Lisa Herzog: The Democratic Marketplace

Lisa Maria Herzog (University of Groningen), Julie L. Rose (Dartmouth College), Tom Parr (University of Essex)

Visions for the Future Speaker Series with Dr. Lisa Herzog

Online book workshop on Lisa Herzog's recent The Democratic Marketplace (HUP), with a presentation by Lisa Herzog (Groningen), and commentaries by Julie Rose (Dartmouth) and Tom Parr (Warwick). Opportunities for Q&A interspersed throughout.

Date and time: 20/11/25, 14:00–16:00 (CET)

This event is organized as part of the Visions for the Future project at Utrecht University.

About the session: The Democratic Marketplace: How a More Equal Economy Can Save Our Political Ideals.

Democracy has been hollowed out by capitalism. A narrow view of markets and their aims—prioritizing efficiency, profit, and growth—now dominates thinking about democracy itself. Citizens are ignorant of the deep principles of self-governance, having long since adopted a facile equation between democracy and voting as a consumer choice. Lisa Herzog argues that democracy is still possible, but only if democratic values get embedded in everyday experience—including economic experience. That requires new ways of thinking about markets and their goals.

About the speakers:

Lisa Herzog works at the intersection of political philosophy and economic thought. She has held her position at the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Groningen since 2019. Between 2021 and 2025, she was the Director of the Center for Philosophy, Politics and Economics, and since January 2023, she is Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy. Herzog has published on the philosophical dimensions of markets (both historical and systemical), liberalism and social justice, ethics in organizations and the future of work. The current focus of her work is workplace democracy, professional ethics, and the role of knowledge in democracies. She is a co-editor of the interdisciplinary journal Review of Social Economy. 

Julie Rose is an Associate Professor in the Department of Government at Dartmouth College.  Her primary area of research and teaching is contemporary political philosophy, with a focus on questions of economic justice. Her research addresses the ethical dimensions of our collective economic choices. She is interested in issues of distributive and social justice, justice and work, environmental ethics, and gender and family justice. In her first book Free Time (Princeton University Press), she argues that all citizens are entitled, as a matter of justice, to fair shares of free time. Her current research includes a series of papers about issues of work, leisure, and economic growth.

Tom Parr is a Reader in Political Theory in the Department of Politics and International Studies at the University of Warwick. He has held previous positions at the University of Essex, Graz University, Princeton University, and Universitat Pompeu Fabra. He is Editor-in-Chief of Law, Ethics and Philosophy. His first book Introducing Political Philosophy: A Policy-Driven Approach (co-authored with Will Abel, Elizabeth Kahn, and Andrew Walton) was published with Oxford University Press in 2021; and his second book, Empowering Workers in an Age of Automation was published with Oxford University Press in 2025. His current research draws on insights from philosophy, politics, and economics to explore how labour market policymakers should respond to the threats and opportunities associated with technological change, including those associated with automation and artificial intelligence.

To register for this online event, please use this registration form: https://forms.cloud.microsoft/e/jf4Z3MAhTq

Any additional questions about the Vision Speaker Series, please email Catarina Neves at [email protected]