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MARKUS FURENDAL

Political philosopher

Home: Välkommen

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.

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Publications

RESEARCH

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.

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ORCID iD: 0000-0002-2378-750X

Journal articles

(arranged in reversed order of online publication)

11 / The Future of the Philosophy of Work

Co-authored with Huub Brouwer and Willem van der Deijl.
Journal of Applied Philosophy. Volume 41, No. 2, pp. 181-201.

10/ The Democratization of Global AI Governance and the Role of Tech Companies

Co-authored with Eva Erman.

Nature Machine Intelligence. Volume 6, pp. 246–248

9 / The Global Governance of Artificial Intelligence: Next Steps for Empirical and Normative Research

Co-authored with Jonas Tallberg, Eva Erman, Johannes Geith, Mark Klamberg, and Magnus Lundgren.

International Studies Review. Volume 25, No. 3.

8 / The Future of Work: Augmentation or Stunting? 

Co-authored with Karim Jebari

Philosophy & Technology 36 (2023). OnlineFirst

7 / Tying Ourselves to the Mast, or Acting for the Sake of Justice? Ethos, Individual Duties, and Social Sanctions

Journal of Social Philosophy. OnlineFirst

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.

5 / Artificial Intelligence and the Political Legitimacy of Global Governance

Co-authored with Eva Erman.

Political Studies. Volume 72, No. 2, pp. 421-441.

4 / The Global Governance of Artificial Intelligence: Some Normative Concerns

Co-authored with Eva Erman.

Moral Philosophy and Politics. Volume 9, No. 2, pp. 267-291

3 / Artificiell Intelligens, Likriktningsproblemet och Politisk Filosofi – En Översikt 

("AI, the Alignment Problem, and Political Philosophy – An Overview").

Tidskrift för politisk filosofi, Volume 26, No. 2, pp. 1-14

2 / Rescuing Justice from Indifference: Equality, Pareto, and Cohen's Ethos

Social Theory and Practice, Volume 44, No. 4, pp. 485-506.

1 / Defining the Duty to Contribute: Against the Market Solution.

European Journal of Political Theory, Volume 18, No. 4, pp. 469-488.
Article first published online: February 20, 2017; Issue published: October 1, 2019

Book reviews

5 / Mathias Risse: Political Theory of the Digital Age

Political Science Quarterly

4 / Anders Hansson: Vad är fel med ojämlikhet?

Tidskriften Respons

3 / Jonathan Wolff: Varför läsa Marx idag?

Statsvetenskaplig Tidskrift, Volume 120, No. 3-4, pp. 610-612.

2 / Sophia Hatzisavvidou, Appearances of Ēthos in Political Thought: The Dimension of Practical Reason.

Political Studies Review, Volume 15, Issue 4, pp. 604-605.

1 / G.A. Cohen: Finding Oneself in the Other

Journal of Moral Philosophy. Volume 12, No. 3, pp. 343–346.

Publications

Other output

Collective ownership of AI

Chapter, forthcoming in “A Companion to Applied Philosophy of AI” (Blackwell)

Panel discussion on democracy and the control over new technologies

In the Swedish public radio program Fabriken

Essay in Dagens Nyheter on the anthropomorphization of AI

I've written a text on the human tendency to anthropomorphize AI and what it means for our social, economic, and religious relation to the technology.

Filosofisk podcast on philosophy and AI

I've participated in a discussion on AI and philosophy

Essay on AI and the workplace of the future

Essay for the magazine Arbetarhistoria, no. 189-190.

Not available online

Panel discussion on AI companions

I was part of a panel discussing companion bots and AI's impact on human relationships, in the Swedish public radio program Kropp och själ.

Filosofiska Rummet om rättvisa

I've participated in a discussion on the concept of justice, in the Swedish public radio program Filosofiska Rummet.

Filosofiska Rummet om arbete

I've participated in a discussion on the concept of work, in the Swedish public radio program Filosofiska Rummet.

Filosofiska Rummet om frihet

I've participated in a discussion on the concept of freedom, in the Swedish public radio program Filosofiska Rummet.

Audio essay about the promise of new technologies and the ways they are used to con people

Swedish public radio program OBS. 

On the Normative Importance of the Distinction Between ‘Governance of AI’ and ‘Governance by AI’

Co-authored with Eva Erman.

Global Policy commentary series.

Filosofiska Rummet om socialismen

I've participated in a discussion on socialism, in the Swedish public radio program Filosofiska Rummet.

Aning podcast om G. A. Cohen

I was interviewed on the Swedish podcast Aning, about the philosophy of G. A. Cohen

Other output
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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)

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Markus SV lite leende.jpg

LINKS

My Stockholm University homepage

My PhilPeople page

My Google Scholar page

My page at the Institute for Futures Studies

 

My Academia.edu page

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

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