Tell us about your project!

My project examines when in today's welfare state, the work-related conception of the human good conflicts with the liberal principle that the state should not enforce one specific conception of the good life. My project aims to show how contemporary challenges within the philosophy of the welfare state provide a petri dish for exploring overarching philosophical questions of justice, paternalism, neutrality and discretion. Thematically, the project addresses, on the one hand, questions of the legitimacy of welfare administration and the use of discretion in the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration ("Nav"), while on the other hand, it explores the overarching tension within the demands of the state, often, but not always, pertaining to the needs of the individual. Regarding Nav, the project specifically deals with the moral consequences of discretionary space and reasoning in Nav. Questions concerning a digital welfare state and its boundaries are therefore of interest to the project.