Seeing like a Firm. Social Justice, Corporations, and the Conservative Order.

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Abstract:

Business corporations are political entities and need to be considered as such. Seeing Like a Firm invites readers to do just that by providing a political theory of the business firm and, in doing so, offering new perspectives on the recent history of social justice, neoliberalism, and conservatism. This book challenges the usual way of thinking about corporations in two ways. Firstly, it argues that firms ‘see’ in a conservative way and embrace a ‘conservatism of commerce’ that requires socioeconomic inequality. In doing so, it challenges our usual interpretation of neoliberalism and its connections with the contemporary business corporation. Secondly, it argues that we need a relational concept of equality and justice to think about corporations. Given that the corporate ‘optic’ is built on dismissing demands for equal standing, Pierre-Yves Néron asserts that relational egalitarians should deconstruct it, argue against it, tackle it. By offering a new interpretation of conservatism based not on a desire to simply preserve the existing system but on an ‘aesthetics of inequality’, this book provides an alternative way to think about the main challenges that proponents of equality face.

Pierre-Yvés NÉRON is Associate Professor of Economic and Social Ethics at ESPOL, Université catholique de Lille.