The Hive and the Polis: What Bees Teach Us About Democracy

This piece is written by Mieke Renders, Managing Director of Trans Europe Halles. The following text is adapted from the TEH Conference 99, 5-8 June 2025 in Sofia, Bulgaria.

I am not only the interim managing director of Trans Europe Halles, but I also have another role as a beekeeper with 2 beehives in my Swedish home. I spend a lot of time watching bees, really watching them. And the more I do, the more I realise: bees are not just insects. They are a metaphor, a mirror, and maybe even a message to us: about democracy, about community, and about ourselves.

Let me tell you something remarkable. A worker bee lives for about 35 to 45 days. That’s all. And in that short life, she will take on every role that the hive needs.

If you want to understand the soul of democracy, look no further than a beehive. Inside the hive, each bee plays a role: the forager, the nurse, the guardian, the builder. She will begin as a cleaner, tidying the cells. Then she’ll feed the larvae. Later, she’ll guard the entrance. Finally, in her last days, she becomes a forager flying out to find nectar and pollen, working herself literally to death for the good of the whole. None of them acts alone. None of them rules the rest. Instead, they collaborate instinctively, responding to the needs of the collective: adjusting, adapting, and improvising in a delicate, ever-changing balance. But there’s something else I’ve learned from beekeeping. The hive only thrives if it’s in balance. Too much noise, stress, or external threat, and the system collapses. If bees sense danger, they stop dancing, they stop foraging, they stop being curious.

This is not unlike a healthy democracy.

A democracy isn’t just made of leaders and elections. It’s a living, breathing system, built on roles, responsibilities, mutual trust, and shared space. Like in the hive, democracy thrives when every member is active, when every voice matters, when participation is more than a privilege: it’s a practice.

And this is exactly where arts, culture and cultural centres come in. They are not just buildings with walls; they are hives of civic life. Here, people gather, learn, express, and collaborate. Here, difference doesn’t divide. It dances. Like bees sharing pollen between flowers, people in cultural spaces cross-pollinate ideas, stories, and solutions.

But just like the hive needs constant care and vigilance, so too does democracy. It cannot survive if only a few do the work. It needs engagement: daily, messy, meaningful. It needs space for disagreement, for dreaming, for doing. It needs you. It needs us. We often speak of democracy as if it were a structure. But I believe it’s more like a rhythm like the humming of the hive. It must be nurtured, noticed, and renewed constantly.

And yes, the bees are under threat. But so is democracy, if we don’t protect it with the same urgency.

So let us learn from the bees: to listen closely, to work with purpose, to value every contribution. Let us treat our the arts and cultural centres not as institutions, but as living hives and as spaces where democracy is not only discussed, but practiced. Where people come not only to consume, but to contribute.

So let us learn from the bees.

Let us take on many roles in our communities: not only the comfortable ones.

Let us communicate not only through words, but through action, intention, presence.

Let us build hives – cultural spaces and artistic projects – where creativity and care coexist.

Because in both hives and communities, it’s not the queen that sustains life: it’s the collective.

Because at the end of the day, democracy is not a building, or a policy. It’s a practice. A daily choreography of participation, humility, and shared purpose.

And like the bee, we don’t have forever. But we do have today.

Image Credit: Steph Meade