In order to strengthen democratic formation, we must first recognize that we all carry the antithesis of democracy within ourselves. In essence, this is the core idea in Associate Professor Asger Sørensen’s higher doctoral dissertation, titled Educating through alienation to democracy, which he will defend at the Danish School of Education (DPU) on 10 November. At a time when democracy is under pressure on multiple fronts, Asger Sørensen aims to demonstrate how alienation is a fruitful concept for understanding how we might be formed into democratic citizens.