First of all, I warmly thank Matteo Santarelli for having put the symposia together, and Matthew Festenstein, Torjus Midtgarden, and Ed Quish for having accepted his invitation. Once a book is published one has the tendency to let it behind and jump to a new project. Yet this is the time when critical distance finally comes, and one sees better the blind spots and limitations of one’s own project. To that extent, engaging with alerted and critical readers is the best (...) opportunity one has to gr... (shrink)

The article aims to bridge divides between political theory and management and organization studies in theorizing workplace democracy. To achieve this aim, the article begins by introducing a new definition of democracy which, it is contended, is better suited than mainstream accounts to highlight the democratizing potential of employee involvement. It then defines employee involvement as an offshoot of early twentieth-century humanistic psychologies, from which it inherits an emancipatory ambition. In a third step, the article presents employee involvement as a (...) set of organizational practices liable to transform dominant patterns of authority and social interaction in the workplace. The article concludes by contending that, apart from representation/participation and the employee’s voice, employee involvement must be considered the third necessary pillar of workplace democracy, endowed with distinctive normative features that neither representation/participation nor voices can aptly capture. (shrink)

Journal of Social Philosophy, EarlyView.

It is a commonly held idea that modern and contemporary societies, insofar as they aim to guarantee the principle of pluralism, must remain neutral towards specific moral or religious beliefs. John Rawls sums up this idea by claiming the priority of the right over the good. The aim of this contribution is to critically explore this view in light of Hegel’s 'Elements of the Philosophy of Right'. To this end, I first address the core features of Hegel’s social ontology and (...) the role of recognition in it. I then consider its political implications in detail. My ultimate goal is to provide an alternative account to political liberalism that allows, on the one hand, for a reinterpretation of the concept of a ‘just society’ and, on the other, a reassessment of the role of values in public debate. (shrink)