SG - Property, Power & Inequality

Property, Power & Inequality

According to economist and inequality researcher Thomas Piketty, we are living in an ‘ownership society’, enabled by an ideology of ‘proprietarianism’. This ideology places private property central stage, and holds property rights as absolute rights that need to be preserved. How did this ideology emerge, and how does it relate to economic inequality?

Tonight, political philosopher Rutger Claassen explores the ideology of proprietarianism, taking you along its development, its ramifications, as well as possible alternatives. How did this paradigm take root so firmly? Why did society embrace it and how has it come embedded so fundamentally in our world view, institutions and practices? And why would this matter?

Rutger Claassen argues that contemporary conceptualizations of property neglect the power owners have over others in society. He discusses how proprietarianism is related to economic inequality and political power, and how we might rethink this relationship. He proposes an alternative way of thinking about property, in which owners have duties to others, and can be held accountable for how they exercise their property rights. What does his alternative approach imply?

About Rutger Claassen

Prof. dr. Rutger Claassen is Associate Professor of Ethics & Political Philosophy at the Department of Philosophy of Utrecht University. He has a background in law and philosophy, and wrote a dissertation about the moral limits of the markets. His research interests include socioeconomic justice, economic ethics, and conceptions of freedom, autonomy, and paternalism. He has published on economic and ethical theories about the concept of the market, the justifications for regulating and limiting markets, and applying market mechanisms in the public sector. In his research, he investigates the moral value of central economic institutions such as markets, property and corporations. You can download his publications at his website.

Currently, Rutger Claassen is the principal investigator of a research project on The Business Corporation as a Political Actor, funded by the European Research Council. In this project, he investigates the societal role and legitimacy of business corporations. He was the principal investigator of a research project funded by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) on Private Property & Political Power in Liberal-Democratic Societies (2017-2022).

About lecture series ‘Economic Inequality’

Discussions on economic inequality have increasingly been gaining traction over the past years. Time to take a dive into this much-discussed theme, and to gain a deeper understanding of its complexities as well as the debates surrounding it.

What are we talking about, and how can we understand the rising attention for economic inequality? Why can people mean different things when they talk about it? And (why) should we care about it? Explore the nature, backgrounds and ramifications of economic inequality, and discuss different perspectives on its (un)acceptability and ways to deal with it.