Gelijkheid - beeld gekleurde poppetjes
Gelijkheid - beeld gekleurde poppetjes

Course | Equality according to Piketty and Sandel

THIS COURSE WAS IN DUTCH | What do leading thinkers Thomas Piketty and Michael Sandel think about equality? What solutions do they offer for a fair and equal society? Piketty and Sandel join forces in the book Equality. What It Is and Why It Matters. They address issues such as the influence of money, market forces, globalisation and taxation. Come to this six-part course focusing on the book Equality and learn from Radboud scholars to think further about solutions for a more equal society.

May - June 2025 | Location: Elinor Ostrom Building| Radboud Reflects |This course has been rated with an average score of 7.4.

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Retrospect

The course content was particularly interesting and relevant. The topics closely reflect the social dilemmas of our time. I found it enriching to gain more insight into the underlying philosophical and economic tensions through this approach.

Great subject, good lecturers.

Announcement

Piketty - Sandel 

According to French economist Thomas Piketty and US philosopher Michael Sandel, inequality is a source of deep social dissatisfaction and a threat to democracy. Each approaches equality from a different angle.

Economist Thomas Piketty focuses on the distribution and spread of wealth, showing that the huge economic gap between rich and poor continues to grow. He argues that policymakers should intervene, for example by introducing a global tax on wealth.

The philosopher Michael Sandel focuses on cultural inequality. People with privileged positions are often thought to have earned them, and people at the bottom of the social ladder also owe their position to themselves. However, the degree of success is largely determined by where one's cradle was.

Join Radboud scholars in thinking about various aspects of equality and register for this course.

In 2023, Michael Sandel was a guest at Radboud Reflects with his lecture 'Who deserves to govern us? '. Watch the video.

Also read the article on Radboud Recharge: Why calls are growing for a more equal world

Programme

  1. Why should we care about equality?
  2. Globalisation and populism
  3. The moral limits of markets
  4. Taxation and solidarity
  5. Meritocracy and democracy
  6. Borders and climate change

Teachers

Evert van der Zweerde is a political philosopher at Radboud University and researches democracy, focusing on ideology, Marxism, civil society and democracy. He is also a Russia expert and has published on Russian philosophy both in Russia and abroad.

Esther-Mirjam Sent is professor of economic theory and economic policy. Her research interests include economic policy and the history and philosophy of economics. Areas of focus include constrained rationality, emotion and gender. 

Andrej Zaslove is a political scientist at Radboud University. He conducts research on populism and political parties. He measures how populist voters are and looks at the links between populism and democracy, foreign policy and gender. He also investigates the influence of populism on party systems.

Sophia de Vries is a lawyer and philosopher with a broad interest in law and justice. With a background in military law and philosophy, she now works as a lecturer and PhD candidate in the Faculty of Law at Radboud University.

Joep van Lit is a PhD candidate in empirical political science. He received his research master's degree (cum laude) in political science and public administration from Leiden University. His PhD research, supervised by Prof Carolien van Ham and Dr Maurits Meijers, focuses on democratic recession and the defence of democracy.

Karolien van Teijlingen is a social geographer at Radboud University. She focuses on the political ecology of resource extraction and alternatives for development. Her research has documented, among other things, the territorial transformations, conflicts and resistance movements fuelled by the expansion of large-scale mining in the Amazon.

Contact information

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Organizational unit
Radboud Reflects