Call for Abstracts
Workshop: Working as Equals
Deadline: November 1, 2020
Event Dates: June 4-5, 2021
Event Venue: Saint Mary’s College of California (Moraga, CA), with contingency plans for a virtual event if the COVID-19 pandemic conditions have not sufficiently improved
Keynote Speakers: Nien-hê Hsieh (Harvard), Niko Kolodny (Berkeley), Kasper Lippert-Rasmussen (Aarhus), Debra Satz (Stanford)
Overview: If we’re equals, then how come you’re my boss? This question lies behind a growing wave of ethical criticism that is directed at hierarchical workplace structures and deploys various ideals of relational (or social) equality. Can workplace hierarchy be justified, and how can this justification be squared with the ideal of relating to each other as equals? The Working as Equals workshop seeks to illuminate the moral dimensions of today’s workplace relations. It also aims to bring into focus the promise and limitations of the relational turn in ethical theory, using the workplace as a lens.
Topics of inquiry may include: relational egalitarian criticisms of workplace power and managerial techniques,
the virtues and vices associated with respecting social equality in workplace contexts, developing and applying a relational egalitarian conception of workplace
exploitation and privacy, and the moral problems posed by recent workplace developments such as the gig economy, automation, the use of people analytics, and working from home.
Submission Information: Send an abstract of no more than 1000 words addressing some aspect of the above workshop themes, prepared for anonymous review, to workingasequals@gmail.com by November 1, 2020. Program invitations will be sent by December 15, 2021.
Participant Information: Accepting a place on the program carries a commitment to sharing a full draft of your paper by April 15, 2021, providing comments on one other paper on the program, and submitting your paper to be reviewed for first publication in an edited volume or issue dedicated to the workshop proceedings. Program participants will be offered a travel stipend and lodging near the Saint Mary’s campus, thanks to the workshop co-sponsors, the Elfenworks Center for Responsible Business (School of Economics and Business Administration, Saint Mary’s College of California) and the Zicklin Center for Business Ethics Research (Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania).
Contact Information: Questions may be directed to the workshop co-organizers, Julian Jonker (Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania) at jonker@upenn.edu or Grant Rozeboom (Saint Mary’s College of California) at gjr5@stmarys-ca.edu. Abstract submissions should only be sent to the workshop email address (workingasequals@gmail.com).