CFP: The Family: Ethics and Policy

Panel | The Family: Ethics and Policy
Chairs | Gideon Calder (South Wales) and Anca Gheaus (Sheffield)

Discussant | Adam Swift (Warwick)

Section | Political Theory: Issues and Challenges

The family is central to contemporary social, political and moral horizons, and yet its profile in political theory remains comparatively marginal and sporadic. It will feature in debates about children, procreation, and the rights and obligations of relatives – but often incidentally, rather than as a focal point in its own right. And yet, as feminist and other political theorists have argued, due consideration of the nature, scope and functions of family life seems crucial to an adequate account of social justice, and to an understanding of the normative contours of contemporary social life.

Hence this panel. We invite paper proposals on ethical issues connected to the family, including:

• parenting and childrearing
• the constitution of the family
• gender
• class
• childhood
• marriage
• living arrangements
• intimacy
• social welfare
• distributive justice
• education
• health
• cultural diversity
• relations between the public and domestic spheres.

We are especially keen to include work applying debates and insights from contemporary political theory to issues of current concern in public policy in Europe and beyond.

Paper proposals (max 200 words) by 7 February 2014, to:

[email protected]
[email protected]