This book intends to propose a political theory of the business firm, and by doing so, offers new perspectives on social justice, neoliberalism, and conservatism.
New publication! Seeing Like a Firm: Social Justice, Corporations, and the Conservative Order
Published on 6 September 2024
ESPOL is delighted to announce the publication of our dear colleague Pierre-Yves Néron’s latest book, Seeing Like a Firm: Social Justice, Corporations, and the Conservative Order, published at Oxford University Press online on 10 July 2024 and in print on 6 September 2024.
This book intends to propose a political theory of the business firm, and by doing so, offers new perspectives on social justice, neoliberalism, and conservatism. It challenges usual interpretations of neoliberalism by reconstructing the philosophical grounds of a form of conservatism of commerce based on a powerful aesthetics of inequality.
Deux arguments are developed in this book. First, it argues that corporations “see” in a conservative way, through a “normative tunnel vision” anchored in hierarchy and inequality, setring aside the demands for equal standing. Second, a relational conception of equality and justice is needed to think about corporations. From this perspective, a commitment to equality implies more than advocating the fair distribution of goods and resources; it aims to build a true society of equals and to fight against unjust hierarchies, various forms of subordination and social stratification.
The key analysis developed in the following one: what is so unique about the firm, and worrisome given its centrality within our societies, is precisely its capacity to undermine the very foundations of a society of equals, through its simplifying normative visions setting aside demands for equality. The book calls relational equalitarians to try to deconstruct it, argue against it, and find ways to tackle it.
