reality: The FoL as an ontological unit and its role in the intersubjective formation of the “Self” and the “Other”.

This theme investigates the form of life as the transcendental–immanent horizon through which the “world” first constitutes a community. Contributors are encouraged to analyze the FoL as a primary ontological unit that precedes the psychological subject, dictating the grammar of intersubjectivity and the boundaries between selfhood and alterity. By exploring how specific social structures “pre-scribe” the possibilities of being, we seek to understand how the subject is not merely influenced by their environment but fundamentally constituted through the “primal we” of a shared living structure.

ii. Praxis and Habit: The phenomenology of daily life, everyday practices, and the “conquest of the interior” through social scaffolding.

This section focuses on the sedimentation of the form of life within the body and the mind. Contributors are invited to explore how macro-structural principles are translated into micro-level habits, creating a “conquest of the interior” where social scaffolding dictates individual rhythm and thought. We seek analyses of how everyday practices—from labor routines to digital interactions—act as the executive arm of an ontology, transforming a “way of doing” into a “way of being”.

iii. Emotional Communities: The politics of emotions, existential feelings, and the formation of collective identities.

We encourage submissions that treat emotions not as private psychological states but as the “affective glue” of social structures. This theme examines how different forms of life cultivate specific “emotional repertoires” or “existential feelings”—such as the anxiety of the neoliberal entrepreneur, the solidarity of mutual aid, or the contemplative peace of a monastic life. How do these collective affects sustain the stability of a living structure, and how can emotional shifts signal the disintegration or transformation of a community?

iv. Ideology as Inhabited Space: The “distribution of the sensible” (Rancière) and the role of hegemonic worldviews in shaping identity.

This theme moves beyond ideology as “false consciousness”, treating it instead as the aesthetic and practical distribution of the real. Contributors are invited to investigate how hegemonic worldviews (Weltanschauungen) determine who is visible, what is audible, and what is deemed “natural” within a given community. We seek to understand how the “policing” of reality reinforces specific anthropical images, effectively limiting the subject’s vocation to roles that affirm the existing totalization.

v. The Ontology of Mutual Aid: Investigating FoLs where the foundational principle is reciprocal support rather than individual competition.

This theme explores the shift from the “individual as capital” to the “subject as a relational node” within communities governed by the principle of solidarity and communal benefits. Contributors are invited to analyze how mutual aid functions not merely as a moral choice but as a constitutive praxis that generates a different kind of social space. We seek to understand how these living structures—found in anarchist collectives, grassroots solidarity networks, and traditional communalism—negate the dialectic of scarcity to produce an affective atmosphere of trust and shared potentiality. This section investigates how the subject, once unburdened from the mandate of self-maximization, recovers their agency through voluntary association and the collective fulfillment of vital needs.

vi. Decolonial and Indigenous Forms of Life: Metabolic and relational ontologies (e.g., Sumak Kawsay, Ubuntu, or Mayan communalism).

This theme addresses the metabolic and relational ontologies that characterize modes of being outside the Western industrial paradigm. Contributors are invited to investigate how communities—such as those centered on the principles of Sumak Kawsay (Good Living), the Ubuntu philosophy, or Zapatista autonomy—constitute a reality that rejects the subject–object dualism inherent in digital and neoliberal capitalism. We seek to explore how these forms of life maintain a non-instrumental relationship with nature and the collective and how their existence challenges the hegemonic “anthropical image” of the self-interested individual. Contributions may analyze the resistance of these ancestral structures not merely as political movements but as living alternatives that preserve a different sense of time, value, and cosmic belonging.

vii. Ascetic and Monastic Forms of Life: The intentional negation of consumption in favor of sanctity, theoria, or self-knowledge.

This theme examines the ontological intentionality of forms of life predicated on the voluntary negation of consumerist totalization. Contributors are encouraged to analyze the ascetic, monastic, or contemplative mode of being as a deliberate “stepping out” from the spiral of created needs to focus on regulative principles such as sanctity, theoria, or self-knowledge. We invite investigations into how the intentional embrace of frugality—often perceived by the neoliberal gaze as a state of “lack”—is reconstructed within these communities as a condition of possibility for spiritual or philosophical freedom. This section seeks to understand how these “enclaves of stillness” preserve a primordial contingency and a mode of being that remains, at its root, uncaptured by the machine of profit maximization.

viii. The “Wild State”: Ontological transitions in situations of systemic collapse or extreme scarcity.

This theme delves into the ontological boundaries of human existence, specifically investigating the transition from “civilized” social totalizations to what may be termed a “primordial form of life”. Contributors are invited to analyze how the breakdown of hegemonic institutions—whether through economic collapse, war, or environmental catastrophe—strips away the “created needs” of consumerist society to reveal a core of “imperious vital needs”. We seek to understand whether this “wild state” represents a mere regression or, conversely, a site of ontological authenticity, where social bonds are reconstituted through mutual aid and survival-based solidarity rather than market mediation.

ix. Conflicts between forms of life: We seek to explore the conflicts among forms of life that arise when hegemonic globalizing structures collide with alternative, marginal, or ancestral modes of being. These conflicts are not merely political or economic; they are ontological clashes between competing anthropical images.

1. Subaltern and indigenous forms of life: Investigating the resistance of communities such as the Dalit in India, the Miao in China, or the Mayan and Andean peoples in Latin America. How do these communities maintain a non-capitalist relationship with the land, the collective, and the sacred when faced with the encroaching urban industrial FoL?
2. The aesthetics of existence as resistance: Analyzing the “fringe” forms of life that persist within the heart of hegemony—such as the artist, the philosopher, or the humanist. How does the dedication to non-instrumental values constitute a specific “living Structure” that refuses the mandate of profit maximization?
3. Social movements as ontological laboratories: Investigating how movements like Occupy, Zapatismo, or localized “Commoning” function as sites for new forms of life, attempting to achieve a foundational break from the totalizing spiral of capital.
4. The ethics of frugality and the religious FoL: Exploring the ascetic or frugal form of life as a conscious negation of the consumerist spiral. How does the religious or contemplative subject constitute an identity based on “being” rather than “having” or “optimizing”?

By examining these conflicts, this Special Issue will map the “fault lines” of contemporary reality. We ask, what happens when a form of life based on mutual aid meets one based on competition? When a vision of the human as a “data point” meets a vision of the human as a “sacred node”? These are the questions that will allow us to learn to look at reality not as a static fact but as a battlefield of living structures that assimilate and resist.

x. Ontological Rupture: How can a subject achieve a foundational break from a hegemonic totalization? We are interested in the conditions under which a subject can recover their primordial ontological potentiality, moving from a reified “mask” back to an undifferentiated ground of existence.

We encourage interdisciplinary approaches—drawing from phenomenology, critical theory, social ontology, and the history of ideas—provided they maintain a rigorous philosophical focus. Our goal is to foster a dialogue that allows us to learn to see reality as a product of our living structures and to envision the conditions under which a new, non-reifying society might emerge.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Daniel Rueda Garrido
Guest Editor

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• forms of life (lebensformen)
• social ontology
• phenomenology of praxis
• reification
• subjectivity
• affective communities
• anthropical image
• hegemony and resistance
• totalization
• worldview (weltanschauung)