Political Theory: Forms of Injustice

The injustices that we observe in different areas of our social and political life and the willingness to rectify them are the motivation for the work of many political theorists. However, more recently, injustice has been for many a privileged theoretical perspective in order to shed light on particular features of the interactions between individuals, social groups and/or states. To give but some examples, contemporary critical theory has adopted the language of justice and injustice in undertaking social critique, and increasingly analytical approaches have focused on understanding manifest injustices and the failure to give others their due. Postcolonial theorists draw attention to the ethical and political issues emerging from the history of past injustices between colonizing and colonized people. International political theory is addressing the unequal distribution of wealth across countries and the uneven effects of anthropogenic climate change in terms of global injustice. Meanwhile, some gender scholars see ‘injustice’ rather than ‘woman’ as the organizing concept of ‘humanist feminism’, pointing to the need to address unfairness and oppression for all human beings. In this vein, the focus on injustice is not simply a matter of understanding the role of political theory as that of identifying and examining the social and political problems that we face such as exploitation, racism, sexism, poverty, economic discrimination, terrorism, corruption, testimonial injustice and migration. Rather, it also includes a reflection on the aims and purposes of political theory as well as on the methodological approaches that can better capture and address issues of injustice. This Section, supported by the ECPR Standing Group on Political Theory, invites proposals from all subfields of political theory, including work on normative, conceptual, applied, methodological and historical topics, construed broadly and from all traditions, including analytical, formal, feminist, critical and post-structural approaches. Relevant themes include, but are not limited to: unfairness, oppression, domination, maldistribution, misrecognition, dehumanization, marginalization, exploitation and alienation. We aim to facilitate engagement across sub-disciplinary boundaries and to support cutting edge research within particular traditions or on particular problems. To promote engagement across different traditions, we welcome Panel proposals that address problems, themes and concepts from multiple perspectives. To promote specialised work on particular topics, we welcome Panel proposals that either address the complexities and diversity of particular traditions in political theory, or focus on particular problems or issues from within the confines of one particular tradition, such as the analytical tradition. So far, members of the ECPR Standing Group on Political Theory have proposed to convene Panels on the following topics: 1) Chair: Emanuela Ceva (University of Pavia): ceva@unipv.it Topic: The injustice of political corruption. 2) Chair: Maria Paola Ferretti (Goethe University Frankfurt): ferrettimariapaola@gmail.com Topic: Risk and injustice 3) Chair: Felix Gerlsbeck (TU Munchen): felix.gerlsbeck@tum.de Topic: Addressing injustice in democratic politics: Institutional and non-ideal perspectives 4) Chair: Nikolas Kirby (University of Oxford): nikolas.kirby@bsg.ox.ac.uk Topic: Historical injustice, rebuilding trust and moral repair 5) Chair: Antoinette Scherz (Goethe University Frankfurt): scherz@em.uni-frankfurt.de Topic: Structural Domination and Exploitation