Sensory Democracy: Flourishing as Ongoingness in Somatic-Based Neurodiversity Discourse

Abstract This article introduces the concept of Sensory Democracy as an artistic, philosophical, and somatic framework for flourishing through neurodiverse and embodied practices. Drawing on disability studies, the neurodiversity paradigm, embodied cognition, and socially engaged art, the author proposes that democracy must move beyond rational-linguistic models to embrace a wider, if not full, spectrum of human sensory and cognitive difference. Through practice-based inquiry in neurodiversity-informed somatic workshops, participatory art, and neurodivergent aesthetics, this paper shows how democracy can be enacted as a sensory, relational, and ongoing process that cultivates trust, reciprocity, and collective flourishing.