Date: 29 January 2026, 10:15 am–3:45 pm
Location: Munich – ZEPP | Center for Ethics and Philosophy in Practice (Room M210 in LMU Munich’s Main Building)
Organised by Paulus Kaufmann and Hannes Kuch
More Information: https://www.zepp.uni-muenchen.de/veranstaltungenlehre/aktuelle-veranstaltungen/symposium-labor-boardroom/index.html
Registration: https://eveeno.com/511755302
The workshop will discuss Iñigo González Ricoy’s book manuscript „Labor in the Boardroom: The Political Theory of Workplace Democracy“. Christian Neuhäuser (TU Dortmund), Philipp Stehr (TU Munich), and Eva Weiler (University of Duisburg-Essen) will comment on González Ricoy’s manuscript, followed by responses from the author and an open debate with the audience.
In recent years, labor-managed firms – whether through codetermination, employee ownership, or worker cooperatives – have attracted growing public and scholarly attention. Political theorists have offered increasingly nuanced arguments for why such firms merit public support, including limiting corporate power, encouraging civic participation, reducing wage inequality, and countering managerial domination. Labor in the Boardroom argues that many existing views are not fully persuasive, while also reinforcing concerns that labor-managed firms may sacrifice efficiency in pursuit of these and other values. This could lead to economic outcomes that negatively affect not just investors but also consumers, taxpayers, and workers. The book develops an alternative normative account centered on efficiency as a key justification, maintaining that we have reason to hold firms to an efficiency requirement not only for economic reasons but also to protect workers from domination by their employers. It contends that labor-managed firms are uniquely positioned to reconcile efficiency with the value of freedom from domination.
