Research.

2024

Addressing the will theory challenge to animals’ legal rights. Forthcoming. Political Studies.

Participants in the long-standing interest/will theory debate, long in disagreement over the function of rights, are united on this point: while the interest theory can accommodate animals, the will theory cannot. Recent scholarship in animal political theory agrees, accounting for animal rights via the interest theory alone. This paper offers the first sustained challenge to this position by exploring two interpretations of the will theory. It concludes that only a more moderate interpretation of what it takes to be a competent decision-maker allows us to interpret the will theory in a way that both retains its distinctiveness and conforms to current, mainstream rights discourse. Through a discussion of how we might regard at least certain animals, in certain contexts, as being capable of giving or withholding their consent, the paper argues that they should no longer be categorically held as outside the domain of will theory rights-holders.

From the Three Rs to the Culture Wars? How Australians Perceive Local Government Action on Climate Change, Indigenous Reconciliation, and LGBTQIA+ Advocacy. 2024. Urban Affairs Review. (With Mark Chou and Rachel Busbridge.) https://doi.org/10.1177/10780874241242049

Australian local government has rarely been the domain where entrenched and polarising cultural disputes play out, and is instead most often associated with the “3Rs”: roads, rates, and rubbish. However, in recent years, a growing number of local councils from across Australia have taken exceptional and unprecedented steps, sometimes in defiance of state and federal governments, to address some of the country's most ideologically contentious issues. Drawing on long-established American urban politics literature on local politics and culture war conflicts, this research note offers an empirical account of the public understandings and perceptions of local government roles in the realm of contentious politics, an area that has not yet been addressed in the emerging Australian literature. Our findings from a representative nation-wide survey (n = 1,350) indicate that a majority of Australians believe that local governments should be involved in matters relating to climate change, Indigenous reconciliation, and LGBTQIA + advocacy.

Political representation, the environment, and Edmund Burke: A re-reading of the Western canon through the lens of multispecies justice. 2024. Online first. European Journal of Political Theory. (With Edmund Handby) https://doi.org/10.1177/14748851241236055

A major puzzle in contemporary political theory is how to extend notions of justice to the environment. With environmental entities unable to communicate in ways that are traditionally recognised within the political sphere, their interests have largely been recognised instrumentally: only important as they contribute to human interests. In response to the multispecies justice project's call to reimagine our concepts of justice to include other-than-human beings and entities, we offer a novel reading of Edmund Burke's account of political representation that, we argue, can be applied to the environment. Burke claimed that interests are ‘unattached’ to any actual class or group, and that it is the duty of the representative to represent these unattached interests. Beyond providing an original application of Burke's work, the paper offers an alternative to the ‘allure’ of authoritarian environmentalism, an alternative which conservative thinkers may use as an entryway into debates on environmental justice.

Beyond the Three Rs: Public Perceptions on the Changing Role of Local Government in Australia. 2024. Urban Policy and Research. (With Rachel Busbridge and Mark Chou.) https://doi.org/10.1080/08111146.2024.2320637

Despite the growing consensus among local government scholars and practitioners that the sector has now moved beyond the ‘Three Rs’, there remains a trenchant perception in public debate that when local councils do more than provide the narrow range of local services to property they are overreaching. But to what extent are these views actually reflective of Australian public opinion? This article reports on the findings of a new national survey and analyses public perceptions on the changing role of local government in Australia. It reaches three key findings. The first is that Australians have now largely outgrown the three longstanding ideological underpinnings of Australian urban politics. The second is that Australians increasingly have an appetite for local government to address contentious cultural and political issues. Finally, the third is that local council category had little effect in determining how residents conceived of the role of local government.

Vegans and “green-collared criminals”: The depoliticization of animal advocacy in public discourse. 2024. Polity 56(1): 91–117. https://doi.org/10.1086/727840

While sustained public attention is often associated with the politicization of an issue, this paper argues that certain dominant strands of public discourse in relation to animal advocacy in fact serve to depoliticize the movement. Public discussion often equates animal advocacy with veganism, with the latter typically framed or understood as an individual’s dietary or lifestyle choice. Furthermore, animal activists are often associated with criminal, or even terrorist, behavior—as was highlighted when the Australian Prime Minister labelled animal activists as “green-collared criminals” in the wake of a public protest. In this paper, the implications of these two public narratives about animal activism is discussed with reference to two examples from Australia: the media coverage of a day of coordinated protests that took place on April 8, 2019, and the New South Wales state parliamentary debates surrounding the Right to Farm Bill 2019. By developing a multi-dimensional conceptual analysis of (de)politicization, this paper argues that the “veganization” (as a form of “issue-privatization”) and criminalization of animal activists in public discourse are both forms of depoliticization, in that they frame activists’ messages as, respectively, either more appropriately belonging within the private sphere of personal choice, or as not related to the public good at all. I conclude that to avoid the delegitimization that these discursive processes may entail, animal advocates need to develop counter-narratives that emphasize how their claims can support the strengthening of existing democratic institutions.

2023

Bridging the expectation gap: A survey of Australian PhD candidates and supervisors in politics and international relations. 2023. Australian Journal of Political Science 58(4): 494-512. (With Daniel Casey.) https://doi.org/10.1080/10361146.2023.2277927

What do PhD candidates and supervisors say about the quality of PhD training, the supervisory experience, and post-PhD career prospects? With little research into the quality of Australian politics and international relations PhD programmes, and the impacts of COVID-19 exacerbating concerns about academic job prospects, we need to evaluate the quality of PhD training. This paper reports on two mirrored surveys of PhD candidates (n = 109) and supervisors (n = 55) in Politics and International Relations from twenty-three Australian universities. The survey, conducted in 2022, drew on a 2013 survey of Australian PhD candidates in these disciplines, allowing for temporal comparisons. We find that methods training is perceived as largely non-existent or insufficient. We also find that there is a lack of job preparedness training built into the PhD programme, whether for academic or non-academic careers. Finally, we highlight ongoing gendered disparities that negatively impact female candidates and supervisors.

“An isolating experience aggravated by COVID”: Exploring disconnections between Political Science PhD Candidates and Supervisors. 2023. PS: Political Science & Politics 56(3): 357-364. (With Daniel Casey.) https://doi.org/10.1017/S1049096523000161

To what extent did the COVID-19 pandemic impact PhD candidates in political science? To what extent were their supervisors aware of this impact? PhD candidates in political science are not strangers to the lack of available and stable academic employment and the potentially isolating experience of research. Our survey of Australian PhD candidates in political science and international relations (N = 109) confirms that the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated these preexisting challenges. By comparing political science PhD candidates and their supervisors in relation to their experiences during the pandemic, our survey also reveals that there has been a disconnect between the two groups relative to the former’s experience of COVID-19. Although supervisors recognize the stressors that candidates have faced, they are more likely than candidates to report that department support relative to pandemic-related challenges was available, and they appear to be somewhat unaware of the impact that COVID-19 has had on candidates’ career plans. The survey also reveals substantial disagreement between candidates and supervisors about perceived career-mentoring styles. These points of disconnect must be addressed to ensure the success and well-being of current and future PhD candidates.

Hard work and you can't get it: An international comparative analysis of gender, career aspirations, and preparedness among politics and international relations PhD Students. 2023. PS: Political Science & Politics 56(3): 402-410. (With Daniel Casey, Lisa Young, Loleen Berdahl & Jonathan Malloy.) https://doi.org/10.1017/S1049096523000057

Do all PhD students aspire to an academic career? Do PhD programs appropriately prepare students for the realities of the job market? There is a well-established gap between political science PhD graduates and tenure-track academic postings. The mismatch between PhD graduates and academic positions may point to alternative models of doctoral education as a possible solution. However, the survey of Canadian and Australian PhD students described in this article suggests that issues and challenges are common regardless of the model of doctoral education. Canadian PhDs report more mentoring activity, but they also are more fixated on securing academic positions. However, we find important gender differences across countries: men are more interested in an academic career and only a (disproportionately male) minority is confident that they will succeed in securing a faculty career. This raises questions about diversity in the future of the profession. This research suggests that although students have different experiences under different doctoral models, issues of academic jobs and a mismatch are common in both systems.

2022

Criminalising (cubes of) truth: Animal advocacy, civil disobedience, and the politics of sight. 2022. Online first. Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy. https://doi.org/10.1080/13698230.2022.2119522

Should animal advocates be allowed to publicly display graphic footage of how animals live (and die) in industrial animal use facilities? Cube of truth (‘cube’) demonstrations are a form of animal advocacy aimed at informing the public about the realities of animals’ experiences in places such as slaughterhouses, feedlots, and research facilities, by showing footage of mostly lawful practices within these workplaces. Activists engaging in cube-style protests have recently been targeted by law enforcement agencies in two Australian states on the basis that the footage on display was too offensive to be shown in public. In this paper, I argue that these justifications do not stand up to scrutiny. Using an original politics of sight analysis, this paper demonstrates how the democratic costs associated with targeting cube protests outweigh the costs to the public. Cube activists are engaging in public dialogue by drawing attention to sites of potential injustice, and are playing an important role in highlighting the agency of the animals involved in exploitative industries. I further make the case that, where such demonstrations fall foul of the law, they should be regarded as legitimate acts of civil disobedience.

2021

Of droughts and fleeting rains: Drought, agriculture and media discourse in Australia. 2021. Australian Journal of Politics and History 67(1): 106-129. (With Richard Beggs.) https://doi.org/10.1111/ajph.12759.

Drought is a normal part of the variable Australian climate, occurring on average every thirteen years since 1870. Changes in agricultural policy since the 1980s have attempted to shift more of the drought risk from the state to the producer. During drought, however, governments feel political pressure to support the industry financially. The iconography of rural hardship and representation of drought as crisis in media discourse are key factors in forcing government intervention and ensuring public support. We analysed the content of eighty news articles during six months of the drought which began in 2018. In line with previous research, we found that drought was represented primarily through its effects on the agricultural industry. Implicit disaster narratives persisted, but in contrast to past studies, a recognition of drought as normal was more salient than drought as exceptional. Agrarian narratives emphasising the exceptional cultural value of the agricultural industry persisted and were presented as justification for continued government support. Scientifically informed discourses, recognising the effects of climate change on future drought risk and acknowledging the role of the agricultural industry in current and historical environmental degradation, were scarce or absent.

2019

Non-human animals and moral responsiveness: A challenge to Kantian morality. 2019. Ethics and the Environment 24(1): 45-76. muse.jhu.edu/article/725134.

The thesis of this paper is that certain nonhuman animals could be conceived of as capable of moral motivation and subsequent moral behavior, with the appropriate behavioral, psychological and cognitive evidence. I argue that a certain notion of morality—morality as the process of conscious, reasoned deliberation over explicit moral concepts—is excessively exclusionary, and that such a notion describes one mode of moral cognition, but not, as others have argued, morality’s essence. Instead, morality and moral behaviors could be viewed as natural phenomena that arose as a means by which social species could better cohere and survive, and one that consists of a spectrum of behaviors. Ultimately, I argue that the aforementioned notion of moral cognition has unfairly worked to exclude (certain) nonhuman animals from the sphere of morality as beings capable of moral behavior, and that instead we should be looking at moral behavior as a function of what I call ‘moral responsiveness.’

2016

Young people and intentional informal voting in Australia. 2016. Australian Journal of Political Science 51(3): 1-18. (With Lisa Hill.) https://doi.org/10.1080/10361146.2016.1200534.

Compared to most other advanced democracies, Australia experiences fairly high levels of both intentional and unintentional informal (or invalid) voting. Using survey data obtained predominantly from the Australian Election Study and aggregate-level data derived mainly from the Australian Census, we explore whether young people are more likely to cast intentional informal votes. We also reflect on why they might do so. We find that young people are strongly implicated in the rising intentional informal vote rate. We also find that their motivations are linked to the following factors: the young are less likely to be members of political parties, less interested in electoral politics and tend to value voting less than the average citizen. Young people also report higher than average levels of cynicism about politics and lower levels of satisfaction with Australian democracy.