4th Annual JCT Workshop: Sustainability in the Anthropocene – June 11-12, 2024 @ University of Potsdam 

Location: University of Potsdam, Campus Griebnitzsee, House 7 Room 0.13

To receive the pre-circulated papers for the conference, please register your interest with your name and affiliation at justclimatetransitionsugmailpcom.

Program

11.06.2024

10:00 Welcome (Coffee and tea from 09:45)

10:15 – 11:50 Sustainability and Territorial Rights

Moderator: Kathleen Wallace

Jonathan Kwan (NYU Abu Dhabi): Ecological Sustainability: A People’s Self-Regarding Duty as an Intergenerational Group

I argue for a conception of ecological sustainability as a collective self-regarding duty that a people, understood as an intergenerational group and territorial rights holder, has as a precondition for and a constitutive part of its right to self-determination. This view does not preclude the existence of other duties of sustainability held by other agents or grounded in values distinct from self-determination (e.g., global justice or non-anthropocentric values). Nonetheless, this way of framing a duty of sustainability is distinct from and has certain advantages over other more familiar conceptions. First, here the duty of sustainability is not a duty that one generation owes another, which raises certain puzzles about how to conceptualize the rights of future generations that do not yet exist. Instead, the duty of sustainability is one that a people—already understood as an intergenerational group—owes itself and is grounded in the right to self-determination that a people claims for itself. Both the social ontology of the people as intergenerational and the normative right of self-determination, which involves the right to decide the trajectory of a people’s common destiny, have futural elements built into them that serve to ground a duty of ecological sustainability. Additionally, insofar as the people can be conceptualized as a multispecies community (as many Indigenous conceptions of peoplehood emphasize), this view need not be committed to an anthropocentric conception of sustainability as valuable only for the protection of human interests. Second, my account straightforwardly avoids nonidentity problems, which beset positions that conceptualizes sustainability duties as owed to future individuals, since current environmental policies, while likely necessary conditions for the very existence of certain future individuals, are generally not necessary conditions for future peoples coming into existence. Finally, by grounding a duty of sustainability in the value of self-determination, my view shows that the debate on intergenerational justice should be expanded to consider values other than justice. The point and meaningfulness of sustainability is not always best understood as oriented toward justice (which is often framed in terms of the claims of others competing against ours) but rather is often tied to our hopes and aspirations as a community extended across time and related to other inhabitants of our shared ecosystems.

Kerstin Reibold (UiT Norway): Sustainability, agency, and non-interference. Some mistakes in conceptualizing land.

11:50 – 13:00 Lunch

13:00 – 14:35 Human-nature relationships and their implications for environmental politics

Moderator: Fabian Schuppert

Lukas Tank; Christian Baatz (CAU Kiel): Carbon Dioxide Removal and the Domination of Nature Critique

One of the most fundamental arguments against the use of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) is that doing so amounts to a morally problematic form of asserting dominance over nature. Remarks along the lines of ‘meddling with nature has brought us here, surely engaging in a new form of meddling is not the way forward’ are reported as common by CDR scholars engaging with policy circles and the wider public. More sophisticated versions of the same worry are reported in the academic literature, sometimes, but not always, taking the form of an accusation of hubris (e.g. Jamieson 1996, Preston 2011, Heyward 2019). In this talk we aim to show why an argument along these lines is not convincing as a blanket critique of using CDR. Our response comes in two steps: first of all, what must be admitted is that intervening into the Earth’s climate system is indeed a far-reaching intervention into nature. However, CDR is (or at least can be) a particular form of intervening into nature, namely a remedial one that comes in response to our present interference in the form of anthropogenic climate change. Even if one is committed to a position which states that ideally humans should ‘let nature be nature’ as far as that is still possible, remedial interventions plausibly should be exempted from critique. Second, proponents of the domination of nature critique have responded to this move by pointing out how CDR, even though remedial in character, is especially problematic since it constitutes an intentional intervention into nature. CDR users intervene into basic mechanisms of the Earth system not just knowingly, but precisely with the aim to alter them from their current course. We counter this point by explaining how there is no good reason to think that remedial actions should be considered problematic just because of their intentional character. Considerations refering to the way CDR interacts with nature may very well guide us in choosing which forms of CDR (not) to pursue, but are not fit to serve as a blanket critique of all forms of CDR.

Giulia Leonetti, Viola Di Tullio (IUSS Pavia): Rethinking Sustainability through Ecological Justice: A Focus on Biodiversity, Plants, and Climate Change

In the context of ecological justice, it is crucial to rethink a concept of sustainability suitable to address the issue of climate change. Humans and all the other species on the Earth are strongly interconnected (Flint et al. 2013). For this reason, harm to one part would damage the whole system. In this work, we will first discuss the value of biodiversity and the relationship between biodiversity and ecological justice, which are closely interconnected (Washington et al. 2024). Due to the biodiversity loss, the characteristics and the balance of ecosystems are changing. Consequently, the notion of ecological justice becomes crucial. In addition, practices of environmental injustice such as deforestation and pollution make biological communities vulnerable, demanding new ethical approaches. We will argue that to address these issues we should adopt a non-anthropocentric approach (Kopnina et al. 2023) to sustainability. Then, we will discuss the moral consideration of natural entities, such as plants, in the framework of ecological justice. In the second part, we will debate the role of plants (Kallhoff et al. 2018) in biodiversity conservation practices and we will argue that plants are active participants rather than passive objects in the making of ecosystems and landscapes (Sullivan 2010). We will conclude that this perspective is crucial in rethinking a concept of sustainability fit to address the challenge of climate change.

14:50 – 16:25 What and whom should sustainable policies protect? 

Moderator: Clare Heyward

Daniel Petz (Universitas Gadjah Mada): The currency of sustainability: Basic needs or capabilities?

Recent decades have seen a backlash against utilitarian and monetary approaches to measure well-being and alternative currencies of justice have gathered increasing traction in the sustainable development discourse. In particular, basic needs and capabilities have been brought forward as alternatives. The Brundtland report, a founding document of the sustainability discourse, argues, for example, that both the needs of present and future generations need to be met through sustainable development. Thus, needs have never fully disappeared from the sustainability discourse and in recent years gained quite some traction in scholarly circles (for example, Gough, 2017; Millward-Hopkins et al. 2020). Alternatively, both in academia and practice, capabilities have been proposed as a fitting currency to measure human development and to deal with sustainability issues (for example, UNDP 2020, Raworth 2021). Building on the background assumption that sustainability in the coming decades will mean significant change of social, consumption and mobility patterns, this paper discusses advantages and challenges of either currency when applied to sustainability in the context of the climate crisis. While likely providing viable alternatives, it argues that there might be pitfalls in using either currency, depending on how the currencies are specified, with either currency having the potential to be abused to foster the interests of current generations over those of future generations. Looking at a number of specific examples it discusses how certain challenges and pitfalls could be addressed via appropriate specification of lists, thresholds, and distributive rules to handle issues of scarcity.

Felix Westeren (LSE): Future Autonomy and Trusteeship

Our generation is faced with a number of important future-affecting decisions. Some of the most important concern our response to climate change. How quickly we reduce our emissions, how well we can protect ecosystems from the effects of climate change and what things we choose to preserve into the future will have a very significant impact on the lives people are able to live in the future. Even relatively small policy changes can have large future effects. The contention of this paper is that, if we (as we should) care about the ability of future people to lead autonomous lives, then we need some method of judging our actions for their effects on future autonomy. I propose and defend one such principle, the Trusteeship Principle. I also defend the idea that future people are owed, as a matter of justice, extensive autonomy rights that go beyond the satisfaction of their basic needs. Indeed, the Principle I defend depends on an expansive but, I think, defensible view of the autonomy-related interests and rights of future people. In particular, I defend the idea that future people have rights against us interfering with the formation and the pursuit of their conceptions of the good. We violate the former rights when we improperly influence the conceptions of the good of future people, and the latter when we do not leave them the options they need for the effective exercise of their autonomy. I argue that since future people do not yet exist, we must hold these rights in trust on their behalf, and that this has important consequences for how we ought to approach decisions that will affect them.

12.06.2024

09:45: Coffee and tea

10:00 – 11:30: Legal and societal transformations for sustainability

Moderator: Petra Gümplová

Michael Keary (Research Institute for Sustainability–Helmholtz Centre Potsdam, Germany): Transformational Technology and the Green Political Community: Rethinking Green Political Theory for the Digital Transition

Digitalisation is one of the major processes shaping the contemporary world. It is also a major research focus across a whole range of academic disciplines. Yet political theory has little to say about it. It is especially surprising that green political theory has yet to engage in significant analysis of it. Digitalisation is seen by countless scholars and policymakers as key to resolving the environmental crisis. Moreover, digitalisation is heralded as a new technological ecosystem, one that is replacing the technology against which green thought has defined itself from its beginning. This article thus asks what digitalisation means for green political theory. To answer, the article employs a concept-based approach to ecologism, inspired by Freeden’s analysis of ideology. It finds the most optimistic appraisals of digitalisation’s green credentials to be dubious, but also that some digital technologies may have a place in a green political community. Digitalisation enlivens the debate about the proper scale of a green political community, challenges advocates of a green deliberative democracy, and forces us to reengage with debates about the meaning of nature. Throughout, the article highlights the many questions digitalisation raises for green beliefs and values and describes the research agenda that must be pursued if greens are to answer them.

Jeremy Moss (University of New South Wales): Climate and sustainability

This paper will discuss the challenges of climate-related losses of sustainability. The paper will discuss two normative issues for discussions of sustainability loss. The first concerns what kind of loss it is and how it is a harm to agents. In particular, how climate induced sustainability losses compound other harms. The second issue concerns how to attribute responsibility for climate-related sustainability losses where climate impacts compound the losses through other non-climate pathways. The paper will argue that an understanding of the compounding nature of climate harms is necessary to fully understand the harms involved in the loss of sustainability. The paper will focus on several examples of sustainability loss to highlight the issues.

11:30 – 12:30 Lunch

12:30 – 14:05: Holding high-emitters responsible

Moderator: Kerstin Reibold

Fausto Corvino (UC Louvain): The normative case for carbon limits

In the climate ethics literature, luxury emissions are usually described in contrast to subsistence emissions, i.e. those emissions necessary to meet a set of basic needs. The normative claim that usually accompanies the distinction between luxury and subsistence emissions is that it is unjust to realise the former if it takes away carbon space from the latter – and the recent philosophical debate focuses on empirical questions about whether and to what extent it is still necessary to emit GHGs to meet basic needs, and what part of the GHG budget must be reserved for subsistence emissions. This article argues that there are compelling normative reasons to implement carbon limits, i.e. to prohibit and/or strongly discourage luxury emissions, regardless of whether this serves to free up space for subsistence emissions or not. First, some emission-generating functionings of the rich produce a disproportionate amount of GHGs without generating significant increases in welfare, if we measure it in terms of multi-level capabilities, and this is a gross waste of the GHG budget. Second, many of the emission-generating functionings of the rich are highly positional. Therefore, foreclosing the capabilities of the rich to realise some luxury functionings is a way of safeguarding the GHG budget at zero or near-zero cost to society. Thirdly, the luxury emissions associated with the visible functionings of the rich create behavioural externalities in that they drive the immediately lower income group, i.e. the near-rich, to realise larger (and thus in many cases more polluting) functionings in order to maintain their social status, and thus down the social scale in an expenditure cascade. Because of this trickle-down effect, luxury emissions create a double climate problem. In the absence of ambitious mitigation policies, they push the non-rich to expand their carbon footprint. In the presence of ambitious policies, instead, such as a relatively high and uniform carbon price, luxury emissions (which the rich can defend because of their wealth) make it more costly for the non-rich to reduce their carbon footprint because of the resulting loss of social status (measured in terms of distance from the top income group).

Eugen Pissarskoi (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology): Non-compliers with climate mitigation obligations: how to identify them

A climate policy goal such as the 1.5°C target can be achieved only collectively, that is, only if a sufficiently large group of agents – individuals, corporations, national states – contribute their fair share towards the goal, i.e. that they appropriately reduce their greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions. In the field of climate politics, not all nation states contribute the share to the collective goal which they ought to contribute (van den Berg et al. (2020); up-to-date data on: climateactiontracker.org). Under these circumstances, the question arises what moral agents who are interested in meeting the requirement from intergenerational justice – the compliers – ought to do. Some scholars have argued that compliers have the duty to take up the slack, i.e. to contribute more to the common goal than the share one is obliged to under full compliance (e.g. Stemplowska 2016). Others have defended the opposite claim that the obligations of the compliers do not change but that rather the overall moral obligations change  – regrettably as it is, we must accept that the overall moral goal cannot be collectively achieved (e.g. Miller 2011). Focusing on climate politics, Simon Caney (2020) has argued for a prima facie `right to resist moral injustices’ which provides a normative justification for a further option of reaction which I call `urging’: undertaking collective action to bring non-compliers to act according to what is morally required from them (c.f. Caney, 2016). In this text, I address a challenge for the option of urging which arises when it comes to identification of non-compliers. The challenge results from disagreements about moral duties to climate mitigation of particular nation states.

A necessary condition for legitimacy of urging an agent, as I shall argue, is the agent’s contribution to what Rawls (1971, 57) has called `substantial and clear’ injustice. However, justification of the individual obligation to climate change mitigation presupposes two normative premises which are controversial both in public and academic debates: these premises specify a principle for distribution of future risks and a principle for distribution of mitigation burdens. Because of this disagreement, it remains unclear whether a moral agent who complies with a mitigation share consistent with some of the controversial principles clearly commits an injustice. Therefore it remains unclear whether the necessary condition for legitimacy of urging is met. Germany is an instance of this ambiguity: according to the declared plans of the German Federal government, it aims at cutting national emissions in an amount which complies with its fair-share based on some principles for global and intertemporal distribution. However, Germany’s plans do not comply with their fair-share derived from other, prima facie reasonable, principles for global and intertemporal distribution. In this paper, I specify and defend two second-order principles which justify how to identify non-compliers in the light of a disagreement about principles for distribution of intertemporal and global obligations.

Financed by: 

LS Politische Theorie, University of Potsdam

The Environmental Philosophy Group, UiT – The Arctic University of Tromso

Navigating Representation in Citizen Participation Formats: A Workshop on Inclusivity and Deliberative Objectives

Dates: 26-27 September 2024

Location: University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Griebnitzsee (Campus 3)

Keynote-Speaker: Vincent Jacquet (University of Namur)

Details: Citizen participation formats, also known as 'democratic innovations,' are deemed crucial for promoting more inclusive and participatory decision-making processes. However, for many of these formats navigating different normative concerns presents a complex challenge. For example, it is understood that achieving general inclusivity does not necessarily result in true representativeness or that embracing a participatory approach does not automatically ensure adequate representation of marginalized or vulnerable groups. Consequently, a central and extensively debated question in the literature pertains to determining what representation should mean in the context of citizen participation formats and who should be represented and why. Additional significant debates revolve around how to adeptly strike a balance between representation and equity, how to address concerns related to epistemic injustice (both between participants and between participants and experts), and how to align the objectives of citizen participation formats.

Workshop Schedule:

Thursday, 26 September

13:00-13:15 | Welcome and Introduction

13:15-14:15 | Vincent Jacquet (University of Namur) ‘Project Citizen Impact’

followed by discussion

14:15-15:15 | Jonathan Seim (University of Düsseldorf) ‘Who should be allowed to participate? Inclusion and exclusion in the context of citizen’

followed by discussion

15.15-15:45 | Break

15:45-16:45 | Leonie Disselkamp ‘Bringing politics home: enhancing inclusiveness with outreach methods

followed by discussion

16:45-17:45 | Thomas Blanchet (Nexus Institute) ‘Analysing barriers and solutions for the inclusion of people with limited language skills in participatory and deliberative processes: The iDEM Project

followed by discussion

Joint Dinner

Friday, 27 September

09:45-10:00 | Coffee and Welcome

10:00-11:00  | Janina Walkenhorst (University of Potsdam) ‘How do representation approaches differ in local citizen participation formats regarding climate policymaking? Insights from a comparative perspective’

followed by discussion

11:00-12:00 | Mariana Morais (German Federal Institute of Risk Assesment) ‘Investigating the Experiences of Participants in National Citizens' Assemblies Beyond Words’

followed by discussion

12:00-13.15| Lunch

PEP Berlin*

* PEP Berlin (short for Politically Engaged Philosophy) aims to bring together researchers who are interested in philosophy that critically engages with the social world, including (but not limited to) feminist philosophy, queer theory, critical race theory, de- and post colonial theory, trans philosophy, philosophy of disability. We're meeting once a month in a hybrid format and discuss work in progress by speakers whose papers will be circulated beforehand; unless explicitly announced otherwise, the papers and discussion is in English. If you're interested in participating and being on the PEP-mailing list, please send an email to ls.feminist.phil@hu-berlin.de

Fridays, 4:30pm // Schönhauser Allee 10-11 (Room 1.27)

Oct 20, 2023: Glorianne Wilkins (Potsdam)

Dec 15, 2023: Camila YaDeau (Berkeley)

Jan 12, 2024: Abibi Stewart (HU Berlin)

Feb 16, 2024: Mirjam Müller (HU Berlin)

Organized by: Hilkje C. Hänel, Deborah Mühlebach & Mirjam Müller

Poster

Vorlesungsreihe: Formen politischen Protests im Sommersemester 2023

06.05.23 - Podiumsdiskussion “Philosophy and Activism”

Speakers: Daniel Loick, Candice Delmas, Nathan Rochelle DuFort, Robin Celikates // Chair: Jacob Blumenfeld

Ort: Aquarium (Kottbusser Tor)

09.05. 23 - Vortrag "Sozial-ökologische Bewegungen im globalen Süden, Ernährungssouveränität und intersektionale Geschlechterverhältnisse im grünen Kapitalismus - Postkolonial-feministische Perspektiven"

Dr. Christine Löw (online)

13.6. 23.- Vortrag "Der lange Weg zur Demokratie: Iranische Protestbewegungen zwischen Kontinuität und Erneuerung"

Dr. Tareq Sydiq

Ort: Ort: Universität Potsdam, Campus Babelsberg R 3.06.S17

11.07.23 - Vortrag "Jenseits von rechts und links? Querschnittnarrative neuer Querfrontbewegungen"

Felix Schilk

Ort: Universität Potsdam, Campus Babelsberg R 3.06.S17

18.07.23- Vortrag "Kurdische Protestbewegung"

Dastan Jasim (online)

25.07.23 - Vortrag "Political Protest in Iraq: The October Protest Movement, Struggles for Gender Equality and the Mobilisation of the Young"

Präsentationen von Melak Jasim Madhi und Fatima Adil Hameed, gefolgt von einem movie screening zu den Oktober Protesten (Tishreen Movement) und einer Paneldiskussion mit Autor:in und Direktor:in Maja Tschumi

Ort: Universität Potsdam, Campus Babelsberg R 3.06.H01

Immer von 18-20 Uhr (Ort siehe einzelne Termine)

Online: Zoomlink: uni-potsdam.zoom.us/j/63882536117

Meeting-ID: 638 8253 6117

Kenncode: 19088454

Organisiert von Janina Walkenhorst (Kontakt: janina.walkenhorst@uni-potsdam.de)

Flyer

3rd Annual JCT Workshop: Future Paths for staying within the planetary boundaries – June 2-3, 2023 @ University of Potsdam

The workshop is the third in a series of annual workshops of the network ‘Just Climate Transitions’ (https://justclimatetransitions.com/). The network and workshop bring together scholars that are interested in exploring normative and conceptual questions around social, economic, cultural, and political transitions due to climate change mitigation and adaption. While climate ethics are a well-established and important field within applied ethics, there has been less focus on the conditions of just transitions (vs end state theories of climate justice or backward-looking reparative theories). However, natural and social sciences point towards rapid societal changes that take place or are possible when societies deal with the effects of ongoing climate change. Often, the required changes have a high societal impact. Whole fields of employment, such as the coal and oil and gas industry, might disappear while other fields, such as wind and solar power, will be strengthened. Settlements might have to be relocated due to flood risk or desertification. Widespread everyday behaviors such as using cars, consuming energy, and eating meat might become more regulated or at least de-incentivized due to their impact on climate change. All of these changes produce burdens for some but often also gains for others. Moreover, they lead to a restructuring of our societies on a deep level – economic, social, and even cultural. We are interested in exploring how climate change responses (should) change how we relate to underlying, foundational concepts such as nature, time, autonomy, and responsibility but also how the burdens, and possible benefits, of material changes, e.g. a restructuring of the economy or land loss, can be justly distributed.

Attendance is free, but please register by 01.06.23:  https://forms.gle/rVarQuRrxRW5stWe7

Program: 

Day 1 (02.06.2023)

09:30 – 10:00 Welcome

10:00 – 11:00 Darrel Moellendorf: Solidarity Failures at the Dawn of the Anthropocene

11:15 – 12:15 Maria Skoutaridou: “It is my fault”. Climate change and the atomised self: A response to Kingston & Sinnott-Armstrong

12:30 – 13:30 Anna Wienhues: The ‘Global duties – Local burdens’ Problem for Just Biodiversity Conservation

13:30 – 14:45 Lunch

14:45 – 15:45 Kendall Gardner: Unstable Geography: Creating a Critical Theory of Land in the Age of Anthropocene

16:00 – 17:00 Lorina Buhr, Ben Hofbauer: Irreversibility as a key concept for research on climatic and environmental changes and boundaries

18:00 Dinner

Day 2 (03.06.2023)

10:15 – 11:15 Jeremy Moss: Who’s to Blame? Distributing Responsibility for Climate Harms?

11:30 – 12:30 Laura García Portela, Eike Düvel: Normative emissions accounting. Who is the normatively relevant polluter?

12:30 – 13:45 Lunch

13:45 – 14:45 Elisa Paiusco: A Capabilities Approach to Carbon Dioxide Removal

15:00 – 16:00 Steve Vanderheiden: Reconfiguring Progress for a Post-Growth Planetary Future

This conference is supported by The Society for Applied Philosophy and the Gesellschaft für Analytische Philosophie. 

Workshop: "Cybersocialism and the Future of the Calculation Debate" - 22.02. via Zoom

The question of the feasibility of socialist planning and how far markets are an indispensable feature of modern economies is of fundamental importance for debates in radical political economy, even if it is not always explicitly addressed. At the online workshop, invited speakers will provide commentary on a work-in-progress paper entitled "Cybersocialism and the Future of the Socialist Calculation Debate"  by Philipp Dapprich (University of Potsdam) and Dan Greenwood (University of Westminister). In the paper, they  argue that technological advances in computing have important implications for the feasibility of socialist planning.

For further information contact Philipp Dapprich: dapprich[at]uni-potsdam.de

Online-Workshop "Just Transitions in a changing climate" am 12.September 2022

Schedule: 

09:30 – 09:45 Welcome

09:45 – 10:45 Rabea Scholz: What (if anything) is energy justice?

11:00 – 12:00 Fausto Corvino: The forward-looking polluter pays principle for a 2060 sustainable world

12:00 – 13:15 Lunch

13:15 – 14:15 Eric Brandstedt: Examining Injustices in Wind Power Development: An Engaged Ethics Approach

14:30 – 15:30 Alix Dietzel: Securing a Just Transition to a Climate Resilient Bristol: Obstacles and Opportunities

15:45 – 16:45 Christian Baatz: How to assess Carbon Dioxide Removal and Adaptation? A critique of the IPCC

Online-Workshop „Disability and Social Injustice“ am 21. Juli 2022:

9.55 Welcome

10.00 Regina Schidel (Goethe-Universität Frankfurt)

11.00 Stephanie Elsen (Universität Bern)

12.00 Lunch Break

13.00 Sarah Karim (Universität zu Köln)

Für eine Teilnahme schicken Sie bitte eine Email an hilkje.charlotte.haeneluuni-potsdampde

WOGAP Berlin* 

* WOGAP Berlin (short for Workshop on Gender and Philosophy) aims to bring together researchers who are interested in feminist philosophy broadly conceived. We're meeting once a month in a hybrid format and discuss work in progress by speakers whose papers will be circulated beforehand; unless explicitly announced otherwise, the papers and discussion is in English. If you're interested in participating in the workshop and/or in receiving other announcements on feminist philosophy in Berlin, please send an email to ls.feminist.phil@hu-berlin.de and we will put you on the mailing list.

Fridays, 4:15 pm, Schönhauser Allee 10-11 (Room 3.25)

April 22, 2022: Caleb Ward (Hamburg)

May 20, 2022: Breno Santos (Mato Grosso)

June 10, 2022: Samia Hesni (Boston) 

July 22, 2022: Quill Kukla (Georgetown)

Organized by: Hilkje C. Hänel, Deborah Mühlebach & Mirjam Müller

Flyer

Workshop "Decolonizing Epistemic Injustice" — Feb 24-25, 2022

Theories of epistemic injustice are concerned with unjust or unfair behaviour related to knowledge production and communication. Theories of epistemic injustice ask, for example, who is excluded from knowledge and communication practices, who is silenced and how, whose meanings are distorted or ignored, whose knowledge or statements are trusted and who is doubted, and so on. The concept of epistemic injustice thus connects two philosophical lines of inquiry: Epistemology, that is, the question of what knowledge is and how it is obtained, and normative political theory, that is, the question of how a just society should be constituted. Theories of epistemic injustice examine how certain forms of (non)knowledge produce, entrench, and even justify social inequality in public discourse. Questions of epistemic injustice therefore have high scientific as well as social relevance. 
 

Similarly, decolonial theorising offers an important critique of persisting structures of racism, imperialism and colonial power structures. One key aspect of decolonial theorising is to question the assumed “progress” brought about by modernity, capitalism and (neo)liberalism. White colonialism and imperialism pushed aside, buried and discredited many ways of knowing and modes of being. 
 

It is the aim of this workshop to establish a connection between these issues and important philosophical debates. In so doing, the workshop hopefully draws out similarities and discrepancies in epistemic justice and decoloniality debates, further sharpening the critical edge of both projects.
 

Confirmed peakers are: Melanie Altanian, Amandine Catala, Emmalon Davis, Désirée Lim, Dennis Masaka, Gaile Pohlhaus, Kerstin Reibold, Encarnación Gutiérrez Rodríguez, Fabian Schuppert
 

Due to Covid-19 restrictions, the workshop takes place online. There is a limited number of places for attendance. Please register online at:

https://www.eventbrite.de/e/conference-decolonizing-epistemic-injustice-tickets-254598469877
 

 If you have any queries, please send an e-mail to Finja Pohl: fipohluuni-potsdampde
 

 We gratefully acknowledge funding by the DFG (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft).
 

Organisers: Hilkje C. Hänel, Finja Pohl, Kerstin Reibold, and Fabian Schuppert.

Neue Vorlesungsreihe „Klimawandel/Gesellschaftswandel – Gerechtigkeit in Zeiten des Klimawandels“

• Mi, 03.11.21 – Dr. Mareike Blum (vor Ort): Diskursive Legitimierung und Mitbestimmung in der Klimapolitik
• Mi, 24.11.21 – Prof. Dr. Daniela Winkler (online): Die wehrhafte Zivilgesellschaft in der Klimakrise
• Mi, 15.12.21 – Prof. Dr. Konrad Ott (online): Ethische Grundlagen der Klimagerechtigkeit
• Di, 01.02.22 – Prof. Dr. Angela Kallhoff (online): Klimagerechtigkeit und die Verantwortungsfrage neu gestellt -> Das Konzept der Klimagerechtigkeit ist in der Klimaethik entwickelt und kontrovers diskutiert worden. In diesem Beitrag werden zunächst zentrale Interpretationen des Konzepts erklärt. Dann wird erläutert, dass es in der Verwirklichung von Zielen in der Zukunft darauf auch darauf ankommt, die Bürden der Verantwortung fair zu verteilen. Dazu ist es nötig, auch in die Probleme der Verschiebung von Verpflichtungen im Rahmen kollektiven Handelns zu schauen.
• Mi, 16.02.22 – Prof. Dr. Angelika Zahrnt (online): Priorität für Klimaschutz und für Wirtschaftswachstum – geht das zusammen?

Jeweils von 18:15 – 19:45

Online: Zoomlink: https://uni-potsdam.zoom.us/j/63454352212

Kennwort: 20212022

Kontakt für Nachfragen: Dr. Kerstin Reibold (reibolduuni-potsdampde)
 

Der fortschreitende Klimawandel zwingt unsere Gesellschaft sich der wandelnden Realität unserer Umwelt anzupassen. Diese Anpassungen werden von drei Fragen getrieben: Wie können wir einen sich immer weiter beschleunigten Klimawandel verhindern, wie können wir unsere Gesellschaft auf die veränderten Umweltbedingungen vorbereiten, und wie kann beides auf eine gerechte und sozialverträgliche Weise geschehen? Die Vorlesungsreihe will die letzte Frage als Leitlinie für die Beantwortung der beiden ersten Fragen nutzen und somit fragen: Wie müssen sich die heutigen gesellschaftlichen, politischen, und ökonomischen Systeme sowie die sie tragenden Werte und Normen ändern, um eine gerechte Zukunft zu schaffen? Welche Alternativen gibt es heute schon und wie können diese innerhalb eines demokratischen Systems legitimiert werden? Wie können die heutigen und zukünftigen Bürden des Klimawandels gerecht verteilt werden und welche systemischen Voraussetzungen müssen dafür geschaffen werden? Die Vorlesungsreihe nimmt sich dieser Fragen in zwei thematischen Blöcken an: Der erste Themenblock „Kapitalismus und Wachstum“ soll sich Themen rund um unser ökonomisches System und den damit verbundenen Werten, Normen, und Herausforderungen widmen. Der zweite Themenblock „Legitimation und Mitbestimmung“ stellt sich Fragen rund um Kriterien für eine legitime, d.h. gerechtfertigte, Klimapolitik sowie der Rolle, die öffentlicher Diskurs und breite Mitbestimmung hierbei spielen.

SWIP-Workshop zu Materialistischem Feminismus - 16. Juni 2021

Seit dem Wintersemester 2020-21 findet in Kooperation mit dem Lehrstuhl für feministische Philosophie (JProf Mirjam Müller) der HU Berlin einmal im Jahr der SWIP „Work in Progress“-Workshop am Lehrstuhl für Politische Theorie in Potsdam statt. Die Workshops sind dafür gedacht, einen Raum zu bieten, in dem Frauen* ihre philosophischen Projekte und Ideen vorstellen können und konstruktives Feedback bekommen. Ein Augenmerk liegt vor allem auf Ideen, die sich noch im Anfangsstadium befinden. Die Workshops sind für alle Interessierten offen und pre-read. Einen Call für Vorträge gibt es zweimal im Jahr (einmal für den Workshop im Sommersemester an der HU und einmal für den Workshop im Wintersemester an der Uni Potsdam) hier auf der Seite.

Der Fokus des Workshops am 16. Juni 2021 lag auf Arbeiten im Bereich des Materialistischen Feminismus (weit verstanden). Hier dachten wir z.B. an feministische Perspektiven auf Kapitalismus, theoretischen Auseinandersetzungen mit Care-Arbeit und Sozialer Reproduktion oder Diskussionen von Marxistischen/Sozialistischen feministischen Theorien. Eingeladen war unter anderem Dr. Eva von Redecker.

Programm:

9.30-9.45: Begrüßung
9.45-10.45: Janette Otterstein: Definitionen von Sozialistischem und Marxistischen Feminismus
10.45-11.45: Birte de Gruisbourne: Autonomizing institutional practices of care. What could it mean to rethink    institutions as inclined caring arrangements?
11.45-12: Kaffeepause
12-13: Livia von Samson: Hegels Theorie der Familie und die Methode eines materialistischen Feminismus
13-14.30: Mittagspause
14.30-15.30: Abibi Stewart: Intersectionality and Social Reproduction Theory - Feminism for the 99% or Solidarity in  the House of Difference?
15.30-16.30: Alexandra Colligs: Identität und Arbeitsteilung
16.30-16.45: Kaffeepause
16.45-17.45: Eva von Redecker: Materialismus & Phantombesitz

Bei Rückfragen meldet euch gerne bei: hilkje.charlotte.haeneluuni-potsdampde

Wir möchten an dieser Stelle außerdem auf die SWIP-Botschafterin Lena Ljucovic der Uni Potsdam hinweisen: https://www.uni-potsdam.de/de/phi/professuren-und-forschung/professur-fuer-ethikaesthetik/lena-ljucovic

Workshop "Trust and the Public Sphere"

From August 26 - 27, 2021, the online workshop "Trust and the Public Sphere“ was hosted by Dr. Kerstin Reibold from the Chair of Political Theory at the University of Potsdam and by Professor Dimitrios Panagos from the Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador.
 

By bringing together philosophers, political theorists and political scientists, this workshop aimed to identify some of the most recent developments in the literature and highlight numerous challenges associated with the theorization and application of trust-related concepts.
 

Speakers included Christian Budnik (University of Zurich), Hale Doguoglu (Western University), Nikolas Kirby (Harvard University), Carolyn McLeod (Western University), Gloria Origgi (Institut Nicod), Dimitrios Panagos (Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador) and Kerstin Reibold (University of Potsdam).
 

For further information, you can consult the official website of the workshop here.