“Academics can often only have a real impact when they work together”

Professor of Ethics of Institutions Ingrid Robeyns has been awarded the highest distinction for researchers in the Netherlands by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO): the Stevin Prize. Robeyns is delighted with the award: “It's fantastic that the type of research I am doing, is now being recognised in this way with the Stevin Prize.”

Ideas and theories for improving society

The award is particularly important because it is often difficult for political philosophers to demonstrate the societal impact of their research, says Robeyns. “People often expect you to demonstrate the societal impact of your research with concrete inventions or changes. But my contributions are at the level of ideas: I develop concepts and theories and look at the values and principles that underpin policy and structures in society. These analyses can help us to better understand society and also to improve its structures.”

Examples include Robeyns’ work on the capability approach (used in the Netherlands by, among others, the Social and Cultural Planning Office and in thinking about broad prosperity) and on limitarianism: the concept that, in addition to a poverty line, there must also be a limit to extreme wealth.

A new economic system is needed

Robeyns believes that we are at a crossroads in history. The socio-economic model that has dominated the past decades, neoliberal capitalism, is under attack. In the Visions for the Future Project, she and her team are investigating possible models for the future. “We are already seeing neoliberal capitalism being abandoned in certain places,” says Robeyns.

We need an economic system that puts the flourishing of all people and other species at its heart and protects the earth.

“Trump, for example, is steering away from neoliberal capitalism towards a conservative-authoritarian system. But with such a system, we sacrifice democracy, and it is unlikely that the well-being of citizens will improve. And it certainly does not help if academic knowledge, such as about climate change, is simply denied. We need an economic system that focuses on the flourishing of all people and other species, and that protects the earth.”

Academics must join forces

Academics have an important role to play in analysing and further developing visions on a new economic system, according to Robeyns. That is why she plans to apply the Stevin Prize to set up an international and interdisciplinary network of the world's best researchers working on new economic systems.

“This will enable us to learn from each other and put the different pieces of the puzzle together. Academics can often only have a real impact when they work together and combine their research. Citizens may not notice much in the short term, but I hope that this network will enable us to make the world a fundamentally better place in the longer term.”

Raising issues as an academic scholar

The Stevin Prize is awarded to academics who inspire young researchers. When asked what characterises her as an academic, Robeyns mentions how she has worked across the boundaries of different fields of expertise. And that was not always easy: ‘I move between disciplines, which was very difficult at the beginning of my career. Interdisciplinary research is rarely welcome in highly-ranked academic journals and the university lecturers that are hired are often academics who work in the core of a discipline.’

“I have also always remained critical of why we do things the way we do. If I am asked to do something that I think is pointless, or even harmful, I will say so. I believe it is the professional duty of academics to describe things as they see them.”

I move between disciplines, which was very difficult at the beginning of my career.

Robeyns does this herself, both within and outside the walls of the university. “I raised the issue of excessive work pressure in academia when it was not yet widely recognised. At the time that led to some unpleasant reactions, but it was the correct analysis.” Since 2009, she has also been campaigning for the expansion of the right to supervise PhD students, which she believes is reserved for far too narrow a group of academics.

In action for higher education

In recent years, she has been particularly active in WOinActie, a movement of students and staff committed to the future of higher education. “I could never have imagined that a Dutch cabinet would deliberately bring our universities back to a state of drastic underfunding.”

“We must be alert to attacks from outside the university. For instance, when the government undermines the conditions for universities to do their work properly. What is happening now in the United States in the attacks on universities is extremely worrying. So it is all hands on deck to protect the unique role and position of universities in society. But we also need to remain critical about the internal organisation of Dutch universities, and within our university have a conversation about the extent to which we are a community, rather than a hierarchical organisation.”