Conceptualising Equality
Book Launch and Panel Discussion
Date/ Location: 30.9.2025, 18.15, Rämistrasse 69, 8001 Zurich (SOC E 10)
Talk: Elif Askin, Contested Equality (E Askin and H Stoll (eds), Contested Equality, 2024)
Panel: Elif Askin (Law, UZH), Francis Cheneval (Philosophy, UZH), Maya Eden (Economics, UZH); Matthias Mahlmann (Law, UZH), Anne Phillips (Politics, LSE)
In conceptualising equality, it is common to distinguish between material and social equality, although more recent works have highlighted the risks of isolating the economic from the social, of treating ‘material and status equality as distinct and separable spheres, or compartmentalising the latter into feelings of wealth superiority on the one hand and presumptions of gender, racial, or cultural superiority on the other’ (A Philipps, ‘Resisting Inequality, the Turn Towards History’, 2024 Cambridge Review of International Affairs 10). It is important though to think carefully about the meaning of social equality. A standard distinction is drawn, for instance in the philosophical literature, between status and esteem. While differences based on status are generally objectionable, those based on esteem might be less so in certain circumstances (eg if they are legitimately earned). This distinction does not seem so central in other disciplines, eg economics which seem more agnostic about its importance (eg S Palan, ‘What’s in a Name? Bias in Peer Review’, URRP lecture Zurich, Sept 2023) which considered the following examples of bias together: gender; country of origin/ethnicity/race; affiliation; network; prominence). In law, discrimination involves a distinct form of harm against protected groups which calls to be conceptualised differently from other forms of bias. This panel will allow for consideration of ideas of social (in)equality in law, philosophy, politics and economics.