XLII Colloquy of the American Weil Society

The Politics and Ethics of Labour

Simone Weil’s posthumous La condition ouvrière has now been in circulation for over 70 years, and the texts of which it is composed are yet older still. And while this book might not be widely read in the anglophone world, Weil’s most-read works, such as The Need for Roots or Gravity and Grace, also offer extended reflections on labour. But despite Weil’s thorough and subtle critiques of Marxism, her moving plea to make of labour the spiritual core of modern society, her engaged participation in factory life, and an enthusiastic reception by thinkers like Hannah Arendt, she is not always considered amongst the canon of post-Marxist labour theorists. This Colloquy will seek contributions that can help to establish (or question) Weil’s importance as a theorist of labour. We hope to collectively explore Weil’s continued importance in our post-industrial, neoliberal economy.

The complete program and abstracts are available here.

Day 1—Friday, April 26th, 2024

Words of Welcome (8:45)

PANEL 1 – WEIL AND THE MARXIST TRADITION(S) (9:00-10:30)
Eric Springsted (Santa Fe): “What Is the Point of ‘Is There a Marxist Doctrine’?”
Samuel O’Connor Perks (University of Manchester): “Simone Weil, the Catholic Worker
Movement, and contested readings of Marx”
Kenneth Novis (University of Oxford): “The Factory Journals as Worker’s Inquiry”

Break (10:30-10:45)

PANEL 2 – TOWARDS A THEORY OF LABOUR? (10:45-12:15)
Inese Radzins (California State University, Stanislaus): “Method (rather than a theory)
for Considering the Politics of Labour”
Alexandre Crépeau (University of Ottawa): “Impactful and Dignified: Simone Weil and
David Graeber’s Shared Ideal of Work”
Joanna Winterø (Københavns Universitet): “How much against your will?”

Lunch (12:15-2:15)

PANEL 3 – LABOUR IN SOCIAL AND POLITICAL PRACTICE: EDUCATION,
CARE, COMMUNITY (2:15-3:45)
Alexandre Martins (Marquette University): “Insights from Weil for the Challenge of
Moral Destress in Health Care”
Sarah Dunford (Catholic University of America): “Neither Left nor Right: Intertwining
Community and Labour”
Ryan Poll (Northeastern Illinois University): “The Education Crisis and the Sanctity of
Labor in Simone Weil’s Political Theory”

Break (3:45-4:00)

PANEL 4 – LABOUR AND SPIRITUALITY (4:00-5:30)
Connor Williams (Union Theological Seminary): “Labour (justice) as spiritual exercise
in Weil and Process and Womanist theologians”
Rachel Matheson (McMaster University): “A Little Pile of Inert Matter: Flesh and Body
in Simone Weil’s Spirituality of Work”
Noemi Faustini (Pontificia Università Gregoriana): “Simone Weil’s Concept of Slavery
and Jewish Mysticism”

Day 2—Saturday, April 27th, 2024

PANEL 5 – WEIL IN CONVERSATION: HEIDEGGER, ARENDT, BATAILLE
(9:00-10:30)
Jacob Wilson (Carleton University): “Weil and Bataille on Political Community”
Robert Reed (Boston College): “Decreative Phenomenology and the Problem of Unjust
Labour”
Peli Meir (University of Haifa): “The Power of Speech and Silence in Weil and Arendt”

Break (10:30-10:45)

PANEL 6 – CONTEMPORARY APPLICATIONS OF WEIL’S THOUGHT (10:45-
12:15)
Manuel Ruelas (Ind. Scholar): “Where are we standing?”
Alejandra Novoa Echaurren (Universidad de los Andes): “Simone Weil and prerequisite
to dignity of labour in the actual neoliberal society”
Julia Morrow (Wheaton College): “Analyzing 21st century understandings of labour and
gender through a Weillien lens”

Lunch (12:15-2:15)

PANEL ON SIMONE WEIL’S POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY: FIELD NOTES FROM
THE MARGINS (BENJAMIN P. DAVIS) (2:15-3:45)
Discussants: Scott B. Ritner (University of Colorado Boulder)
Sophie Bourgault (University of Ottawa)
Mac Loftin (Harvard University)
Break (3:45-4:00)

AMERICAN WEIL SOCIETY BUSINESS MEETING (4:00-5:30)

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As part of this CReSP-CRÉ lunch conference, Muriel Mac-Seing, researcher at the Center for Public Health Research (CReSP) and Assistant Professor in the Department of Social and Preventive Medicine of the School of Public Health at the University of Montreal (ESPUM) will offer a presentation [in French] entitled “Équité en santé, handicap et déterminants structurels de santé dans un contexte d’injustices épistémiques et climatiques”.

The presentation will be followed by a commentary by Ryoa Chung, co-director of the Ethics Research Center (CRÉ) and Full Professor in the philosophy department of the University of Montreal.

Registration required.

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On April 16, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., GRÉEA will receive Pierre Charbonnier (Researcher at CNRS, professor at Science Po Paris and EHESS), via Zoom, for a conference [in French] entitled  “Vers l’écologie de guerre. Une histoire de la géopolitique du climat.”

To participate on Zoom, it’s here.

Summary:

“Nous sommes les héritiers d’une histoire intellectuelle et politique qui a constamment répété l’axiome suivant : pour créer les conditions de la paix entre les hommes, il faut exploiter la nature, échanger des ressources, et fournir à tous et toutes une prospérité suffisante. Pour que le désir de guerre s’efface, il faut d’abord lutter contre la rareté de la nature, qui sinon crée jalousie et conflit. Il faut aussi un langage universel à l’humanité, qui sera celui des sciences, des techniques, du développement. Autrement dit, il est possible d’écrire une histoire matérielle du pouvoir politique, de la capacité à offrir paix et sécurité à sa population.

Ces idées anciennes, que l’on peut faire remonter au 18e siècle, ont trouvé au milieu du 20e siècle une concrétisation tout à fait frappante. Au lendemain de la Seconde guerre mondiale, le développement des infrastructures fossiles a été jumelé à un discours pacifiste et universaliste, qui entendait saper les causes de la guerre en utilisant la libération de la productivité et le bas coûtdu pétrole. La naissance de l’anthropocène est donc contemporaine de l’ordre mondial organisé par les Etats-Unis autour des énergies fossiles: la paix, ou l’équilibre des grandes puissances, est en large partie un don des fossiles.

Au 21e siècle, ce paradigme risque de devenir obsolète puisque nous devons à la fois garantir la paix et la sécurité, et intégrer les limites planétaires : il nous faut apprendre à faire la paix sans détruire la planète. C’est ce que nous apprend en particulier la guerre livrée par la Russie contre l’Ukraine, mais aussi l’émergence d’un discours qui lie l’indépendance stratégique de l’Europe et la décarbonation de son économie. Aujourd’hui, les relations internationales et les politiques climatiques sont étroitement liées, et ce n’est pas un hasard : nous avions parié sur les énergies fossiles pour maintenir la paix, il faut à présent un autre socle matériel pour la paix.”

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Paola Ferretti (Goethe University of Frankfurt on Main) will give a lecture titled “Responsibility, Occupational Risk, and Epistemic Duties” in our lunch talk series.

To participate via Zoom, click here.

Abstract

In response to the growing number of reported work-related accidents, public opinion often favours punitive measures and stricter penalties against managers responsible for decision making about risk. This paper challenges this notion and suggests a broader focus on organizational responsibility as more effective strategy for improving workplace safety. The paper asks what the appropriate moral standards for holding CEOs accountable in cases involving occupational risks are. It explains that the epistemic standards governing acceptable risk-taking should play a central role in assigning responsibility both ex ante (at the moment of taking decisions about risk and precaution) and ex post (in case, for example, some workers are injured). Furthermore, it argues that these standards should be largely shaped by the organization itself and in this sense the responsibility for setting safety standards should be assigned to the organisation’s members in their interrelatedness. Individual failures to adhere to those epistemic standards when making risk-related decisions should be regarded as more morally significant than the underlying motives, such as alleged disregard for the value of human life.

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Annemarie Jutel (Te Herenga Waka / Victoria University of Wellington) will give a lecture at GRIN on “The social function of diagnosis.”

Diagnosis is not just a clinical phenomenon, the labelling of a material disorder, it is a social consensus about what matters in society, and it has important social consequences. In this presentation, Annemarie Jutel will look critically at the concept of diagnosis, the process of diagnosis, and diagnostic consequences, to provide a deeply textured understanding of how it shapes health, illness and disease. The critical distance that her sociological analysis delivers will offer explanatory insights for theorists but also for those who practice or
experience diagnosis. Understanding the social function of diagnosis helps explain its importance, as well as its failure to deliver upon its promises.

Biography :

Annemarie is a critical diagnosis scholar, whose ground-breaking work in the sociology of diagnosis focuses on how medical classification interacts with social and cultural interests. She has written about medicalisation and the interests of the pharmaceutical industry, the diagnostic process and delivery of the dire diagnosis, and the presence and impact of diagnosis in popular culture and literature. She was the director of Mataora: Encounters between Medicine and the Arts. Annemarie is the Head of School in the School of Health at Te Herenga Waka (Victoria University of Wellington). She has also worked as an intensive care nurse and a rural first responder, and has just finished her first graphic novel.

*The conference will also be presented on Zoom.

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