About
I am a PhD researcher at the RIPPLE (Research in Political Philosophy and Ethics) research group which is part of KU Leuven’s Institute of Philosophy. Where I, since November 2020, have been working on my Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO) funded PhD project about (neo)republicanism and domination in the market (for more information, see below under the heading ‘projects’). Besides (neo)republicanism, I am interested in the thought of Karl Polanyi, the normative assessment of economic institutions, radical forms of political theory such as anarchism, Marxism, socialism and questions regarding the nature of the economy and economic science.
Contact:
louis.mosar@kuleuven.bePublications
Journal Articles (peer reviewed)
Mosar, L. (2021). “The Always Instituted Economy and the Disembedded Market: Polanyi’s Dual Critique of Market Capitalism”.
Journal of Economic Issues, 55 (3): 615-636.
doi: 10.1080/00213624.2021.1945883
Abstracts/Presentations/Posters
Mosar, L. (2019). A Polanyian Perspective on the Environmental Crisis. Presented at the RGS- IBG Annual International Conference 2019, in the panel on Environmental and Ecological Justice: Anarchist Contributions and Perspectives, The Royal Geographical Society, London, 30 August 2019.
Mosar, L. (2019). The Always Instituted Economy. Presented at the International Karl Polanyi Society Conference 2019, Institute for Multi-Level Governance and Development, Wirtschaftsuniversität Vienna, 5 May 2019.
Mosar, L. (2022). Marxising Impersonal Market Domination. Presented at the Nineteenth Annual Historical Materialism Conference, School of Oriental and African Studies, London, 12 November 2022.
Science Outreach/Opinion Articles
Mosar, L. (2021). ” ‘De politie is de beschermer van het privé-eigendom’: interview met Alex Gourevitch.”
Rekto Verso (92), September 2021. (
URL)
Mosar, L. (2020). “Privacy en corona: hoe vermijden we algoritmische onderwerping.”
Apache, 16 April 2020. (
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Mosar, L. (2020). De actuele relevantie van Karl Polanyi & The Great Transformation. (
URL)
Mosar, L. (2018). “De gele hesjes tonen dat de klimaatproblematiek een verdelingsvraagstuk is.”
Knack, 26 November 2018. (
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Mosar, L. (2017). “Diange wants a Reconciliation between Islam and the West by Reviving Islamic Philosophy.”
Mvslim, 21 March 2017. (
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Projects
Slaves of Invisible Masters: A Neorepublican Critique of Impersonal Domination in the Market (URL)
PhD project funded by Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO), 1/11/2020 – 31/10/2024
Competitive markets are the institutional cornerstone of our economy. They are often hailed both because they are said to be efficient and because they would be freedom-creating and enabling institutions. Yet, as recent debates on the loss of democracy and popular sovereignty as a result of marketization suggest, markets can also generate forms of domination. The philosophical question is how this is possible, given the seemingly voluntary nature of market exchange. This project has two main aims, namely to build on existing neorepublican theory to develop an account of impersonal market domination, and to flesh out the normative and institutional implications of this account for how we can reorganize market institutions. To achieve this, I first develop a general account of domination that can conceptualize impersonal market domination. I do this by reconstructing Pettit’s concepts of arbitrariness and freedom in terms of discursive control. Secondly, drawing on the work of Polanyi, I show that the market can be understood as a sphere of power and that my novel account of impersonal domination is applicable to it. Next, I argue that my account of domination can discern between dominating and non-dominating forms of interdependence, opening the door towards a conception of economic interdependence which is non-dominating. Finally, I investigate how the concept of the ‘socialised market’ can provide a normative and institutional answer to existing forms of market domination.
