Power and Responsibility: Rethinking Corporations for the Public Interest
This lecture situates current debates about corporate profit-making and ‘purpose’ in this larger history, and discusses options for reforming corporations so that their actions align (more) with the public interest.
Social Sciences Hub
Date: Thursday 05 November 2026
Time: 18:30 - 20:00
Venue: Lecture Theatre 2, Boyd Orr Building, University Avenue, Glasgow, G12 8SP
Category: Public lectures, Academic events, Alumni events, Community events,
Join us for this Festival of Social Sciences event, linked to the Celebrations of the 250th anniversary of the Wealth of Nations.
Corporations have amassed great power to shape societies: their products determine our patterns of consumption, communication, working and now even thinking. Tech companies have introduced social media and AI, fossil fuel companies shape our energy systems, financial institutions determine the course of investment. On a regular basis, this creates anxieties: who is accountable for the choices companies make? Are these choices sufficiently in line with the public interest? Such anxieties are nothing new: since the invention of the corporate structure, they have been heard on a regular basis. This lecture situates current debates about corporate profit-making and ‘purpose’ in this larger history, and discusses options for reforming corporations so that their actions align (more) with the public interest.
This event is part of The World in 1776/2026, a public engagement project of the University of Glasgow marking the 250th anniversary of Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, produced in partnership with Glasgow Life, Radical Glasgow, and the Coalition for Racial Equality and Rights.
Speakers
Rutger Claassen
Rutger Claassen is Professor of Political Philosophy and Economic Ethics at the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies of Utrecht University. His research is at the intersection of politics, economics and ethics, focusing on theoretical and normative questions about democracy, freedom, markets, and justice.