Klein reads Judith Shklar for the first time, saying he finds something very inspiring in her claim that “liberalism is in fact extremely difficult and constraining” esp. for those who cannot “endure contradiction, complexity, diversity, and the risks of freedom.” podcasts.apple.com/de/podcast/t...

We have just published the call for the Nuffield Postdoctoral Prize Research Fellowships in Politics. These are 3-year fully-funded postdocs that will allow you to focus on your research in a great academic environment. (And with excellent food) www.nuffield.ox.ac.uk/the-college/...

Stellenausschreibung am IfS für Mitarbeit im DFG-Projekt ‘Die postnazistische Gesellschaft’: www.ifs.uni-frankfurt.de/newsleser/st...

Hier haben wir unsere Stellenausschreibung vielleicht noch nicht gepostet: Das @hiigberlin.bsky.social sucht eine*n interessierte*n und motivierte*n postdoc, die/der mit uns zusammen einen neuen Forschungsbereich zum Thema Demokratischer Wandel und Wissen aufbaut. www.hiig.de/stellenaussc...

Check out this call for two postdoctoral positions in the humanities and social sciences at Normative Orders in Frankfurt. Applications are due by the end of October

Bogotá

"It wanted to signal strength. Instead, it’s revealing its weakness. The administration’s need to break the academy is forcing it to make a desperately risky gamble." www.nytimes.com/2025/10/08/o...

Looking forward to discussing the racket model of Critical Theory and its relevance for understanding the crisis of authoritarianism this Friday at Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá, as part of our JUSTLA project.

In Bogota for the first time

🌍 JUSTLA Initial Conference 🌍 Justice in the XXI Century: New Challenges, New Directions of Inquiry 📍 University of Catania, Italy 📅 Feb 25–27, 2026 🎤 Distinguished keynote speakers from leading International Universities 🔗 justla.eu #JUSTLA #EU #MSCA #JusticeXXI #PoliticalTheory

Frankfurt/Darmstadt aufgepasst. Für das interdisziplinäre Graduiertenkolleg »Ästhetik der Demokratie« unter Leitung von Johannes Völz und Sophie Loidolt gibt es 12 (!) Promotionsstellen befristet auf 4 Jahre. Bewerbungsschluss ist der 14. November 2025. Programmstart ist der 1. April 2026.

As federal authorities sweep homeless encampments in D.C. , I want to resurface the reporting we @propublica.org did last year on the possessions people lose, which include the things they need to survive: projects.propublica.org/homeless-enc...

Special issue of Public Reason which it is shamelessly immodest of me to post: publicreason.ro/cuprins/29

I am looking for a PhD student in Comparative Politics @powimz.bsky.social. My research focuses on political (in-)equality, representation, and responsiveness. I would be grateful if you could help to spread the word. stellenboerse.uni-mainz.de#/jgu/job/49637

Just published! A collection of short reflections on Judith Shklar's political theory from @samuel-bagg.bsky.social, David Enoch, @shalmarr.bsky.social, and @samuelmoyn.bsky.social, with an introduction from me. link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Working in the area of critical sociology? Consider submitting to our workshop!

Excited to share that my article “Ideology and Suffering: What Is Realistic about Critical Theory?”has just been published (open access) in EJPT. I bring radical realism into dialogue with Adorno, exploring both productive common ground and instructive tensions. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

What would an anti-oligarchic, republican economy look like? UBI? Wealth tax? Workplace democracy? Strong trade unions? Investment democracy? I explore a radical republican economics in my new book, 'The Wealth of Freedom', which is now out online. academic.oup.com/book/60075

#CfP bis 30. Juni 2025 für die Sektionstagung im Frühjahr '26 zu "Bürgerschaft: Aktuelle Entwicklungspfade und konzeptionelle Neubestimmungen". Das Orgateam besteht aus Oliver Eberl & Julian Nicolai Hofmann (@unimarburg.bsky.social), Eva-Maria Schäfferle & Sandra Seubert (@goetheuni.bsky.social).👇

›daß das Verschiedene nebeneinander besteht, ohne sich gegenseitig zu vernichten, daß ein Verschiedenes dem anderen Raum läßt, und daß … das Verschiedene sich liebt, das wäre eigentlich der Traum überhaupt einer versöhnten Welt.‹ Adorno in seinen Vorlesungen zur Einführung in die Dialektik

DER HÄNDLER: Der Winter kommt, die Leute brauchen Kleider Da muß man Baumwolle kaufen Und die Baumwolle nicht hergeben Wenn die Kälte kommt, werden die Kleider teurer. … Weiß ich, was ein Mensch ist? Weiß ich, wer das weiß! Ich weiß nicht, was ein Mensch ist Ich kenne nur seinen Preis.

“There is not one single entity holding Musk accountable. It’s a harbinger of the destruction of our basic institutions.” https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/03/us/politics/musk-federal-government.html?unlocked_article_code=1.uk4.DtWY.ce0OEzzFS83t&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

Today, more than 10,000 people took to the streets in Neu-Isenburg to raise their voice against fascism

Excellent postdoc fellowships

The African socialist Nyerere’s on a major premise of historical materialism: ‘The European socialist cannot think of his socialism without its father—capitalism! … I find this contradiction quite intolerable. It gives capitalism a philosophical status which capitalism neither claims nor deserves.’

Yesterday, I defended my doctoral thesis ‘The Tyranny of the Real.’ I’ve rarely been so tired and so grateful: to my family and friends, my two brillant supervisors, Rainer Forst and Dave Estlund, and everybody at @normativeorders.bsky.social. This would’ve never been possible without them. 🎉

„Trust and Conflict: Taking stock and looking ahead“ – Final Annual Conference of the Research Initiative „ConTrust – Trust in Conflict“ 📆23. und 24. Januar 2025 📍NO-Gebäude / Online (Zoom) Zum Programm: contrust.uni-frankfurt.de/event/trust-...

›Oh, all right, I‘ll answer for you … Anyway, now that I‘ve reminded you … ‹ Painful to read how Callicles gets cooked by Socrates

@dielinkebt.bsky.social is basically the only major party in Germany whose policies would benefit the majority: freezing rent prices, expropriating large real estate companies, raising the minimum wage and social security (pensions, etc), taxing the rich. And they are at 3% atm. It’s frustrating.

G. A Cohen in a lecture on his strong identification with the Jewish population in Israel, 25 years ago: ”when Israelis, under whatever provocation, blow up houses and kill men, women, and children in the occupied territories, there is blood on my own hands and I weep with shame.“

The world's richest man managed to take $190 million away from a *child cancer research center* with his posts yesterday. Funding now stripped in the new bill.

“Despite his significant personal means, Mr. Merz, who has sat on the boards of nearly a dozen big companies and flies a personal two-propellor plane, has insisted that he is just a regular member of the middle class.” www.nytimes.com/2024/12/18/w...

Next two days: Negation and/of Violence workshop in Vienna. politikwissenschaft.univie.ac.at/en/political....

Interesting comparison to the Gilded Age, during which the upsurge of violence (e.g. attempt to assassinate industrialist Henry C. Clark) was connected to vast economic and social inequities. And guess what: extreme wealth concentration is at a record high in the US www.nytimes.com/2024/12/06/o...

There are 14 BILLIONAIRES that are part of the second Trump administration

Cruel and delusional.

Rieke Trimçev und @hannesbajohr.de haben eine großartige aktualisierende Einführung in das politische Denken von Judith N. Shklar vorgelegt. In meiner Rezension fasse ich einige Kernpunkte zusammen und gehe auf interpretative Kontroversen sowie immanente Spannungen des Liberalismus’ der Furcht ein.

once again sending this starter pack around for those of you local to other places go.bsky.app/2Fq4P6e

Robert Owen on the psychological effects of wealth: the love of accumulation and fondness of luxuries lead to the sacrifice of “the best feelings of human nature.”

London pubs can be cozy as hell on a cloudy Sunday

Quite happy with today’s yield

⚡️Along with Uğur Aytaç, we're convening a panel on technology, work, and the prospects of democratizing the economy as part of the 2025 @ecpr.bsky.social General Conference. Check the CfP here philevents.org/event/show/1... & send us your abstracts! Thanks for sharing!

Read Oscar Wilde’s ‘The Soul of Man Under Socialism’ this morning. A rather wild text but filled with several powerful points, such as that socialism will, by abolishing private property, annihilate family life and crime, and that personal property is morally corrupting, involving “continual wrong.”

“Why am I talking? Because advocating for human rights can never be antisemitic.” American photographer and activist Nan Goldin, who is of Jewish origin, in her opening speech at the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin. www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/1...

The Russian war economy apparently requires merely three months to produce the amount of ammunition and weapons that the whole EU produces in a year.

Wer Lust auf einen Deep-Dive in die aktuelle Liberalismusdebatte um @samuelmoyn.bsky.social, Francis Fukuyama und Patrick Deneen hat: ich habe den Stand der Debatte einzufangen versucht & eine Position formuliert, von der ihre Dilemmata sich vermeiden lassen: politischeoekonomie.com/in-alternati...

Kropotkin is so admirably clear. “It is because these few prevent the reminder of men from producing the things they need, and force them to produce, not the necessaries of life for all, but whatever offers the greatest profits to the monopolists. In this is the substance of all socialism.”

Emile is such an incredibly rich, beautiful work; and one can only hope that what Rousseau says in this passage is not wishful thinking.

Joking aside: Republicans will almost certainly control both houses of Congress, and the Senate by a comfortable margin. This is Trump's plain declaration that *that's not enough for him.* He objects to the existence of other decisionmakers and branches, even those that will give him what he wants.