Launch and discussion of two books: 'Tales of Hope, Tastes of Bitterness: Chinese Road Builders in Ethiopia' (HKU Press) by Miriam Driessen and 'China’s Urban Champions: The Politics of Spatial Development' (Princeton University Press) by Kyle Jaros

Thursday 6 June 2019 – Friday 7 June 2019

This conference celebrates the publication of ‘The Routledge Handbook of Ethics and Public Policy’ edited by Annabelle Lever and Andrei Poama, which explores questions such as:

What does it mean to do public policy ethics today?
How should philosophers engage with ethical issues in policy-making when policy decisions are circumscribed by political and pragmatic concerns?
How do ethical issues in public policy differ between areas such as foreign policy, criminal justice, or environmental policy?

Contemporary democracies in Eastern Europe are challenged by the emergence of anti- democratic parties and a critical population. In this paper we present evidence that confirms that the threat to democracy that we are currently witnessing is linked to the Communist past. We show that people become disillusioned with democracy because of their expectations towards the state that was instilled because of communism state protection. Here we link governmental intervention preferences to dissatisfaction with democracy and support for radical right parties.

Thursday 6 June 2019 - Friday 7 June 2019

This conference celebrates the publication of 'The Routledge Handbook of Ethics and Public Policy' edited by Annabelle Lever and Andrei Poama, which explores questions such as:

What does it mean to do public policy ethics today?
How should philosophers engage with ethical issues in policy-making when policy decisions are circumscribed by political and pragmatic concerns?
How do ethical issues in public policy differ between areas such as foreign policy, criminal justice, or environmental policy?

Kehinde Andrews is a Professor of Black Studies at Birmingham City University’s School of Social Sciences. Andrews is currently engaged in a project examining the role of Black radicalism in contemporary organising against racial oppression. At Birmingham, he has led the development of the Black Studies degree and is director of the Centre for Critical Social Research; founder of the Harambee Organisation of Black Unity; and co-chair of the Black Studies Association.

Most distributive theories in political economy understand individuals to be motivated by material self-interest, often approximated by their current positions in the income distribution. It has become increasingly common, however, to also conceptualise material self-interest inter-temporally.