MARKUS FURENDAL
Political philosopher
I am a researcher and teacher at the Department of Political Science at Stockholm University and the Institute for Futures Studies. My primary research interests lie in the intersection between politics, economics and philosophy, and I currently work as a researcher in several projects concerning the Global Governance of Artificial Intelligence and automated decision-making in the public sector. I also write on the philosophy of work.
The social and ethical impact of Artificial Intelligence
I am interested in issues related to AI governance and the ethics of AI. Specifically, I pursue questions such as how the benefits and burdens created by increasingly capable AI ought to be distributed, and what it takes for AI governance to be democratically legitimate. My contributions to this field try to bring insights from theorizing about distributive justice and democratic theory to bear on the concrete problems and possibilities that transformative AI brings with it.
Beginning in 2024, I am part of a research project on automated decision making in the public sector, based at the Institute for Futures Studies, and a project on democracy and the global governance of AI, based at Stockholm University. Before that, I was a postdoc in a similar research project, which asks what the key features of emerging international AI regimes are, how the nature of the evolving regimes can be explained, and what the implications of these regimes are for justice and democracy.
I am currently co-editing an edited volume on the global governance of AI, and have previously convened two panels focused on "Governing AI" at the 2023 and the 2021 Mancept Workshops, respectively. In the fall of 2024, I co-organized a workshop on the global governance of AI in Stockholm.
I also try to contribute to the public discussion on political philosophical issues.
Egalitarianism and the Future of Work
I am also interested in the political philosophy of work and the impact AI may have on work. I have co-organized a conference in Rotterdam on the future of work together with Huub Brouwer (Tilburg), Willem van der Deijl (Tilburg), and Nicholas Vrousalis (Erasmus). More information is available in the CfA. We organized a similar conference at the Institute for Futures Studies in Stockholm, in May 2021. Papers from the conferences were published as a special issue of the Journal of Applied Philosophy in 2024 (Vol. 41, No. 2).
Dissertation project
I defended my dissertation "Do Your Bit, Claim Your Share: Justice, Ethos, and the Individual Duty to Contribute", at Stockholm University in November of 2020. It develops and defends an account of contributive justice, specifying who should contribute to justice and why, as well as what a contribution is and how an individual duty to contribute should be enforced.
Parts of the project were conducted as a visiting Fellow at the Department of Philosophy, Harvard University and as a Visiting Doctoral Student at the Department of Politics and International Relations and The Centre for the Study of Social Justice, Oxford University. I also had the chance to be on two periods of parental leave during the project
Other research interests
I am also interested the legitimacy of systems of norms and sanctions, the moral aspect of markets, and I am working on a paper about the the political relevance of hypocrisy.
ORCID iD: 0000-0002-2378-750X
Journal articles
(arranged in reversed order of online publication)
6 / Work, Justice, and Collective Capital Institutions: Revisiting Rudolf Meidner and the Case for Wage-Earner Funds
Co-authored with Martin O'Neill.
Journal of Applied Philosophy. Vol. 41, No. 2, pp. 306-329.
Book reviews
Publications
Other output
Essay on AI and the workplace of the future
Essay for the magazine Arbetarhistoria, no. 189-190.
TEACHING
Courses I teach or have taught at Stockholm University:
Samhällsvetenskapliga analysinriktningar och studiet av makt, masterprogrammet i statsvetenskap
(Analytical perspectives and the study of power, Master's program in political science)
Samtida politisk teori, Statsvetenskap III/II
(Contemporary political theory, Political Science III/II)
Självständigt arbete 15 ECTS, Statsvetenskap III
(Bachelor’s thesis, Political Science III)
Politisk teori, Statsvetenskap I
(Political theory, Political science I)
Jämlikhetens teori och praktik, Statsvetenskap II
(The theory and practice of equality, Political Science II)
Att studera demokrati, Statsvetenskap II
(The Study of Democracy, Political Science II)
Södertörn University College:
Självständigt arbete 15 ECTS
(Bachelor's thesis)
LINKS
My Stockholm University homepage
My Google Scholar page
My page at the Institute for Futures Studies
Photos at the top are taken by me, at Gotska Sandön and Kebnekaise.
CONTACT
markus [d o t] furendal [a t] statsvet [d o t] su [d o t] se