Event: 3-day Conference
Dates: 11-13 April 2012
Location: Caerleon Campus, University of Wales, Newport
Event Programme
This is a major international conference, intended as the first in a series of such events hosted by the Social Ethics Research Group. It will include keynote addresses by three internationally well-known speakers in relevant subject areas. The call for papers attracted a very strong field of proposed papers, from which the group have selected about 50 for inclusion in the event itself. We anticipate that the event will also attract an audience of non-paper giving participants.
Keynote Speakers:
- Prof Marc Stears (University of Oxford)
- Prof Daniel Weinstock (Université de Montréal)
- Prof Jonathan Wolff (University College London)
Those who theorise about social values (freedom, equality, justice) like to think their insights have public application and resonance. Meanwhile policymakers and practitioners spend little time reading ethical theory. Are these bad habits? Is either side at fault? Should we prioritise ideal values, or theoretical models, over the messy, impure reality of the social, political, economic and professional contexts in which decisions are put into practice? Is it possible to combine due attention to both? If so, how should this be done? Is it possible, or desirable, to combine the nuanced language of theory with the differently complex imperatives of practice?
This conference aims to attract academics, activists, practitioners and others with an interest in the relationship between ethical ideals and the concrete demands and possibilities of social life. Key themes and questions will include:
- How do theoretical insights actually enhance practice?
- Ideal vs. non-ideal modes of theory
- The relationship between political ideas and the reality of political practice
- The relationship between ethical codes and actual practice, e.g. in professional contexts
- Are notions of 'reality' and ‘practice’ always inherently contested?
- The relationship between descriptive and normative approaches to the study of politics and society
- The relationship between theory and activism