This looks like a great conference but I couldn’t help feeling irked that here was another conference with no women on the program. I’m never quite sure what to do about this since by the time these are announced it’s too late to do much. Still, it’s an important issue and the speakers who are on the program are people I’d like to hear.
CONFERENCE ON JUSTICE BETWEEN AGE GROUPS
University of Essex, UK
Wednesday 25 June Friday 27 June
CONFERENCE THEME
The conference addresses the question: what is a fair distribution of important resources for example, education, health care, and income support between different age groups? This question is both of philosophical interest and of great political urgency given the demographic changes taking place within modern democratic states, where declining fertility rates and longer life-expectancy result in ageing populations, and new pressures on standard models of welfare provision.
The conference papers will fall in two main areas. First, some papers will debate fundamental principles for distributing resources between different age groups. The main research questions in this area are the following. Should the state devote equal amounts of social resources to different age groups say, on health care for the elderly and the young? Or, perhaps more plausibly, should the state devote unequal amounts of resources to different age-groups, so as to meet equally their unequal needs? The second set of papers will tackle questions of public policy from a principled point of view, including the following: What does a society owe to children with respect to educational provision? Is age-discrimination in the labour market morally defensible? How should the state support the institution of the family given the familys role in serving the interests of children, parents and third parties? How must the state adjust education and health policy, childcare support, and labour market regulations, so as to facilitate family life?
The conference is supported by the British Academy, the Mind Association, the Society for Applied Philosophy, and the Human Rights Centre, University of Essex.
SPEAKERS
Richard Arneson, University of California, San Diego
Paul Bou-Habib, University of Essex
Matthew Clayton, University of Warwick
Norman Daniels, Harvard University
Axel Gosseries, Université Catholique de Louvain
Dennis McKerlie, University of Calgary
Adam Swift, University of Oxford
Andrew Williams, University of Warwick
If you are interested in attending the conference, please contact Paul Bou-Habib (pbou@essex.ac.uk) for information about conference fees and booking arrangements. Places can be booked no later than 1 June 2008.