MeST talk: Negative and Positive Affirmative Action by Andreas Bengtson

I am pleased to invite you to this MeST guest speaker event. The talk will be on 'Negative and Positive Affirmative Action' by Andreas Bengtson from Aarhus University. We hope many of you will be interested to attend! 

Abstract

Affirmative action continues to divide. Whereas defenders maintain that affirmative action is necessary in the unjust societies
in which we live, opponents maintain that affirmative action is unjust, for one because it is effectively a form of reverse discrimination. The debate often ends in a stalemate.

My aim in this paper is to present participants in the debate with a new distinction, namely one between negative and positive affirmative action. Whereas positive affirmative action has to do with advantageous goods, such as a place at a prestigious university or a job at a prestigious company, negative affirmative action has to do with disadvantageous goods, such as a firing or a prison sentence. I then argue that this distinction affects the debate about affirmative action: some arguments in favor of positive affirmative action speak as much in favor of negative affirmative action; some arguments in favor of positive affirmative action do not speak in favor of negative affirmative action; and some arguments against positive affirmative action do not speak against negative affirmative action.