Adam Smith

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.