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 discussion time after Peter’s paper, in which we range over topics including religion and the general will, the figure of the legislator, Rousseau and women, the local and the global, and the relation between the social contract and Michel Serres’s natural contract. Peter now works as Professor of Modern European Philosophy at Kingston University in the UK, and his research is primarily in modern political philosophy. He has published monographs on Alain Badiou, Gilles Deleuze, the postcolonial and Haiti. He regularly writes for The Guardian and Radical Philosophy among other outlets, and he is currently working on a book entitled 'The Will of the People', alongside brief studies of Rousseau, Marx and Blanqui. The seminar took place on 1 June 2021, and was hosted by Christopher Watkin (Monash University) as part of the Australian Research Council funded Future Fellowship project "Rewriting the Social Contract: Technology, Ecology, Extremism". The Social Contract Research Podcast is an initiative of the Social Contract Research Network. To find out more about the SCRN, and to subscribe to email updates, please visit https://www.monash.edu/arts/languages-literatures-cultures-linguistics/social-contract-research-network  SCRN YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq7geWYdmGE3kIcJrw8Ebsw 

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 the presentation, for a fascinating exchange with A/Prof Karen Green who has also been working on these themes for many years. The seminar took place on 21 May 2021, and was hosted by Christopher Watkin (Monash University), as part of the Australian Research Council funded Future Fellowship project "Rewriting the Social Contract: Technology, Ecology, Extremism". The Social Contract Research Podcast is an initiative of the Social Contract Research Network. To find out more about the SCRN, and to subscribe to email updates, please visit https://www.monash.edu/arts/languages-literatures-cultures-linguistics/social-contract-research-network  SCRN YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq7geWYdmGE3kIcJrw8Ebsw 

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 of Merit, and Minouche Shafik’s vision of the new social contract. The conversation was made possible by funding from the Australian Research Council Future Fellowship project "Rewriting the Social Contract: Technology, Ecology, Extremism". The Social Contract Research Podcast is an initiative of the Social Contract Research Network. To find out more about the SCRN, and to subscribe to email updates, please visit https://www.monash.edu/arts/languages-literatures-cultures-linguistics/social-contract-research-network  SCRN YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq7geWYdmGE3kIcJrw8Ebsw 

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 funded Future Fellowship project "Rewriting the Social Contract: Technology, Ecology, Extremism". The Social Contract Research Podcast is an initiative of the Social Contract Research Network To find out more about the Social Contract Research Network, and to subscribe to SCRN email updates, please visit https://www.monash.edu/arts/languages-literatures-cultures-linguistics/social-contract-research-network  SCRN YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq7geWYdmGE3kIcJrw8Ebsw