The Social Contract Research Podcast

In this seminar Sarah Winter (Professor of English and Comparative Literary and Cultural Studies at the University of Connecticut, and Co-Director of the Research Program on Humanitarianism at the UConn Human Rights Institute) addresses the use of the state of nature motif by opponents of slavery and the slave trade including Ottobah Cugoano, Olaudah Equiano and Thomas Clarkson. The talk provides...

In this seminar Mark Somos (Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Fellow and Senior Research Affiliate at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, @msomos) assesses the status of the state of nature idea, arguing that it is neither straightforwardly historical nor merely hypothetical, but a legal fiction. The talk engages both his monograph American States of Nature:...

In this seminar Doctor Alan Levinovitz (Associate Professor of Religion at James Madison University, @AlanLevinovitz ) explores how nature has taken over from God as the foundation and justification of ethical commitments in our thinking, and how an unthinking commitment to the goodness of the "natural" can lead to very problematic conclusions. The talk is followed by Q&A which ranges over the...

In this seminar Professor Peter Gratton (History and Political Science, Southeastern Louisiana University) explores the uses and abuses of the social contract idea, reflecting in particular on the ways in which the social contract can be considered a con. The talk is followed by Q&A. A video version of the seminar is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qilCZ99h0z0&ab_channel=Socia...

In this seminar Associate Professor Jessica Whyte (Scientia Fellow in the School of Humanities and Languages (Philosophy) and the School of Law, University of New South Wales) explores neoliberal ideas of freedom in relation to the notion of sovereignty: the sovereignty of consumers and the sovereignty of the market. The talk is followed by Q&A. A video version of the seminar is available at h...

In this seminar Professor Gerald Moore (Acting Director, Centre for Culture and Ecology, Durham University, UK; Chair, Collège scientifique et industriel, Institut de Recherche et d'Innovation) explores the role of addiction and intoxication in the founding and maintenance of human societies. The talk is followed by Q&A. A video version of the seminar is available at https://www.youtube.com/wa...

In this episode Chris is joined by Andrew Lacenere, Founder and CEO of Albatross Designs and the brains behind a new website naturalcontract.com, the aim of which is to create "a more fair and just society by acknowledging the meaning and power of the world’s natural assets, and specifically identifying the minimum level of respect and protection these assets deserve". Chris and Andrew talk about...

A conversation with Wayne Swan, former Treasurer of Australia (2007-2013), Deputy Prime Minister of Australia (2010-2013), and currently National President of the Australian Labor Party.  In this interview Wayne Swan draws together his reflections on the social contract over the years, from his 2012 article "The 0.01 Per Cent: The Rising Influence of Vested Interests in Australia" (https://ww...

What is Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison's idea of the "social contract"? This episode compares his use of the term in publically available speeches (https://www.pm.gov.au/media) to an answer he gave to a question about the social contract asked by SCRN chief investigator A/Prof Christopher Watkin in February 2021. The episode offers an analysis of the dominant metaphors and assumptions in...

In this seminar Professor David Lyon (Principal Investigator of the Big Data Surveillance Project, Former Director of the Surveillance Studies Centre and Queen's Research Chair in Surveillance Studies, Professor Emeritus of Sociology, Law, Queen’s University, Canada) explores the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic for surveillance.  The talk and following Q&A cover themes including vac...

This symposium explores the ways in which world crime fiction exemplifies and interrogates the social contract idea. The symposium featured the following papers: Andrew Pepper (Queen's University Belfast), "Crime Fiction and the Unravelling of the Social Contract: Generic Breakdown at the End of Days" Barbara Bezzotti, (Monash University), "How the social contract has failed women" Carlos Uxo (Mon...

In this seminar Associate Professor Justin Clemens (Melbourne University, School of Culture and Communication) explores Alain Badiou's reading of Jean-Jacques Rousseau's social contract. Do stay around for the discussion time after the paper, when among other topics we discuss Rousseau’s universalism as a shelter, the nature of the general will, the relationship between the social contract and an...

In this third episode in the State of Nature series we look in detail at Rousseau's account of the "pure state of nature" from the Discourse on the Origin and Basis of Inequality Among Men (1755). We pay special attention to Jean-Luc Nancy's reading of the transition from the state of nature to the social contract. A copy of the diagram used in the video can be found here: https://www.monash.edu/_...

In this seminar Associate Professor Karen Green (Melbourne University, philosophy) develops Catharine Macaulay's distinctive, anti-Hobbesian approach to the social contract, before exploring her own, Macaulay-inspired account of the co-evolution of language and morality.  Do stay around for the discussion time after the paper, when among other topics we discuss the question of objective ratio...

Anyone living in Australia will have noticed that, over recent months, COVID policy has undergone a quiet revolution. With lockdowns in New South Wales and Victoria now seemingly powerless to halt the spread of the Delta variant, we have entered the era of vaccination. This episode explores the social contract arguments used both for and against mass vaccination, asking what social contract langua...

The "state of nature" is a term used in social contract theory to describe human life before the civil society inaugurated by the contract. The way we think about this pre-contractual life tells us a great deal about how we understand ourselves and our soceity. This audio essay by A/Prof. Christopher Watkin of the Social Contract Research Network explores how the state of nature idea functions as...

This episode is the audio version of a video essay on the state of nature by Dr Christopher Watkin. You can find the video on social contract research network YouTube channel ( https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq7geWYdmGE3kIcJrw8Ebsw ). The essay discusses eight ways in which the state of nature idea shapes our thinking and outlook today: who we think we are, how we decide shat is good, how we tre...

This episode is a seminar by Professor Peter Hallward (Philosophy, Kingston University). Peter's paper discusses five quotations fundamental to an understanding of Rousseau, Rousseau's relationship to modern social movements, especially the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Student_Nonviolent_Coordinating_Committee). Do stay around for the extended discus...

This episode is a seminar by Associate Professor Janice Richardson from the faculty of Law at Monash University, Melbourne, Australia. Janice is the author of the book The classic social contractarians: Critical Perspectives From Contemporary Feminist Philosophy and Law , and her title for the seminar was “Feminist Perspectives on Social Contract Theory”. It’s well worth listening to the end of th...

This episode is a conversation with Tim Wilson, Liberal MP for Goldstein in the Australian House of Representatives, and author of the book The New Social Contract: Renewing the Liberal Vision for Australia . Tim talks with host Christopher Watkin about trust in politics, house prices and home ownership, the importance of civil society, the generational contract, Michael Sandel’s book The Tyranny...

Internationally renowned Foucault scholars Stuart Elden (Warwick University, UK) and Mark Kelly (Western Sydney University, Australia) discuss Michel Foucault's relationship to the modern social contract idea. Followed by questions and discussion. The seminar took place on 15 April 2021, and was hosted by Christopher Watkin (Monash University, Australia), as part of the Australian Research Council...