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Overview
In this episode, host Dr. Maria-Artemis Kolliniati is joined by Professor Dr. Elizabeth Anderson, John Dewey Distinguished University Professor at the University of Michigan and one of the leading philosophers of equality, work, and justice. The conversation draws on Professor Anderson’s influential body of work – including her books Private Government and Hijacked – to explore why inequality is not merely an economic concern but a fundamental question of power, dignity, and democratic social relations.
Together they examine how a relational egalitarian perspective challenges the standard outcomes-based view of inequality, why workplace hierarchies so rarely register as problems of justice, and how neoliberal norms have reshaped the way we think about discipline, responsibility, and what people deserve. The discussion also looks at what these ideas mean in practice for leaders and managers, including institutions with a development mission that seek to promote not just growth, but genuine social equality.
Episode Timestamps
03:00 – Why inequality matters
14:00 – What makes work meaningful, and what destroys it
20:00 – The division of labour, deskilling, and the human costs of industrial capitalism
33:00 – Egalitarianism vs. hierarchy – how societies and organisations cycle between the two
42:00 – How to promote work and social relations
