10/02/2026 Midi de l'éthique "Is multilingual higher education bad for social justice? "

10/02/26 12.45-13.55 UCLouvain St Louis, 119 rue du Marais, Bruxelles, Local Préfecture P02

Midi de l’éthique exceptionnellement trilingue (français-néerlandais-anglais) dans le cadre de la première semaine bruxelloise du multilinguisme

De nombreuses institutions universitaires belges, y compris la KU Leuven et l’UCLouvain, offrent des programmes en anglais, des programmes bilingues français-néerlandais, français-anglais et néerlandais-anglais, et même des programmes trilingues français-néerlandais-anglais. Ces programmes présentent l’intérêt de fournir un enseignement supérieur en immersion linguistique. Ils permettent aussi d’attirer davantage d’étudiant.e.s étranger.e.s. Mais ils sont en moyenne d’accès plus difficile pour des étudiant.e.s n’ayant aucune de ces langues comme langue parentale et pour des étudiant.e.s d’origine sociale plus modeste. La développement de ces programmes ne risque-t-il pas de créer un enseignement supérieur à deux vitesses et de contribuer à un renforcement des inégalités sociales?  Est-ce là un coût qui peut être évité — ou qui mérite d’être supporté ?

Nicolas  Bernard, doyen de la Faculté de droit de l’UCLouvain St Louis
Lieven Buysse, academic director, KU Leuven Brussel, 
Modération : Marie-Sophie de Clippele, professeure de droit à l’UCLouvain St Louis

Format hybride. Pour obtenir le lien Teams : chaire-hoover@uclouvain.be

17/02/2026 Mich - Présentation du podcast “Malgré mon amertume et mon désespoir”

Mardi intime de la Chaire Hoover par Jean-Michel Chaumont

« Malgré mon amertume et mon désespoir… », écrit Claire Couesnon en février 1944 dans une longue lettre au Parti Communiste Français, je vous préviens que mon mari a été condamné par erreur et que le traître sévit encore. J’exige aussi que l’honneur de Paul Couesnon soit rétabli.
Fondée sur cette lettre saisissante écrite un mois à peine après l’exécution de son mari par le PCF, cette émission réalisée par Marie Chartron et Anouschka Trocker retrace le parcours en résistance de Claire et Paul et en relate les répercussions chez leur fille Maryvonne, âgée maintenant de plus de 80 ans.
On découvre chez ces militants communistes une loyauté aujourd’hui difficilement concevable alors qu’elle était chose courante chez leurs semblables il y a quelques décennies à peine. L’occasion d’une réflexion sur cette vertu hautement ambivalente qu’est la loyauté.

24/02/2026 Mich "Which concept of fairness should be applied to algorithmic recruitment?"

Mardi intime de la Chaire Hoover par Thomas Ferretti (University of Greenwich)

Algorithmic fairness refers to principles aimed at ensuring that decisions made by algorithms treat individuals impartially, avoiding various forms of discrimination, particularly in areas such as the labour market and recruitment. In the literature on algorithmic fairness (e.g., Cynthia Dwork, 2018), ‘individual fairness’ is often defined as meaning that ‘similar individuals should be treated similarly’, which is equivalent to a principle of fair equality of opportunity (Rawls, 2001). In a recruitment process, for example, people with similar talents should have equal chances of getting the job. In contrast, “group fairness” focuses on criteria such as statistical parity between demographic groups, to ensure that outcomes (e.g., the people hired) reflect the composition of the applicants or the population. In this article, I develop two arguments. First, I give reasons for rejecting group fairness and preferring conceptions of individual fairness such as fair equality of opportunity. Second, I highlight difficulties in achieving individual algorithmic fairness within a recruitment process. I propose that these difficulties reveal a flawed conception of how to achieve fair equality of opportunity in society, and I suggest a framework for resolving this.

03/03/2026 Mich "Community, Growth and Austerity"

Mardi intime de la Chaire Hoover par Catarina Moiteiro das Neves (Utrecht University) 

G.A. Cohen famously argued that in a society organized around the ideal of community, we will interact with others according to the principle of communal reciprocity, treating others as friends, instead of tools to pursue our goals (Cohen, 2009; similar accounts can be found in ideals of civic friendship e.g., Schwarzenbach, 1996). While the ideal of community has been subjected to extensive debate (Brennan, 2014; Archer, 2016; Arnold, 2020), its relation with economic growth is unclear. 

In his proposal for a convivial society, Ivan Illich stated that we should reclaim the word austerity from its ‘bitter taste’, to acknowledge its role as the ‘foundation of friendship’ (Illich, 1973, 7). A similar thought is captured in Ursula K. Le Guin’s novel, the ‘Disposessed’: the hero says that all those who wish to be part of the non-prosperous but communal society of Anarres, thus becoming ‘sharers and not owners’ need to “come to it with empty hands” and “without any past, without any property, wholly dependent on other people for life” (Le Guin, 1974/2010).  In this paper, I will try to answer the following question: does community require the continuous pursuit of economic growth, or to be more precise, is the ideal of community better suited for a world of  ‘austerity’, a sort of degrowth world? 
The questions of what a postgrowth society requires is of timely importance. In 2025 we surpassed seven of the nine planetary boundaries (Richardson et al., 2025), with scientists raising concerns that degrowth is required to stay within planetary boundaries (Keyßer and Lenzen, 2021). Degrowth entails that countries who have achieved a certain level of wellbeing, and are above their fair-share of ecological impacts need to downscale production and consumption to meet ecological limits (Hickel, 2021). In addition, in many affluent countries we are already experiencing long periods of stagnant to zero economic growth. Thus, we have to consider what are the implications for our normative commitments when we move, or are required, to pursue an economy that no longer sustains itself on economic growth. In addition, degrowth is likely to require an account of community. To transition and sustain a demanding transformation, as the one proposed in degrowth, which is just, stable and democratic, will require the harmonization of individual interests with common ones, or what some call  ‘green republicanism’ (White, Gough). The ideal of community offers a good principle to explore how this could take place.   
Thus, in this paper I explore the relation between continuous economic growth and community. First, I examine whether community requires continuous economic growth, either because it generates resources required to promote wellbeing, or because it provides conditions that sustain the right-set of attitudes towards others. I will argue neither of these requires continuous economic growth. Second, I explore whether continuous economic growth undermines community, because it promotes a ‘luxury fever’ that jeopardizes the conditions for mutual self-respect (Parr, 2024), and promotes inequalities that compromise our capacity to care for others (Archer, 2016; Arnold, 2020). While correct, I will argue that these arguments do not establish whether community is better fostered under degrowth. It could well be that continuous growth undermines community, but austerity would do so too. This would support a steady-state society, and caution against any degrowth moves. Thus, in the third part of the paper, I explore Illich’s thesis: actively pursuing a policy of austerity or of dispossession (as in degrowth) offers a fertile ground for the ideal of community. I will explore accounts of a convivial society (Ilich, 1973) and of reducing inequalities by levelling down the position of those who are better off, before addressing objections. 
By testing out these three claims, I intend to show that pass a threshold, continuous economic growth is a threat to the pursuit of a society grounded on the ideal of community. Insofar the latter is more desirable than a society without it, we will have an additional reason for embracing degrowth as a positive transformation of society.

17/03/2026 Mich "On punishment"