UKRI

(Future Leaders Fellowship)

Young people (14–24-year-olds) across the UK are increasingly turning to performance poetry as a mode of expression, inspired by poets such as Kae Tempest, George the Poet, and Amanda Gorman. While there is evidence of performance poetry playing a role in improving literacy, creativity and expression, there is little or no discussion of the power of performance poetry to enable marginalized young people to discover their voices in matters of social justice. In collaboration with leading performance poets and youth organisation, Coventry Boys and Girls Club, our research focuses on the power of performance poetry in empowering young people who struggle to have their voices heard.

Karen Simecek

Andrew Cooper (Co-I)

AHRC

(Research Network Grant)

This project brings together philosophers, terrorism researchers and non-academic stakeholders in a joint research network. The main objectives of this network are to initiate a cross-disciplinary dialogue between theoretical philosophy and terrorism studies, establish the metaphysics and epistemology of terrorism and counterterrorism as new and valuable fields of research, and influence official thinking about terrorism and counterterrorism. This is the first research network of its kind.

Quassim Cassam

Richard English (Co-I, QUB)

AHRC

(Research Network Grant)

The LPKS exists to promote and celebrate research in Post-Kantian philosophy across the United Kingdom, with a special focus on London as a centre of international collaboration. Our goal is to provide a hub for experienced scholars, early career researchers and post-graduate students to share conversation and work together on world-leading research. The LPKS hosts a regular workshop series that rotates through philosophy departments across London, a work-in-progress session for graduate students, and an annual public talk at Senate House. Participating institutions include Birkbeck, UCL, Kingston, Roehampton, KCL, Royal Holloway and Warwick.

Andrew Cooper (Co-I)

Exploitation and Procedural Justice: An Experimental Assessment

British Academy/

Leverhulme

When is a transaction fair? Some philosophers and economists defend substantive accounts of transactional fairness, which claim transactions are fair when the benefits they provide conform to a particular distributive criterion. Others defend procedural accounts which do not define transactional fairness with reference to any particular distribution of benefits. Instead, they argue that transactions are unfair when the distribution is affected by some kind of procedural flaw. When is a transaction exploitative? Some accounts of exploitation characterise it as tantamount to unfair transaction, so that transactions are exploitative if and only if they are unfair. Other accounts argue that exploitation involves something more than mere unfairness, such as domination, the exercise of power, or some form of intentionality. Philosophers and economists have provided numerous normative and theoretical arguments defending both sides of these two debates. However, their arguments have mostly been made from the armchair. Little attention has been paid to the normative views actually held by individuals in the economy. We aim to fill this lacuna by empirically examining subjects’ attitudes towards (a) transactional fairness and (b) exploitation, in an experimental setting.

Ben Ferguson

Norms for the New Public Sphere

AHRC

In less than two decades social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube have fundamentally changed how societies discuss ideas of political and social importance. Much political debate is now taking place online and even traditional forums of political debate – such as the news media and parliament – are shaped by the social media. Because this new digital public sphere offers both benefits and challenges for democracy, it has become clear that social media regulation plays an important role in the future of democracy. But what should regulation aim at? Our collaborative research project on Norms for the New Public Sphere examines the philosophical foundations of a healthy democratic public sphere for the digital age.

Fabienne Peter

Leverhulme

(Early Career Fellowship)

Leverhulme

(Early Career Fellowship)

AHRC

(Network Grant)