School of Social and Political Science

Research interests

PhD: Resisting Capitalism through the Capitalist State: The Case of the Prefigurative Social Enterprise in Scotland

Research Summary: Prefigurative organisations that practice more democratic, more community-oriented, and more environmentally sustainable ways of organising economic activity are a crucial component of any contemporary political strategy that aims to transcend capitalism. However, prefigurative initiatives emerge, and exist, within the dominant capitalist structure, and are therefore inevitably at a risk of capitalist encroachment. This raises questions: how might we practically move towards futures beyond capitalism, from within capitalism? How might prefigurative practices resist capitalist encroachment? And what is the role of the state in both enabling and obstructing a transition to futures beyond capitalism?

My project argues that prefigurative practices can and should strategically use the capitalist state to resist capitalist encroachment and advance their aims. I draw on a case study of Scottish social enterprise – a movement of enterprises whose primary objective is social and/or environmental benefit, and whose profits are reinvested in the enterprise or its beneficiary community, rather than distributed to shareholders – to offer insight into how this might be achieved in practice. More specifically, this project explores the tensions that emerged within the Scottish social enterprise – between the, what I call, ‘prefigurative’ and ‘(neo)ordoliberal’ visions of social enterprise – to illustrate, not only what capitalist encroachment looks like, but also how it may be resisted by strategically using the capitalist state. 

Research Interests: Political Theory, Political Economy, (Anti-)Capitalist Strategy, Politics of Resistance, Prefiguration, Agonist Democracy

Roles and responsibilities

Senior Tutor, Politics in a Changing World

Tutor, Political Thinkers

Teaching Assistant, Edinburgh Futures Institute

Conferences and presentations

2024 'Scottish Social Enterprises: A Path to Radical Renewal or Neoliberal Expansion?' at Political Studies Association Annual International Conference, the Rethinking Economic Transformation in a Neoliberal World of Contradictions and Crisis panel.

2024 'Problem-driven theorizing. The case of the Scottish social enterprise' at Knowledge & Scepticism in Political Theory workshop, Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities.

2025 'Resisting Capitalism through the Capitalist State: Prefigurative Politics as a Strategy' , the inaugural Scottish Political Theory Network Workshop.

2025  'Resisting Capitalism through the Capitalist State: Prefigurative Politics as a Strategy', 2025 Association for Social and Political Philosophy Annual Conference, Anarchism and Agonism panel.