Day 1 — 13 July 2017
9.30am: Registration
9.45am: Welcome
João Cardoso Rosas (Dean of the Institute of Arts and Humanities)
João Ribeiro Mendes (Director of the Center for Ethics, Politics and Society)
10.00am: Public Lecture by Lucas Stanczyk, " The Political Economy of Exploitation"
Chair: Jurgen De Wispelaere, ISRF/University of Bath
How should modern societies allocate the benefits of future productivity growth? Should these benefits be used to increase the production and consumption of desired services and goods? Or should gains in productivity be used to enable the average person to take more and more time away from work? In the first lecture, we will reflect critically on the conventional answers to these questions. It will be argued that they all turn a blind eye to exploitation even as they license imposing numerous unreasonable demands on ordinary workers.
Suggested Readings:
G. A. Cohen (1978), Karl Marx’s Theory of History: A Defense. Princeton University Press, ch. 9.
Robert Goodin et al (2008), Discretionary Time. Cambridge University Press, ch. 7-8.
Stuart White (2000), “Social Rights and the Social Contract,” British Journal of Political Science 30 (3): 507-532.
11.00am: Coffee Break
11.15am: Workshop A
- Chair: Daniele Santoro, Centre for Ethics, Politics and Society, University of Minho
- Frauke Schmode, Bavarian School of Public Policy & Technical University Munich, Germany
- “Basic Income and the Future of Bad Work"
- James Hickson, University of York, UK
- “Meaningful Work and Workplace Democracy”
1.00pm: Lunch
2.30pm: Workshop B
- Chair: Juliana Bidadanure, Stanford University, USA
- Pablo Scotto Benito, University of Barcelona, Spain
- “Two Principles of Distributive Justice Behind Job Guarantee and Basic Income”
- Leticia Morales, National University of Mar Del Plata, Argentina
"The Democratic Case for a Robust Right to Income"
4.15pm: Coffee Break
4.30: Public Lecture by Ruth Yeoman, "A Right to Meaningful Work"
Chair: James Hickson, University of York
We will examine prospects for a human right to meaningful work using resources drawn from a variety of theoretical perspectives. This will extend to a consideration of an ethic of care and the need for a theory of emotions in conceptualising meaningful work.
Suggested Readings:
Gewirth, A. (1996). The Community of Rights. University of Chicago.
Weil, S. (1977 [1946]) Factory Work. In: Panichas (ed.) The Simone Weil Reader. New York: David McKay Company.
Yeoman, R. (2014). Meaningful Work and Workplace Democracy: a philosophy of work and a politics of meaningfulness. Palgrave Macmillan.
Yeoman, R. (2014). Conceptualising Meaningful Work as a Fundamental Human Need. Journal of Business Ethics 125 (2): 235-251.
Day 2 — 14 July 2017
10.00am: Public Lecture by Lucas Stanczyk, "The Political Morality of Social Reproduction"
Chair: Jurgen De Wispelaere, ISRF/University of Bath
In the second lecture, we will attempt to articulate a more satisfactory way of thinking about these questions. On this approach, what should be done with the benefits of productivity growth at any given point in history depends on what is required for the production and future reproduction of social justice. As long as what is required continues to include some unwanted labor effort, institutions must allocate the principal burdens of social cooperation fairly among persons. We will describe two ways in which modern societies systematically fail to do this.
Suggested Readings:
Julie Rose (2016), Free Time. Princeton University Press, ch. 1-2.
Edward Nell and Onora O’Neill (2002), “Justice under Socialism,” in Justice: Alternative Political Perspectives, ed. James Sterba. Wadsworth Publishing.
Lucas Stanczyk (2012), “Productive Justice,” Philosophy & Public Affairs 40 (2):144-164.
11.00am: Coffee Break
11.15am: Workshop C
- Chair: Sara Bizarro, Centre for Ethics, Politics and Society, University of Minho
- Louis-Philippe Hodgson, York University, Canada
“Liberty, Incentives, and Production” - Stephen Hood, University of Manchester, UK
“Should We Obey Our Bosses?” - David Coombs, LSE, UK
“Is Formative Work Special in Distributive Justice?”
1.00pm: Lunch
2.30pm: Workshop D
- Chair: Jorge Félix Cardoso, University of Minho
- Shin Osawa, University of Kitakyushu, Japan
“Making Workplaces Democratic to Revive Liberal Democratic Polity" - Gabriel Monette, University of Montreal, Canada
- "Labor Republicanism in the Firm : A Question of Governance"
- Martin O’Neill, University of York, UK
“Post-Democracy, Social Equality and Trade Unions”
4.15pm: Coffee Break
4.30: Guest Lectures — An Economic Perspective on Work
- Chair: Pedro Teixeira, Centre for Ethics, Politics and Society, University of Minho
- Sílvia Sousa, School of Economics and Management, University of Minho
- "Inequality and Education: The Critical Role of Skills in the Labor Market"
João Cerejeira, School of Economics and Management, University of Minho - "Innovation and Inequality: The History and Future of Workplace Automation"
- Suggested Readings:
- Acemoglu, Daron, and Pascual Restrepo (2017). “Robots and Jobs: Evidence from the US” (article based on working paper). Vox, Centre for Economic Policy Research, April 10. [http://voxeu.org/article/robots-and-jobs-evidence-us]
Anslow, Louis (2016). “Robots have been about to take all the jobs for more than 200 years Is it really different this time?”. Timeline – new in Context. Available at: [https://timeline.com/robots-have-been-about-to-take-all-the-jobs-for-more-than-200-years-5c9c08a2f41d]
Autor , D. (2015). “The Paradox of Abundance: Automation Anxiety Returns”. Performance and Progress: Essays on Capitalism, Business, and Society, 2015, Oxford: Oxford University Press, Subramanian Rangan (ed.). [https://economics.mit.edu/files/1168 ]
Autor , D. (2014). '' Skills, Education, and the Rise of Earnings Inequality Among the "Other 99 Percent"other 99 percent'', Science, 23 May 2014: 344 (6186), 843–851. https://seii.mit.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Science-2014-Autor-843-51.pdf]
Autor , D. (2015). “Why Are There Still So Many Jobs? The History and Future of Workplace Automation”. Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 2015, 29(3), 3–30. [https://economics.mit.edu/files/11653]
Frey, C B and M Osborne (2016). “The Future of Employment: How Susceptible are Jobs to Computerisation?” (article based on working paper). Vox, Centre for Economic Policy, March 25. [http://voxeu.org/article/how-digital-revolution-reshaping-global-workforce]
Day 3 — 15 July 2017
10.00am: Public Lecture by Ruth Yeoman, "Meaningfulness and Mutuality in Work, Organisations and Systems"
Chair: James Hickson, University of York
We will consider the role that meaningfulness plays in normatively desirable organisations. Mutuality will be explored as an organising philosophy for proliferating meaningfulness in work, organisations and systems. In applying to the idea of The Meaningful City, we will explore how political theory might develop new theoretical resources for addressing critical aspects of economic, political social units below the level of the national state.
Suggested Readings:
Bradley R. Agle, Thomas Donaldson, R. Edward Freeman, Michael C. Jensen, Ronald K. Mitchell and Donna J. Wood (2008). Dialogue: Toward Superior Stakeholder Theory, Business Ethics Quarterly 18 (2): 153-190.
Donaldson, T. & Walsh, J.P. (2015), Toward a theory of business. Research in Organizational Behavior 35: 181–207.
Heath, J., Moriarty, J. & Norman, W. (2010), Business Ethics and (or as) Political Philosophy. Business Ethics Quarterly 20(3): 427–457.
11.00am: Coffee Break
11.15am: Workshop E
- Chair: Lucas Petroni, University of São Paulo, Brazil
- Malte Jauch, University of Konstanz, Germany
“Less Work For More People: The Normative Case for a 20 Hours Working Week” - Denise Celentano, University of Catania & Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales of Paris, France
“Automation of Labor as a Problem of Justice" - Mats Volberg, University of Tartu, Estonia
“How Automation Transforms Capital and The Implications for Property-owning Democracy”
1.00pm: End of School