What Counts? Who Counts?

We're delighted to announce a one-day workshop on 'What Counts? Who Counts?' featuring talks from Polly Mitchell (KCL) and Andrew Schroeder (Claremont McKenna), alongside a roundtable discussion with Jeff Skopek (Cambridge), James Wilson (UCL) and Flavio Toxvaerd (Cambridge). 

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many children have missed schooling - should these “costs” count as reasons against lockdown? During the pandemic, many coffee shops have closed leaving coffee drinkers without their morning cappuccino - should these “costs” count as reasons against lockdown? These questions raise two, inter-linked puzzles: first, which kinds of costs and benefits are relevant when we make social policy? Second, even if we think that some costs or benefits are relevant, how should they be commensurated against one another: what is the metric for measuring days-off school against lives lost? Lying behind these familiar puzzles is a third set of questions: are these decisions which should be guided by public sentiment or can they be made tractable to forms of quantitative analysis? Who decides what should be counted and how?

Schedule

8:45 BST: Introduction

9:00 BST: Andrew Schroeder

10:15 BST: Polly Mitchell

11:30 BST: Break

11:45 BST: Roundtable Discussion

with James Wilson, Flavio Toxvaerd and Jeff Skopek

13:00 BST: End

Zoom links will be emailed to those who register for the event. This event is part of a series of workshops at the University of Cambridge funded by the British Academy as part of a larger project on 'Rethinking the Ethics of Vaccination'.

For further information get in touch with the organisers, Stephen John ([email protected]) or Emma Curran ([email protected]).