ABSTRACT
Rousseau is widely known for the “social contract” and the “general will”. However, these concepts are usually seen as prescriptions for countries rather than in terms of power and knowledge. Yet, many of the same topics apply, like property, education, gender and freedom in the context of science and technology. Indeed, both refer to limited settings, to political associations that experiment with freedom under difficult circumstances. Studying these extends Rousseau's basic formula, asking what it means to join “freely”, what is the potential for restricted polities organized around freedom? how can sovereignty remain indivisible? what makes authority legitimate, or not?
Rousseau's approach can be used to set apart these instances from the constitutional ordering of nature that is characteristic of modern societies. There are many such examples, including idealized polities in the world of software, each of which can be approached in political theoretical terms, methodologically and with the aim of arriving at a more applied perspective. The end-result is a political theory, a critique of the future of freedom that (re-)appears alongside countless avenues for new epistemological orientations.
