CFA: Authority, Power, and Accountability

Significant advances have been made in the field of social ontology and sociology on the subject of authority-relations. A recent area of research in social ontology concerns the ways in which those in positions of authority determine the meaning of what their subordinates do. This resulting power to confer meaning upon the actions of others has profound consequences in a variety of domains in social life, including criminal law, business ethics, government, family ethics, and many more. The purpose of this workshop is to a) jump-start the discussion of how this new area of research updates our understanding of the ways in which authority-relations construct our reality, b) integrate the insights philosophers and sociologists have respectively developed about authority-relations, and c) develop further lines of research in which we explore how authority-relations shape social reality in sub-fields, including applied ethics, legal theory, political science, and economics. 

This pre-read, single-day workshop will take place on 15 August at the University of Stockholm (just before the annual meeting of the International Social Ontology Society, which is also taking place at Stockholm). Keynote speaker is TBA. 

We invite all to submit an anonymized abstract no longer than 1000 words to apa.abstracts@gmail.com by 15 May, 2023.Inquiries should also be sent to that address.   

Though we will be unable to provide stipends for presenters, a limited number of bursaries will be made available for those suffering from financial difficulties. 

Funding for the workshop comes from the University of Stockholm, the University of California San Diego, and the International Social Ontology Society. The workshop is organized by: 

Saba Bazargan-Forward (University of California, San Diego)

Meradjuddin Khan Oidermaa (Department of Philosophy, Stockholm University)

Margarita Chudnovskaya (Swedish Institute of Social Research, Stockholm University)