About the Conference
Workers’ rights are central to both the history and contemporary practice of human rights. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights forbids slavery, places just limitations on working hours , grants the right to work, as well as freedom of occupation, equal pay for equal work, just remuneration sufficient to secure a life worthy of human dignity, and, crucially, the right for all workers to join a trade union. These rights are further developed in the ICECR to include a right to workplace safety, a right to equal opportunities for promotion on the sole basis of competence and seniority, the right to strike, and the right for trade unions to form national and international associations. The history of international bodies, and nongovernmental organizations, focused on workers’ rights is a rich one. Recently, human rights monitoring organizations have turned their attention increasingly to workers’ rights.
By contrast, for much of the 20th century, the paradigms employed by analytic political philosophers for thinking about social justice were primarily distributive. Even when the distributive doctrines were quite egalitarian, the consequences for workers’ rights were unclear to say the least. Having largely rejected a Marxist inspired vocabulary of exploitation, domination, alienation, and oppression to describe the conditions of workers under regimes of private property and the discipline of markets, analytic political philosophers struggle to find the tools neccessary to graple with these terms. This is thus an area where analytic political philosophers have failed to lead, until now. Spurred on by the precipitous decline of organized labor, and the long-term stagnating position of US workers, a growing number of political philosophers and political theorists are turning their attention to issues of justice at work.
Confirmed Participants:
Samuel Arnold
Texas Christian University
Samuel Arnold is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at Texas Christian University. His research interests include liberal egalitarianism, socialism, division of labor, and libertarianism. He has two articles, both in the Journal of Political Philosophy: "The Difference Principle at Work" and "Rightwing Rawlsianism: A Critique". Read his full biography here.
Pablo Gilabert
Concordia University
Pablo Gilabert is an Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy at Concordia University. His primary research interests are in global justice, distributive justice, democratic theory, and contractualist theories in normative ethics. He has been a HLA Hart Visiting Fellow at the University of Oxford, a DAAD Fellow at the University of Frankfurt, a Visiting Fellow at the Australian National University, and a Laurance S. Rockefeller Visiting Faculty Fellow in the Center for Human Values at Princeton University. Read his full biography here.
Alex Gourevitch
Stanford University
Alex Gourevitch is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at Stanford University. His Primary research interests are in political and economic thought; theories of freedom; work and leisure; Marxism; and rights theory. He writes political commentary, for publications like Jacobin, Dissent, and Salon, and runs a critical political economy blog The Current Moment. Read his full biography here.
Kristi Olson
Bowdoin College
Kristi Olson is an Assistant Professor of Political Science. Her research interests are in normative political theory, with a focus on issues of egalitarian justice. She received her Ph.D. in philosophy from Harvard University; she also holds degrees in health policy (A.M.) from Harvard University and law (J.D.) from Duke Law School. She was a postdoctoral research associate at Princeton University’s Center for Human Values. Read her full biography here.
Julie Rose
Dartmouth College
Julie Rose is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Government at Dartmouth college. Her primary research interests are in contemporary political philosophy, history of political thought, liberalism and economic justice. Her forthcoming novel, Free Time, discusses citizens’ legitimate claim to fair shares of free time (Princeton University Press). Read her full biography here.
Lucas Stanczyk
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Lucas Stanczyk is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at MIT. His Primary research interests are in political philosophy and the history of political thought. He has written on a broad range of topics such distributive justice, political economy, and normative democratic theory. Read his full biography here.
Tentative Schedule of Events:
Friday, October 14, 2016
1:00pm-1:15pm Registration and light snacks
1:15-1:30pm Welcome
1:30pm-2:45pm Session 1
2:45pm-3:00pm Break and refreshments
3:00pm-4:15pm Session 2
4:15pm-4:30pm Break and refreshments
4:40pm-5:45pm Session 3
Saturday, October 15
8:45am-9:15am Coffee and Light Breakfast
9:15am-10:30am Session 4
10:30am-10:45am Break and refreshments
10:45am-12noon Session 5
12noon-1:00pm Lunch
1:00pm-2:15pm Session 6
2:15pm-2:30pm Break and refreshments
2:30pm-3:45pm Session 7
3:45pm-4:00pm Break and refreshments
4:00pm-5:15pm Session 8