Cain Shelley
Postdoctoral Fellow
Aufenthalt
Oktober 2022 – Juli 2023
Forschungsthema
»A Class For Itself? The Future of Class Politics«
Projektbeschreibung
The view that a crucial precondition for achieving a just society is large-scale collective organisation and mobilisation among the working class was once widely shared among progressive intellectuals. But most contemporary political philosophers are now either entirely silent on questions of class in their discussions of social justice, or are highly critical of such a view, regarding it as outdated or reductive (or both). Developing the work I undertook in my doctoral dissertation, my research question is: can a robust philosophical defence of some version of the theory that class politics remains crucial to progressive social transformation still be offered today?
My claim is that any compelling theory of the contemporary value of class politics must include three components, each of which I plan to work on during my stay at the FKH. First, such a theory must offer a convincing social ontology, detailing the various building blocks of the social structure of economic production in the twenty-first century, and specifying what kind of social group the working class is within this structure. Second, it must provide a persuasive ethics of class politics, describing the conditions under which collective working class agency can be morally desirable. Finally, such a theory must also offer a plausible moral psychology, detailing how working class agents might become motivated to act in these desirable ways.
Wissenschaftliches Profil
Cain Shelley ist Doktorand in Politikwissenschaft an der London School of Economics. In seiner Doktorarbeit untersucht er das Konzept des Klassenbewusstseins und einige der politischen Praktiken [nbsp]– wie kommunalpolitisches Engagement und von Aktivisten geleitete Bildungsarbeit [nbsp]–, die eine Rolle bei der Stärkung verschiedener Aspekte dieses Bewusstseins spielen können. Zuvor hat er Geschichte und Politik an der Goldsmiths, University of London studiert und Politische Theorie an der University of Leeds, wo er das Studium mit einem Master abschloss.
Veröffentlichungen (Auswahl)
- »Murray Bookchin and the Value of Democratic Municipalism«, In: European Journal of Political Theory (2022).
- »Activist-led Education and Egalitarian Social Change«. In: Journal of Political Philosophy, Bd. 29, Nr. 4 (December 2021), S. 456-479.
Forschungskontext
Cain Shelley folgt einer Einladung von Rainer Forst, Professor für Politische Theorie an der Goethe-Universität in Frankfurt am Main, und dem an der Universität angesiedelten Justitia Centre for Advanced Studies, das von der Alfons und Gertrud Kassel Stiftung gefördert wird.
