Wedberg Lectures 2026

Wedberg Lectures 2026

by Sally Haslanger (MIT): Systemic Injustice and Social Transformation

Lecture 1. Explanations of Systemic Disadvantage: Discrimination and Social Formation. 

Monday 18 May 2026, 14:00 - 16:00, Stockholm University, Frescati Campus, Aula Magna, Room: Bergsmannen

How should we understand “structural” or “systematic” injustice, such as structural racism or class exploitation? And why is this injustice so durable? One problem is that it isn’t clear how to understand what social structures are, and how agents are situated in them.  Of course, some forms of oppression arise from discrimination in the formation and maintenance of institutions and associations. However, in this talk, I will offer a different picture, relying on the idea that societies are complex dynamic systems affected by multiple dynamics, focusing specifically on material and semiotic dynamics. My broad aim is to provide evidence that although discrimination is part of the story of structural injustice, taking that to be the whole story leaves us without the resources we need to analyze what’s going wrong in structurally unjust societies and how to change them.

Lecture 2. Understanding Structural Intersectionality at Micro, Meso, and Macro Levels of Social Analysis.

Tuesday 19 May 2026, 14:00 - 16:00, Stockholm University, Frescati Campus, Aula Magna, Room: Bergsmannen

Attempts to explain and remedy oppression have been plagued by the phenomenon of intersectionality. Intersectionality comes in a variety of forms. In this talk I will focus on structural intersectionality and will argue that it is best understood by locating it at the meso level of social analysis, i.e., on material subsystems such as health care systems, transportation systems, political systems, education systems, and importantly, the system dynamics that maintain them.  This is a level that gives us resources to understand both intersectional identities at the micro level and macro patterns across time and place.  Moreover, it is a level that invites and rewards intervention to achieve social justice.

Lecture 3. Carework: A Systems Approach

Wednesday 20 May 2026, 10:00 - 12:00, Stockholm University, Frescati Campus, Aula Magna, Room: Bergsmannen

If societies are complex dynamic systems, how can local interventions scale to promote social transformation?  I will focus, in this lecture, on women’s role in unwaged caregiving in the private sphere, traditionally in families. This is a domain where gender oppression is rampant and the gender norms that govern in the family spread far and wide across society.  Moreover, this gendered division of labor produces a relatively stable equilibrium that is difficult to change. I will argue that attention to the dynamics of social reproduction points to some strategies that give women more power.  I’m rather skeptical about policy changes, at least until we have done more to change social norms. So I'll sketch very briefly a model for social change through chapter-based social movements that takes offers an approach that is not aimed, first and foremost, at policy, but in the right circumstances can be scaled.

All interested are welcome!