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Fakultät Humanwissenschaften und Theologie

03.12.: Gastvortrag von Dr. Maeve McKeown (Universität Groningen) im Philosophen Institutskolloquium im WiSe 24/25

Das Institut lädt zum zweiten Philosophischen Institutskolloquium im WiSe 24/25 ein.

Am Dienstag, den 03.12. um 16 Uhr (c.t.) spricht Dr. Maeve McKeown (Universität Groningen) zum Thema: „With Power Comes Responsibility: The Politics of Structural Injustice".

Der Vortrag findet hybrid per Zoom und im Raum 2.213, Emil-Figge-Str. 50 statt. Den Zoom-Link für die Veranstaltung finden Sie hier.

 

Abstract

What is structural injustice, and who ultimately bears responsibility
for it? In answering these questions Maeve McKeown goes beyond the
widely accepted narrative of unintended consequences and blameless
participation to explain how power and responsibility truly function in
today’s world.

Drawing on case studies from sweatshops to climate change, McKeown
identifies three types of structural injustice: the pure and unintended
accumulation of disparate activities; the avoidable injustice that could
be ameliorated by the powerful but nevertheless continues; the
deliberate perpetuation of structural processes that benefit powerful
political and economic agents. In each of these, the role of power is
different which changes the allocation of responsibility.

From this understanding, we can shape a deeper, more sophisticated idea
of how structural injustice operates and what we as individuals can do
about it. What is the political responsibility of ordinary individuals?
How can ordinary individuals with very little power pressure morally
responsible, powerful agents to address structural injustice? Do we have
the same responsibility for historical injustice as we do for that which
we see in today’s world? This is a fundamental reassessment of the
relationship between power, ordinary people and responsibility for
structural injustice.