Exploitation: conceptual, normative and political perspectives
Manchester workshops in Political Theory, August 31 – September 2, 2011
Charges of exploitation are levelled on a daily basis at different agents in different contexts: trade and market exchanges, work relationship as well as personal relationships. Although the concept of exploitation has been central to the Marxist critique of capitalism, the pervasiveness of exploitative relationships has recently received attention in a number of important studies in political philosophy.
This workshop will attack three main questions: first, what exactly constitutes exploitation, second, whether exploitation is best conceived as a phenomenon necessarily involving a transgression of justice or fairness –and, if so, how- and, third, whether the best conception of exploitation –whatever that is- can still function as a critical tool for effective social critique of social structures, from small-scale institutions (such as the family) to large-scale economic phenomena (such as the mode of production).
Our aim is to provoke a rigorous discussion of the conceptual, normative and political intricacies of exploitation. We welcome papers that contribute to this aim, including work in analytic philosophy, analytic sociology and normative political science.
Please send an abstract by May 31st to the workshop convenors, Adina Preda and Nicholas Vrousalis, to exploitationworkshop2011@gmail.com