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HEIndividual fellowship2022–2024

MESE · At the Margins of Equality: A Theory of Vulnerability to Social Exclusion

Horizon Europe — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Duration
2022-10-01 → 2024-09-30
EU contribution
€173,847
Participants
1
Scheme
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF

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Results in brief

At the Margins of Equality: A Theory of Vulnerability to Social Exclusion

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed our shared vulnerability to isolation, serving as a reminder that marginalization and exclusion constitute significant obstacles to achieving a society in which everyone can fully participate and stand in relations of equality with one another. Moreover, empirical research has shown that marginalized individuals are more likely to experience mental health issues, such as depression, anxiety, harmful alcohol and drug use, and self-harm or suicidal behaviour. The current socio-political state of affairs, then, vividly illustrates how vulnerability to social exclusion is one of the most pressing social justice challenges that liberal democracies must face. This issue is at the heart of the Horizon Europe strategic plan towards “creating a more resilient, inclusive, and democratic European society,” and the political priority of the European Commission to “reduce poverty and inequality.” The aim of the Action “At the Margins of Equality: A Theory of Vulnerability to Social Exclusion” (MESE) was to contribute to our philosophical understanding of social exclusion by analysing what a just society owes to marginalised and vulnerable individuals if they are to be considered and treated as equals. Specific objectives of this Marie Skłodowska Curie Action (MSCA) were to: (1) Provide an account of what social exclusion exactly is. (2) Develop a normative theory of the wrongness of social exclusion. (3) Analyse the kind of public policies that should be adopted to ameliorate the social condition of those individuals who live on the very hard margins of our societies. (4) A parallel goal of the MSCA Individual Fellowship was to enhance the career perspective and employability of the individual researcher. No website has been developed for the project. However, more information about the project and its results can be found at: https://giacomofloris.wixsite.com/gfloris

Data: CORDIS, © European Union

Project objective

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed our shared vulnerability to isolation, serving as a reminder that relations of marginalization and exclusion constitute significant obstacles to the achievement of a society in which everyone can fully participate and stand in relations of equality with each other. Moreover, empirical research has shown that marginalised individuals are being disproportionately disadvantaged by the Coronavirus emergency in several ways: they are the target of stigmatization and discrimination. And, although they are more likely to experience mental health issues and are typically exposed to serious health risks, they are not provided access to the same degree of medical care as other members of society. The current socio-political state of affairs, then, vividly illustrates how persons' vulnerability to social exclusion is one of the most pressing social justice challenges that liberal democracies must face. Building on my previous research on the justification and the value of equality, in this project I will contribute to the Horizon Europe strategic plan towards ""creating a more resilient, inclusive and democratic European society"" by developing the first-ever comprehensive liberal egalitarian theory of vulnerability to social exclusion in analytical political philosophy. This theory will define the rights that marginalized individuals have to be fully included as equals in society and identify the social arrangements that the state ought to put in place in order to ameliorate their social condition. In our current pluralist and diverse societies the call for social equality is ubiquitous but its precise meaning is contested. By providing an account of what shape equality takes when applied to socially marginalized groups, this research will thus fill an important theoretical and normative gap when thinking about what a just society owes to its most vulnerable members if they are to be considered and treated as equals.""

Original text from CORDIS.

Participants

  • UNIVERSITY OF HAMBURG · HamburgCoordinatorGermany

Links

Data: CORDIS, © European Union