Call for Papers:
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Ethics, children, education and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Online Workshop @Centre for Ethics and Poverty Research, University of Salzburg

Organizers: Jeff Frank (St. Lawrence University) and Gottfried Schweiger (University of Salzburg)

Dates: 28 and 29 September 2021, 3pm-7pm (Central European Time) / 9am-1pm (Eastern Standard Time)

Submission deadline for abstracts of 500 words: 30 June 2021

Please submit your proposal to both organizers: jfrank@stlawu.edu and Gottfried.schweiger@sbg.ac.at

While children and adolescents have a much lower risk of becoming severely ill from COVID-19, the pandemic still has a serious impact on their lives. These include the closures of schools and childcare facilities and the switch to home schooling, which not all children and adolescents can manage equally well because they lack support, space, or technical equipment. The family again became the central physical and social space for children and youth. Families that are socially disadvantaged, live in crowded conditions, or experience stress, poverty, and violence face particular hardships during the pandemic. Social inequalities among children and youth are exacerbated as a result. The impact on the pandemic and the restrictions to contain it are mostly seen and judged from an adult perspective. The world of children and adolescents is often not recognized and possible losses, restrictions and disadvantages are minimized or not taken seriously. However, the life phase of childhood and adolescence is different from the life phase of adulthood. This is already expressed in the fact that educational losses caused by closed schools often cannot be made up for because there is no time to do so. In many respects, adolescent life has been curtailed, spaces outside the family and thus also opportunities for independence have become fewer, and contact with friends and also romantic partners has been reduced. However, it can also be assumed that the pandemic will have medium- and long-term consequences; above all, the social and economic consequences will negatively shape the opportunities for education, income and prosperity for some social groups for years to come. Attention should also be paid to the public, media, political discourse, how children and adolescents, their interests, rights and needs are talked about during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, and to what extent they have their own say in this discourse. It is to be feared that children and adolescents will not be taken seriously in this context, but will be dismissed with the reference to the fact that they have suffered no or only very minor damage to their health as a result of COVID-19. In this context, it would be important to consider not only the direct dangers of the pandemic in terms of death, illness and possible long-term consequences, but also the short-term, medium-term and long-term psychological, social and educational consequences. The social and political powerlessness of children is also reflected in this.

This workshop is dedicated to childhood and adolescence during and after the COVID pandemic from a specifically ethical perspective. Thus, it addresses questions not only of how the pandemic has changed childhood and adolescence and what consequences can be expected for children and adolescents, but also: what are the ethical and philosophical issues involved; what are the rights of children and adolescents in the face of the pandemic and have they been adequately addressed; understanding how to achieve a good childhood during and after the pandemic (also to be prepared for the next pandemic); how to address the losses of education and social opportunities that children and young people have suffered as a result of the pandemic and what practices and policies can be adopted to prevent wider social gaps and inequalities from arising; how should children and young people be talked about and how should they themselves be involved so that their experiences can also be heard socially, in the media and politically.

This will be a paper-based workshop and participants are asked to send their draft papers one week before the workshop to be shared among all participants. Draft papers should be between 4 and 6 thousand words, including references. Talks should not be longer than 20 minutes followed by 25 minutes q&a. We plan to publish the papers of this workshop.

Ethical Perspectives on the Social and Economic Consequences of the COVID-19 Pandemic
An Online Workshop @ Centre for Ethics and Poverty Research, University of Salzburg
​Dates: 16 & 17 March 2021, 2pm-6pm (Central European Time)

If you are interested to participate in this workshop, please send an email to Gottfried Schweiger (gottfried.schweiger@sbg.ac.at)
 
Program:
16 March 2021
2-2.15 Introduction
2.15-3: COVID-19: Injustice or Misfortune? By Vittorio Bufacchi
3-3.15 Break
3.15-4 The rights of children of prisoners during a pandemic. By William Bülow O'Nils
4-4.45 So close, so far: Vulnerability and sexual and reproductive rights in the COVID-19 era. By Ester Massó Guijarro & Rosana Triviño Caballero
4.45-5 Break
5-5.45 Using virtue ethics as a framework for COVID-19 policy interventions. By Sarah B. Garlington & Mary E Collins
5.45-6.30 Pandemic, democracy, and freedom. By Onni Hirvonen
 
17 March 2021
2-2.45 Power, vulnerability and the effects of COVID-19 on migrants held by the detention industry in the United States. By Gabriela Mezzanotti & Alyssa Marie Kvalvaag
2.45-3.30: The Moral and Political Implications of the Covid19 Pandemic on Undocumented Migrants. By Noemi Magnani & Rachelle Bascara
3.30-3.45 Break
3.45-4.30 The Ethics of Bilateral Labor Agreements for Global Nurses in the time of Pandemic. By Klein Fernandez
4.30-5.15 What I talk about when I talk about care: Covid-19 and variation in values. By Teresa Baron
5.15-5.30 Break
5.30-6.15 Social Invisibility and the Production of Precarity: Reflections on the Vulnerability of the Informal Workforce in India in the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic. By Urmi Bhattacharyya

Due to Covid-19, Salzburg Conference in Interdsiciplinary Poverty Research 2020 on Health & Poverty, which was scheduled for July 2-3, 2020 had to be cancelled. We aim to hold the event in summer 2021 (most likely online); final decision has yet to be made though. Further information will be communicated by January 31, 2021 on the conference website: www.poverty-conference.org 

This book provides an interdisciplinary insight into how crises are addressed within art and literature. Crisis - in its various manifestations and effects, shown as suffering, loss, challenge, as knowledge and overcoming, experienced as an impulse for self-development and artistic creation. Crisis - an open topic, a multifaceted phenomenon. In this book, authors from philosophy and cultural studies as well as experts from inclusive cultural work and from literature and art therapy are involved. Contributions by CEPR-members Clemens Sedmak and Elisabeth Kapferer specifically discuss expressions of poverty-related crises.
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M. Bogaczyk-Vormayr/E. Kapferer (Eds.): Krisenerfahrungen und die Künste. Wien: LIT Verlag 2019. Website: https://www.lit-verlag.de/publikationen/reihen/kunst-und-inklusion/ 

News from “Alpine Space Transnational Governance of Active and Healthy Ageing”: the reports focus on (i) Classification of Active and Healthy Ageing (AHA) Stakeholders, AHA Initiatives and Governance Models; as well as (ii) AHA Impact Evaluation Metrics, AHA Innovation Metrics and AHA Governance Assessment Methodology – (soon) available on the project website.

Last week we started the 7th community based teaching program “Social Engagement”. We are happy to report a significant rise in demand: more than 30 students (doubled!) enrolled our “door opener” program to social engagement. They will combine a lecture on poverty with a traineeship in a charity.

​Privatsphäre von Kindern und Jugendlichen

Workshop am Zentrum für Ethik und Armutsforschung, Universität Salzburg
4. und 5. Mai 2021

Je nach Situation der COVID-19 Pandemie wird der Workshop vollständig online oder in Salzburg durchgeführt. Das wird Ende Februar 2021 entschieden.

Call for Papers
Ethik und Philosophie widmen sich verstärkt Fragen der Kindheit und Jugend. Der moralische Status von Kindern und Jugendlichen, ihre speziellen Rechte und Pflichten sowie diejenigen von Erwachsenen ihnen gegenüber stellen Fragen und Problemvorgaben dar, die mittlerweile in- und außerhalb der Philosophie kontrovers diskutiert werden. Die Frage nach der Privatsphäre ist dabei ein Kristallisationspunkt, der die Position von Kindern und Jugendlichen in modernen Gesellschaften in zentraler Hinsicht betrifft. Um von einem Wert der Privatsphäre für Kinder und Jugendliche sprechen zu können, ist ihnen der Status eines zumindest partiell eigenständigen Akteurs zuzuschreiben, der jedoch von der Schutzaufgabe von Familie und Staat eingerahmt wird. Dabei sind schon die Konzepte von Kindheit und Jugend unscharf und werden in den relevanten Disziplinen selten hinsichtlich ihrer normativ-ethischen Implikationen analysiert. Die Vermutung liegt nahe, dass Privatsphäre im Laufe der Kindheit und Jugend an Bedeutung gewinnt, parallel zu Entwicklung und Ausweitung der Autonomie von Kindern und Jugendlichen (Autonomie kann dabei sowohl als Fähigkeit als auch als Wert verstanden werden: Kinder und Jugendliche werden autonomer, sie sollen aber auch autonomer werden und haben einen Anspruch darauf). Das Recht auf Privatsphäre, welches nicht bloß ein moralisches Recht ist, sondern auch in der Rechtsprechung anerkannt wird, scheint abwägungsbedürftig mit anderen Rechten von Kindern (zum Beispiel der Schutz des Kindeswohls) und den Rechten von Erziehungsberechtigten. Der Staat ist dabei in der Funktion sowohl die Rechte der Kinder und Jugendlichen als auch die der Eltern zu schützen und zu ermöglichen. Angesichts weit verbreiteter gesellschaftlicher Trends der letzten Jahre, etwa dem ubiquitären Einsatz von neuen Technologien während der Kindheit und den damit verbundenen Chancen und Gefahren für eine gute Kindheit und Jugend, ist die ethische und philosophische Klärung des Konzepts und des moralischen Werts der Privatsphäre von Kindern und Jugendlichen dringend geboten. In anderen Disziplinen wie den Erziehungs-, Sozial- und Rechtswissenschaften, die sich Kindheit und Jugend widmen, sind diese Diskussionen schon längst im Gange. Es ist das Ziel dieses Workshops die breiten philosophische Diskussionen der letzten Jahre über den Wert der Kindheit und Jugend, kindspezifische Güter und Rechte und Pflichten von Kindern und Jugendlichen sowie den von Eltern und Staaten für die spezifische Frage der Privatsphäre von Kindern und Jugendlichen fruchtbar zu machen. Fragen, denen sich der Workshop widmen will, sind unter anderem:

• Wie ist der Begriff der Privatsphäre für Kinder und Jugendliche theoretisch zu bestimmen – gibt es hier relevante normative Unterschiede zur Privatsphäre von Erwachsenen und auch zwischen Kindern und Jugendlichen?
• Haben Kinder und Jugendliche ein moralisches Recht auf Privatsphäre und wie kann dieses begründet werden?
• Wie sind etwaige Konflikte zwischen kindlicher und jugendlicher Autonomie und Kindeswohl mit Blick auf die Privatsphäre zu lösen?
• Wie verhalten sich kindliche und jugendliche Rechte auf Privatsphäre zu den Rechten und Pflichten der Erziehungsberechtigten? Welche Rolle soll und darf der Staat hier spielen?
• Welchen Wert hat die Privatsphäre für eine gute Kindheit und Jugend – und eine gute Entwicklung zu einem autonomen Erwachsenen?
• Wie sind neuere technologische Entwicklungen (zum Beispiel die breite Verwendung von Sozialen Medien oder der leichte Zugang zu Internetpornographie) vor diesem Hintergrund zu verstehen, welche ethischen Fragen werfen sie auf und welchen Beitrag können Ethik und Philosophie zur ihrem Verständnis und ggf. auch ihrer (sozialen, politischen und pädagogischen) Lösung liefern?

Interessierte KollegInnen schicken bitte ein Abstract im Umfang von circa 500 Wörtern bis 30. November 2020 an gottfried.schweiger@sbg.ac.at Vorträge sollen nicht länger als 25 Minuten dauern, gefolgt von 25 Minuten Diskussion. Eine Publikation der Beiträge ist geplant.

​Ethical Perspectives on the Social and Economic Consequences of the COVID-19 Pandemic

An Online Workshop @ Centre for Ethics and Poverty Research, University of Salzburg

Dates: 16 & 17 March 2021, 2pm-6pm (Central European Time)

​Submission deadline: 1 November 2020

Call for Papers

The COVID 19 pandemic is mainly perceived as a health problem, but it also has severe social consequences. The aim of this workshop is to discuss the social consequences of the pandemic and the counter measures to contain it, in particular for poor and vulnerable populations. People in poverty are impacted more severely by the pandemic than more affluent groups; they have fewer resources to isolate themselves and isolation is more burdensome for them. For example, homeless people face the problem of either staying on the street or moving into shelters where they have to stay together in a confined space. People who are in need of psychosocial support have difficulty getting it during the contact restrictions. People who had little money before the pandemic have even less now. Children from disadvantaged families have greater difficulty with distance learning and lose important social contacts when schools, clubs and other institutions are closed. Women and children, who become victims of the increasing intra-family violence have even fewer opportunities to find help from outside. In addition, millions of people have lost their jobs or have gone bankrupt as a result of the pandemic and the containment measures. They experience stress and anxieties about the future.

The aim of this workshop is to analyse these phenomena from the perspective of justice and ethics and to explore newly created or amplified vulnerabilities and disadvantages. This research is fraught with several difficulties. Firstly, it is not possible to predict how the pandemic will develop. This applies both to developments within specific countries and globally. Secondly, it is not yet possible to predict precisely the long term social and economic consequences. It is also unclear how the political response will look like in different countries and what effects it will have. Thirdly, the data available on the social consequences of the pandemic is still thin and it will be a while before the first substantiated studies are published. These uncertainties and epistemic limits must be dealt with and taken seriously. Still, we believe it is necessary and feasible to explore the social consequences of the pandemic as early as possible and to discuss policies, which can help to alleviate them.

If you are interested to present your paper at this workshop, please send an abstract of about 500 words to Gottfried Schweiger, Gottfried.schweiger@sbg.ac.at.

The workshop will be held online only using WebEx. This will be a paper-based workshop and participants are asked to send their draft papers one week before the workshop. Draft papers should be between 4 and 6 thousand words, including references. Talks should not be longer than 20 minutes followed by 25 minutes q&a. It is planned to publish the papers of this workshop in a peer reviewed volume.

This book explores the relationship between different versions of liberalism and toleration by focusing on their shared theoretical and political challenges.

Toleration is among the most pivotal and the most contested liberal values and virtues. Debates about the conceptual scope, justification, and political role of toleration are closely aligned with historical and contemporary philosophical controversies on the foundations of liberalism. The essays in this volume focus on the specific connection between toleration and liberalism. The essays in Part I reconstruct some of the major historical controversies surrounding toleration and liberalism. Part II centers on general conceptual and justificatory questions concerning toleration as a central category for the definition of liberal political theory. Part III is devoted to the theoretical analysis of applied issues and cases of conflicts of toleration in liberal states and societies.

Toleration and the Challenges to Liberalism will be of interest to researchers and advanced students in social and political philosophy, ethics, and political theory.

Website: ​https://www.routledge.com/Toleration-and-the-Challenges-to-Liberalism/Drerup-Schweiger/p/book/9780367857462