Humans didn’t invent government. Governance is as ancient and as ubiquitous as life on Earth. As we stand at the precipice of anthropogenic environmental collapse – apparently lacking the political wherewithal to do anything about it – we need to discover the governing wisdom of nature.

A Field Guide to More-Than-Human Governance explores the practical and philosophical dimensions of self-organization in nature as inspiration for future human governance. Jonathon Keats critically examines the lifeways of nonhuman communities from bacterial colonies to dolphin pods as well as the self-regulating properties of ecosystems and the biosphere as a whole. Keats also describes a methodology for discovering the governing principles of nature, leading readers out into the field to explore the biosphere for themselves.

Written for a general readership, and appealing especially to people interested in nature and environmental politics, A Field Guide to More-Than-Human Governance seeks to reintegrate humans into nature and to facilitate the political and cultural transformations needed to make human activity compatible with all life on Earth.