Dr Ben Turner

Ben first joined the school in 2010 as an undergraduate student, and finished his PhD with the school in 2018 after taking up a post as lecturer in September 2017. Previously he taught as an assistant lecturer in the school, and also taught as a graduate teaching assistant in the School of Psychology, Politics and Sociology at Canterbury Christ Church University. He directs the school’s Liberal Arts programme and teaches political thought. 

Ben is interested in the political theory of technology, the politics of work and in methodological pluralism in political thought. He is currently writing a monograph on technology and political judgement in the work of the philosopher of technology Bernard Stiegler, and is undertaking projects on the use of ontology in pluralist political theory, the political theory of work, and the relationship between technology and freedom. 

Ben has also been a member of the organising collective of the London Conference in Critical Thought and is currently a member of the editorial board of the associated London Journal in Critical Thought. 

Ben is interested in broadening the scope of political theory by drawing on a range of disciplines and topics that often fall beyond it, particularly the philosophy of technology and anthropology. He is currently working on three projects:

First, a monograph on the work of Bernard Stiegler which is the first to develop a critical overview of his significance for political theory. In particular, it emphasises the link between technology and political judgement in Stiegler's work and the benefits it holds for a non-totalising and pluralist understanding of the political. Ben has also published widely on Stiegler's philosophical lineage and the political consequences of his work. 

Second, an ongoing series of articles on the issues raised by the ontological presuppositions held by pluralist political theorists. Drawing on recent work in anthropology, this project seeks to show how the philosophical commitments of pluralism impede the ability of political theorists to comprehend forms of politics that conflict with those philosophical presuppositions. Publications on this theme address this issue in multiculturalism and the work of Laclau and Mouffe, and in-process work will investigate this problem in the turn to context in political thought. 

Third, a project on the growing importance of the concept work for the discipline of political philosophy that draws on recent discussions of issues such as automation and precarity. In particular, Ben is interested in showing how why recent debates regarding the nature of work have wide significance for topics in political theory that otherwise seem to be removed from the issue. 

Ben directs and teaches on the Liberal Arts programme, and also teaches political theory in the school. This year he convenes:

• LART3310: Modes of Reasoning
• LART3320: Understanding the Contemporary
• POLI3140: Introduction to Political Thought
• POLI6650: Advanced Topics in Politics and International Relations

Ben is happy to supervise research projects on the work of Bernard Stiegler, the philosophy of technology and its relationship to political theory, and in Continental political thought more broadly (particularly within post-structuralism and post-foundationalism).

Professional Societies:

• Political Studies Association
• Society for European Philosophy