A view of singleton campus including singleton park and the beach, with the sea stretching out to the horizon.

Dr Patrick Cockburn

Senior Lecturer in Political Economy and Philosophy

Politics, Philosophy and International Relations

p.j.l.cockburn@swansea.ac.uk

Office - 006
Ground Floor
James Callaghan
Singleton Campus

Available For Postgraduate Supervision

Research Links

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5246-696X

About

Patrick Cockburn is Senior Lecturer in Philosophy and Political Economy. His research focuses on problems of economic power and justice in capitalist societies, and builds bridges between political philosophy and the social sciences of economic life. He has published research on economic dependence, the family in political thought, conflictual property relationships, social and legal debates about needs, and methods in normative political theory. His most recent book Two Stories about Capitalism is an introduction to the normative analysis of the central economic institutions of capitalism and will be published in 2026 (Polity Press). His current research examines the 'description of injustice' as a method within ethics and political theory.

He welcomes inquiries about supervision in topics concerning social and economic justice.

Areas Of Expertise

Economic justice
Inequality
Normative political economy
Philosophy and sociology of the family

Career Highlights

Teaching Interests

Economic justice

Inequality

Normative political economy

Philosophy and sociology of the family

Publications

Research Highlights

Cockburn, P. (2025). Paths to a world without families: reasons, means, and ends in family abolitionism. Contemporary Political Theory, 24(3), 390-407.
https://doi.org/10.1057/s41296-024-00729-6, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa67541
Cockburn, P. & Preminger, J. (2023). Migration and Demos in the Democratic Firm: An Extension of the State-Firm Analogy. Political Theory, 51(3), 557-580.
https://doi.org/10.1177/00905917231154422, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa61585
Cockburn, P. (2021). Varieties of economic dependence. European Journal of Political Theory, 22(2), 195-216.
https://doi.org/10.1177/14748851211001549, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa56717
https://doi.org/10.1177/14748851211001549
Cockburn, P. (2018). The Politics of Dependence - Economic Parasites and Vulnerable Lives (1st ed.). Palgrave Macmillan.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78908-8, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa52087
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78908-8
Cockburn, P. & Thorup, M. (2018). Proprietors and parasites. Philosophy & Social Criticism, 44(2), 179-199.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0191453717723189, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa52091
Bruun, M., Cockburn, P., Risager, B., & Thorup, M. (Eds.). (2018). Contested Property Claims: What Disagreement Tells us About Ownership. Routledge.
SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa52089
Cockburn, P., Bruun, M., Risager, B., & Thorup, M. (2018). Introduction: Disagreement as a Window onto Property. Contested Property Claims: What Disagreement Tells us About Ownership (pp. 1-20). Routledge
SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa52090
Cockburn, P. (2017). Book Review: Just Property: Vol II: Enlightenment, Revolution and History
https://doi.org/10.1177/1478929917712912, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa52096
Cockburn, P. (2016). Claims of Need in Property Law and Politics. Theoria: A Journal of Social and Political Theory, 63(146), 56-74.
https://doi.org/10.3167/th.2016.6314604, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa52092
https://www.berghahnjournals.com/view/journals/theoria/63/146/th6314604.xml
Cockburn, P. (2016). A common sense of property?. Distinktion: Journal of Social Theory, 17(1), 78-93.
https://doi.org/10.1080/1600910X.2015.1005111, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa52093
Cockburn, P. (2014). Street Papers, Work and Begging: ‘Experimenting’ at the Margins of Economic Legitimacy. Journal of Cultural Economy, 7(2), 145-160.
https://doi.org/10.1080/17530350.2013.837630, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa52094
Cockburn, P. (2014). The Road to Market Society: Book Review of: What Money Can't Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets
https://doi.org/10.1177/1368431013520385, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa52097
Cockburn, P. (2014). Økonomiske Parasitter
SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa52103
Cockburn, P. (2013). The political chaff from the economic grain? Rhetorical accounts of the embeddedness of begging. Economy and Society, 42(2), 281-303.
https://doi.org/10.1080/03085147.2012.718623, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa52095
Cockburn, P. (2013). Kolde Systemer og Varme Praksisser: Kritik af en Kunstig Modstilling
SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa52098

All Research

Journal Articles

Cockburn, P. (2025). The Rhythm of Justice: On Temporal Indeterminacy in Normative Reasoning. Res Publica, 0
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11158-025-09741-y, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa70408
Cockburn, P. (2025). Paths to a world without families: reasons, means, and ends in family abolitionism. Contemporary Political Theory, 24(3), 390-407.
https://doi.org/10.1057/s41296-024-00729-6, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa67541
Cockburn, P. & Preminger, J. (2023). Migration and Demos in the Democratic Firm: An Extension of the State-Firm Analogy. Political Theory, 51(3), 557-580.
https://doi.org/10.1177/00905917231154422, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa61585
Cockburn, P. (2021). Varieties of economic dependence. European Journal of Political Theory, 22(2), 195-216.
https://doi.org/10.1177/14748851211001549, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa56717
https://doi.org/10.1177/14748851211001549
Cockburn, P. & Thorup, M. (2018). Proprietors and parasites. Philosophy & Social Criticism, 44(2), 179-199.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0191453717723189, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa52091
Cockburn, P. (2016). A common sense of property?. Distinktion: Journal of Social Theory, 17(1), 78-93.
https://doi.org/10.1080/1600910X.2015.1005111, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa52093
Cockburn, P. (2016). Claims of Need in Property Law and Politics. Theoria: A Journal of Social and Political Theory, 63(146), 56-74.
https://doi.org/10.3167/th.2016.6314604, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa52092
https://www.berghahnjournals.com/view/journals/theoria/63/146/th6314604.xml
Cockburn, P. (2014). Street Papers, Work and Begging: ‘Experimenting’ at the Margins of Economic Legitimacy. Journal of Cultural Economy, 7(2), 145-160.
https://doi.org/10.1080/17530350.2013.837630, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa52094
Cockburn, P. (2013). The political chaff from the economic grain? Rhetorical accounts of the embeddedness of begging. Economy and Society, 42(2), 281-303.
https://doi.org/10.1080/03085147.2012.718623, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa52095
Cockburn, P. (2011). Att argumentera om ekonomisk legitimitet. Ikaros, 8(4), 9-11.
SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa52099

Authored Books

Cockburn, P. (2018). The Politics of Dependence - Economic Parasites and Vulnerable Lives (1st ed.). Palgrave Macmillan.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78908-8, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa52087
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78908-8

Book Chapters

Cockburn, P., Bruun, M., Risager, B., & Thorup, M. (2018). Introduction: Disagreement as a Window onto Property. Contested Property Claims: What Disagreement Tells us About Ownership (pp. 1-20). Routledge
SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa52090
Cockburn, P. (2012). Rhetorics of Work: The Value of Work in Different Contexts of Argument. The Value of Work: Interdisciplinary Perspectives (pp. 3-17). Interdisciplinary Pres
SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa52101
Cockburn, P. (2010). The World of Work and its Anomalies. Decent Work and Unemployment (pp. 15-26). LIT Verlag
SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa52102

Edited Books

Bruun, M., Cockburn, P., Risager, B., & Thorup, M. (Eds.). (2018). Contested Property Claims: What Disagreement Tells us About Ownership. Routledge.
SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa52089

Other Research Outputs

Cockburn, P. (2017). Book Review: Just Property: Vol II: Enlightenment, Revolution and History
https://doi.org/10.1177/1478929917712912, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa52096
Cockburn, P. (2014). The Road to Market Society: Book Review of: What Money Can't Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets
https://doi.org/10.1177/1368431013520385, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa52097
Cockburn, P. (2014). Økonomiske Parasitter
SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa52103
Cockburn, P. (2013). Kolde Systemer og Varme Praksisser: Kritik af en Kunstig Modstilling
SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa52098
Cockburn, P. (2011). What are the Rules of Ties?
SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa52100

Supervision

The dynamics of territorial and national identity in Wales and Cornwall. (current)

PhD

Other supervisor: Prof Jonathan Bradbury
Environmental activism in a changing political environment: Empirical evidence and normative analysis of the relation between civil society and state in Türkiye. (current)

PhD

Other supervisor: Dr Gideon Calder

Other supervisor: Dr Caner Sayan

Taught Modules

HUP104 Living Well and Doing Good - An Introduction to Ethics

This module introduces students to key issues and theories within ethics. It examines some important moral thinkers, including Aristotle, Immanuel Kant and John Stuart Mill, along with Buddhist and Confucian ethics. It also explores the nature of well-being and what it means to live well. Finally, it considers concepts such as egoism and altruism, emotivism, relativism and objectivism. Underpinning this module is a focus on how we should live our lives and what our relationships with other people should be like.
HUP105 Critical Reasoning

This module introduces students to the core elements of critical reasoning: how to identify, construct and analyse arguments; what makes an argument valid and sound; common errors in reasoning; and the basics of propositional logic. In studying these topics, students will cultivate core critical reasoning skills and apply these in analysing real-world textual examples.
HUP132 Reading Great Works of Philosophy

¿This module consists in a detailed examination of three influential philosophical texts. The module offers students the opportunity to engage in a thorough, carefully-paced reading of the works of important philosophers, developing an appreciation of both their core ideas and the context in which they were writing. This allows students to learn about influential philosophers and to cultivate their ability to read primary texts, understand philosophical ideas and analyse arguments. The texts studied can change each year. Recent texts include Lucius Annaeus Seneca¿s Epistles (Letters), Jean-Paul Sartre¿s Existentialism is a Humanism, and Mary Midgley¿s The Ethical Primate.¿
PO-3325 Capitalism and Justice

This module unpacks the fundamental political dilemmas that underpin capitalist economies today. These include questions like: should states control the production of money? Do markets deliver social justice? Is the ownership of property a form of power over others? And is economic inequality the inevitable price for prosperity? The module draws on work in political philosophy, economic sociology, and political economy, in order to examine, and debate the political problems at the centre of our economic practices and institutions. While drawing on a range of empirical studies, the focus of the module is on developing the conceptual and theoretical competences needed for informed normative (ethical and political) analysis of contemporary capitalist practices and institutions. The aim is to give students the resources to develop strong arguments for their own political conclusions on these topics.
PO-3325A Capitalism and Justice

This module unpacks the fundamental political dilemmas that underpin capitalist economies today. These include questions like: should states control the production of money? Do markets deliver social justice? Is the ownership of property a form of power over others? And is economic inequality the inevitable price for prosperity? The module draws on work in political philosophy, economic sociology, and political economy, in order to examine, and debate the political problems at the centre of our economic practices and institutions. While drawing on a range of empirical studies, the focus of the module is on developing the conceptual and theoretical competences needed for informed normative (ethical and political) analysis of contemporary capitalist practices and institutions. The aim is to give students the resources to develop strong arguments for their own political conclusions on these topics.

Dr Patrick Cockburn

Email address

Research Links

About

Areas Of Expertise

Career Highlights

Research Highlights

All Research

The dynamics of territorial and national identity in Wales and Cornwall. (current)

Environmental activism in a changing political environment: Empirical evidence and normative analysis of the relation between civil society and state in Türkiye. (current)

HUP104 Living Well and Doing Good - An Introduction to Ethics

HUP105 Critical Reasoning

HUP132 Reading Great Works of Philosophy

PO-3325 Capitalism and Justice

PO-3325A Capitalism and Justice