Prisms of Inequality: Moral Boundaries, Exclusion, and Academic Evaluation

Abstract

The Erasmus Prize is awarded annually to a person or institution that has made an exceptional contribution to the humanities, the social sciences or the arts, in Europe and beyond. Emphasizing the importance of tolerance, cultural pluriformity and non-dogmatic critical thinking, the Foundation endeavours to express these values in the choice of its laureates. In 2017 the board of the Erasmus Prize decided to pay tribute to the combined theme of Knowledge, power and diversity. Erasmus, after whom the prize was named, was deeply interested in these three significant categories. Cultural sociologist Michèle Lamont was chosen to receive the prize for her devoted contribution to the social sciences in general and for her research into the relationship between knowledge, power and diversity in particular. In this eleventh volume in the series of Praemium Erasmianum Essay, Lamont gives an overview of her interest and oeuvre, thus making her views on inequality and diversity accessible to a larger audience. It yields a fascinating demonstration of the wide scope and importance of her discipline.