This paper explores the complex relationship between the meaning of predicates and the morphosyntactic expression of their arguments, as manifested in the swarm-class alternations in Czech. One way of getting at the nature of the alternations is to take a frame-semantic approach, which allows us to introduce the notion of scene as an important factor in linking relationships. It is proposed that linking patterns are organized in a network of generalized scene types, each of which represents a particular role configuration (...) structured in such a way that one of its roles can be singled out as the vantage point from which that event type is conventionally presented in a particular diathesis; the analysis argues for the notion of viewpoint as an event-structuring concept (distinct from discourse-based topicness) that is directly reflected in certain conventionalized linking patterns. The results of the investigation show that what may appear to be hard-to-predict variations in subject selection can be treated as instances of regular linking relations. (shrink)

Presents some of the latest research in Frame Semantics, including work in computational lexicography as developed within the FrameNet project.

The aim of this study is to provide a discussion on the definitions and conceptual dimensions of Responsible Research and Innovation based on findings from the literature. In the study, the outcomes of a literature review of 235 RRI-related articles were presented. The articles were selected from the EBSCO and Google Scholar databases regarding the definitions and dimensions of RRI. The results of the study indicated that while administrative definitions were widely quoted in the reviewed literature, they were not substantially (...) further elaborated. Academic definitions were mostly derived from the institutional definitions; however, more empirical studies should be conducted in order to give a broader empirical basis to the development of the concept. In the current study, four distinct conceptual dimensions of RRI that appeared in the reviewed literature were brought out: inclusion, anticipation, responsiveness and reflexivity. Two emerging conceptual dimensions were also added: sustainability and care. (shrink)

Menschen mit psychischer Erkrankung sterben statistisch gesehen früher als die Allgemeinbevölkerung. Ein Grund hierfür ist, dass sie eine schlechtere somatische Gesundheitsversorgung erhalten. Wir argumentieren, dass ableistische Netzwerke sozialer Bedeutung zu einer Abwertung der epistemischen Kompetenz von Menschen mit psychischer Erkrankung führen. Diese Abwertung kann mit dem Konzept der testimonialen Ungerechtigkeit erfasst werden. Testimoniale Ungerechtigkeit bezeichnet das ungerechtfertigte Herabstufen der Glaubwürdigkeit einer*s Sprecher*in aufgrund eines Vorurteils gegen ihre*seine soziale Identität. Wir analysieren ethische und epistemische Folgen testimonialer Ungerechtigkeit als wichtige Ursachen der (...) schlechteren Gesundheitsversorgung von Menschen mit psychischer Erkrankung. Testimoniale Ungerechtigkeit kann zu medizinischen Behandlungsfehlern führen und für Betroffene schwerwiegende gesundheitliche Folgen nach sich ziehen. Zudem kann sie zu einem Vertrauensverlust von Menschen mit psychischer Erkrankung in das Gesundheitssystem führen. Daher trägt testimoniale Ungerechtigkeit zur strukturellen Diskriminierung von Menschen mit psychischer Erkrankung bei. Vor diesem Hintergrund diskutieren wir, wie die somatische Gesundheitsversorgung unter ethischen Gesichtspunkten verbessert werden kann. (shrink)

In mental health ethics, it is generally assumed that coercive measures are sometimes justified when persons with mental illness endanger themselves or others. Coercive measures are regarded as ethically justified only when certain criteria are fulfilled: for example, the intervention must be proportional in relation to the potential harm. In this paper, we demonstrate shortcomings of this established ethical framework in cases where people with mental illness experience structural racism. By drawing on a case example from mental healthcare, we first (...) demonstrate that biases in assessing whether the coercive intervention is proportional are likely, for example, due to an overestimation of dangerousness. We then show that even if proportionality is assessed correctly, and the specific coercive intervention would thus be regarded as ethically justified according to the standard framework, coercion may still be ethically problematic. This is because the standard framework does not consider how situations in which coercive measures are applied arise. If structural racism causally contributes to such situations, the use of coercion can compound the prior injustice of racist discrimination. We conclude that the ethical analysis of coercion in mental healthcare should consider the possibility of discriminatory biases and practices and systematically take the influence of structural discrimination into account. (shrink)

Smartphone apps might offer a low-threshold approach to the detection of mental health conditions, such as depression. Based on the gathering of ‘passive data,’ some apps generate a user’s ‘digital phenotype,’ compare it to those of users with clinically confirmed depression and issue a warning if a depressive episode is likely. These apps can, thus, serve as epistemic tools for affected users. From an ethical perspective, it is crucial to consider epistemic injustice to promote socially responsible innovations within digital mental (...) healthcare. In cases of epistemic injustice, people are wronged specifically as epistemic agents, i.e., agents of the production and distribution of knowledge. We suggest that epistemic agency relies on different resource- and uptake-related preconditions which can be impacted by the functionality of passive self-tracking apps. We consider how this can lead to different forms of epistemic injustice (testimonial, hermeneutical, and contributory injustice) and analyze the influence of the apps’ use on epistemic practices on an individual level, in mental healthcare settings, and on the structural level. (shrink)

This article traces ‘difficult guests’ who violate the tacit rules that guide interactions between talk show hosts and their guests, between news anchors and their interviewees. The goal is to theorize the appearance of such guests on television against the background of four case studies. Using the media events and media scandals concepts as well as more recent work on ‘mediatization’, a new category of remarkable media occurrences is developed. Such ‘media incidents’ capture the resistance to media routines as well (...) as the incorporation of resistance into those very routines. I will illustrate how media incidents make visible, for large audiences, the media’s daily habitual construction of reality. Despite their complex, even ambivalent nature, it is argued that media incidents perform a more critical function for citizens in media-saturated societies than both media events and scandals. (shrink)

The book provides a comprehensive exploration of witchcraft beliefs and practices in the rural region of Eastern Slovenia. Based on field research conducted at the beginning of the twenty-first century, it examines witchcraft in the region from folkloristic, anthropological, as well as historical, perspectives. Witchcraft is presented as part of social reality, strongly related to misfortune and involved in social relationships. The reality of the ascribed bewitching deeds, psychological mechanisms that may help bewitchment to work, circumstances in which bewitchment narratives (...) can be mobilised, reasons for a person to acquire a reputation of the witch in the entire community, and the role that unwitchers fulfilled in the community, are but a few of the many topics discussed. In addition, the intertwinement of social witchcraft with narratives of supernatural experiences, closely associated with supernatural beings of European folklore, forming part of the overall witchcraft discourse in the area, is explored. (shrink)

Madole & Harden argue that the Mendelian reshuffling of genes and genomes is analogous to randomised controlled trials. We are not convinced by their arguments. First, their recipe for meeting the demands on randomised experiments is inherently inconsistent. Second, disequilibrium across chromosomes conflicts with their assumption of statistical independence. Third, the genome-wide association study (GWAS) method has many pitfalls, including low repeatability.

Zusammenfassung Im internationalen Diskurs sind feministische Perspektiven auf die Medizinethik bereits etabliert. Demgegenüber scheinen diese bislang nur vereinzelt in den deutschsprachigen medizinethischen Diskurs eingebracht zu werden. In diesem Artikel untersuchen wir, welche feministischen Perspektiven im deutschsprachigen medizinethischen Diskurs vertreten sind, und schlagen weitere Ansätze für eine feministische Medizinethik vor. Zu diesem Zweck zeichnen wir mittels einer systematisierten Literaturrecherche feministische Perspektiven im deutschsprachigen medizinethischen Diskurs seit der Etablierung der Medizinethik als eigenständiger institutionalisierter Disziplin nach. Wir analysieren, welche Themen bereits innerhalb der (...) Medizinethik aus einer feministischen Perspektive untersucht worden sind, und identifizieren Leerstellen. Basierend auf der Literaturrecherche, unseren eigenen Vorarbeiten sowie der Zusammenarbeit in der Arbeitsgruppe in der Akademie für Ethik in der Medizin „Feministische Perspektiven in der Bio- und Medizinethik“ stellen wir drei Thesen vor, die aus unserer Sicht einer Weiterentwicklung des deutschsprachigen medizinethischen Diskurses dienen können. Die erste These bezieht sich auf die Ziele feministischer Medizinethiken und besagt, dass diese (epistemische) Gerechtigkeit anstreben. Die zweite These stellt zentrale Eigenschaften von feministischen Medizinethiken als kritisch und kontext-sensibel heraus. In der dritten These diskutieren wir Intersektionalität und Postkolonialismus als theoretische Ansätze, die zu einer epistemisch gerechten, kritischen und kontext-sensiblen Medizinethik beitragen können. Wir argumentieren, dass feministische Perspektiven grundständig verankert werden sollten. Der Artikel schließt mit einem Ausblick auf die Arbeit der im letzten Jahr gegründeten Arbeitsgruppe in der Akademie für Ethik in der Medizin „Feministische Perspektiven in der Bio- und Medizinethik“. (shrink)

Definition of the problemFeminist approaches to medical ethics are well established in international discourses. By contrast, in the German-speaking medical ethical discourse, they still seem to be rather marginal. In this article, we analyze which feminist perspectives are prominent in German medical ethics and suggest new approaches.ArgumentsWe present our results from a systematized review of the literature, in which we identify existing feminist approaches within the German-speaking medical ethics discourse as well as research gaps. Based on the review, our preliminary (...) research and discussions in the working group “Feminist perspectives in bio and medical ethics”, we defend three hypotheses aimed at advancing the German feminist medical ethical discourse. We posit that (1) feminist medical ethics aim at (epistemic) justice, (2) feminist medical ethics are critical and context-sensitive, and (3) intersectional and postcolonial approaches within feminist medical ethics may contribute to epistemically just, critical, and context-sensitive medical ethics.ConclusionWe argue that feminist perspectives should be implemented as a fundamental perspective in medical ethics because they can bring together key dimensions such as epistemically just, critical, context-sensitive, intersectional, and postcolonial thinking. (shrink)

Alexander of Aphrodisias's commentary (about AD 200) is the earliest extant commentary on Aristotle's Metaphysics, and it is the most valuable indirect witness to the Metaphysics text and its transmission. Mirjam Kotwick's study is a systematic investigation into the version of the Metaphysics that Alexander used when writing his commentary, and into the various ways his text, his commentary, and the texts transmitted through our manuscripts relate to one another. Through a careful analysis of lemmata, quotations, and Alexander's discussion (...) of Aristotle's argument Kotwick shows how to uncover and partly reconstruct a Metaphysics version from the second century AD. Kotwick then uses this version for improving the text that came down to us by the direct manuscript tradition and for finding solutions to some of the puzzles in this tradition. Through a side-by-side examination of Alexander's text, his interpretation of Aristotle's thought, and the directly transmitted versions of the Metaphysics, Kotwick reveals how Alexander's commentary may have influenced the text of our manuscripts at different stages of the transmission process. This study is the first book-length examination of a commentary as a witness to an ancient philosophical text. This blend of textual criticism and philosophical analysis both expands on existing methodologies in classical scholarship and develops new ones. (shrink)

ZusammenfassungIn der Deutschschweizer massenmedialen Debatte zur Weigerung zweier Schüler in der Gemeinde Therwil, ihrer Lehrerin die Hand zu schütteln, wird häufig der Kulturbegriff verwendet. Der vorliegende Beitrag analysiert, wie „Kultur“ als wissensstrukturierende Kategorie in der Konstituierung der Gruppenzugehörigkeiten zur Schweizer Mehrheitsgesellschaft und zur muslimischen Minderheit zum Tragen gekommen ist. Basierend auf dem Konzept der „Kulturalisierung“ untersucht die qualitative Medienanalyse die verschiedenen „Spielarten der Kulturalisierung“ (Teczan 2011), die in der Debatte um den Fall Therwil verwendet wurden. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass „Kultur“ (...) in Beziehung zu geografischer Herkunft, religiöser Zugehörigkeit und spezifischen Wertvorstellungen gesetzt wurde. Gleichzeitig kann die Verknüpfung dieser Ideen mit Vorstellungen „kulturspezifischer“ Geschlechterverhältnisse und angenommenen Einstellungen zur Geschlechtergerechtigkeit und sexuellen Liberalisierung beobachtet werden. (shrink)

The book examines disabled figures in Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin and Rebecca Harding Davis's Life in the Iron Mills, in African-American novels by Toni Morrison and Audre Lorde, and in the popular cultural ritual of the freak ...

Was passiert mit Universalsemantiken wie der Ästhetik oder der Ethik um 1900, als die deutsche Gesellschaft den Umbruch von einer stratifiktorischen hin zu einer funktionalen Differenzierungsform vollzieht? Die Studie diskutiert anhand von Ästhetiken damaliger Denkrichtungen die Denkfiguren, auf denen sich der Universalanspruch ästhetisch-moralischer Kommunikation aufbaut. Am Beispiel der Debatte um Schmutz und Schund zeigt sie, wie die meisten Diskutanten die >Rede über Kunst.

Excerpt from Wissen, Glaube und Ahndung Ich habe an; einem andern Orte, reinhold Fichte und Schelling 1, ]i den; f_unt'e1{s chied des arbeit Ma1en platonisehen'nogrnatisrnugx und deanfleiesigen; Kriticiemus 511159in hier - mu ichbemmv. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the (...) aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works. (shrink)

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to lay out some of the more complex issues arising in the area of publication ethics. The impact of electronic publishing and electronic information is a main focus of the paper. Design/methodology/approach – The paper draws in particular upon the work of the Committee on Publication Ethics including illustrative cases discussed at the forum, guidelines and discussion documents. Findings – Three areas are highlighted to stimulate discussion around challenges of publication ethics in (...) the digital era. These are the role of the internet in facilitating misconduct, the issue of confidentiality in publishing and how incentives in research assessments drive author behavior. Originality/value – The paper brings together a variety of issues discussed under the broader umbrella of electronic information and new technologies in publishing. (shrink)

Until recently, moral case deliberation (MCD) sessions have mostly been facilitated by external experts, mainly professional ethicists. We have developed a train the facilitator programme for healthcare professionals aimed at providing them with the competences needed for being an MCD facilitator. In this paper, we present the first results of a study in which we evaluated the programme. We used a mixed methods design. One hundred and twenty trained healthcare professionals and five trainers from 16 training groups working in different (...) healthcare organisations throughout the Netherlands were included. After completion of the programme, participants feel sufficiently confident and equipped to facilitate an MCD session. Feeling competent does not mean that participants have no doubts or questions left. Rather, they are aware of their limitations and see the need for continuous learning. According to the respondents, the actual exercise of facilitating MCD during and in between the training sessions contributed most to the development of competences necessary for being an MCD facilitator. Respondents without prior experience of participating in MCD sessions felt less competent after the training than those who had participated in MCD sessions before. Self-attributed competence varied between participants with different professional backgrounds. (shrink)

William Henry Fox Talbot (1800-1877) ist vor allem als Erfinder der Fotografie bekannt. Basierend auf umfassenden neuen Quellen wird hier erstmals Talbots Erfindung im Hinblick auf sein Gesamtoeuvre untersucht. Dies ermöglicht neue Interpretationen seiner Fotografien, die die Autorin primär als Hilfsmittel für seine vielfältigen wissenschaftlichen Interessen und somit als Teil eines größeren epistemischen Gedankengebildes versteht.

In this article, I apply the concept of solidarity to collective knowledge practices in healthcare. Generally, solidarity acknowledges that people are dependent on each other in many respects, and it captures those support practices that people engage in out of concern for others in whom they recognise a relevant similarity. Drawing on the rich literature on solidarity in bioethics and beyond, this article specifically discusses the role that epistemic solidarity can play in healthcare. It thus focuses, in particular, on solidarity’s (...) relationship with justice and injustice. In this regard, it is argued (1) that justice and solidarity are two equally important and complementary values that should both be considered in healthcare practices and institutions and (2) that solidarity often arises in unjust situations and can be a means to bring about justice. I transfer these ‘general’ insights about solidarity to knowledge practices in healthcare and link them to the discussion about epistemic injustices in healthcare and how to overcome them. I argue that epistemic solidarity can play an important role in overcoming epistemic injustices as well as—and independently from its contribution to justice—in knowledge production in medicine more generally. To demonstrate how epistemic solidarity can add to our understanding of collective knowledge practices, I discuss two examples: patients sharing their medical data for research purposes and healthcare professionals’ engagement with patients to better understand their afflictions. (shrink)

Objective: To examine current research payment practices and to inform development of clearer guidelines for researchers and ethics committees.Design: Exploratory email based questionnaire study of current research participant reimbursement practices. A diverse sample of organisations and individuals were targeted.Setting: Australia.Participants: Contacts in 84 key research organisations and select electronic listservers across Australia. A total of 100 completed questionnaires were received with representations from a variety of research areas .Main measurements: Open-ended and fixed alternative questions about type of research agency; type (...) of research; type of population under study; whether payment is standard; amounts and mechanisms of payment; factors taken into account when deciding on payment practices; and whether payment policies exist.Results: Reimbursement practice is highly variable. Where it occurs it is largely monetary and is for time and out-of-pocket expenses. Ethics committees were reported to be often involved in decision making around reimbursement.Conclusions: Research subject payment practices vary in Australia. Researchers who do provide payments to research participants generally do so without written policy and procedures. Ethics committees have an important role in developing guidelines in this area. Specific guidelines are needed considering existing local policies and procedures; payment models and their application in diverse settings; case study examples of types and levels of reimbursement; applied definitions of incentive and inducement; and the rationale for diverse payment practices in different settings. (shrink)

BackgroundSex and gender differences are often overlooked in research design, study implementation and scientific reporting, as well as in general science communication. This oversight limits the generalizability of research findings and their applicability to clinical practice, in particular for women but also for men. This article describes the rationale for an international set of guidelines to encourage a more systematic approach to the reporting of sex and gender in research across disciplines.MethodsA panel of 13 experts representing nine countries developed the (...) guidelines through a series of teleconferences, conference presentations and a 2-day workshop. An internet survey of 716 journal editors, scientists and other members of the international publishing community was conducted as well as a literature search on sex and gender policies in scientific publishing.ResultsThe Sex and Gender Equity in Research (SAGER) guidelines are a comprehensive procedure for reporting of sex and gender information in study design, data analyses, results and interpretation of findings.ConclusionsThe SAGER guidelines are designed primarily to guide authors in preparing their manuscripts, but they are also useful for editors, as gatekeepers of science, to integrate assessment of sex and gender into all manuscripts as an integral part of the editorial process. (shrink)

This very short introduction will first outline how ontological investigations and questions of practice go together. The second section will bring in the next pole of this entire book, history of mathematics. How do ontology, practice, and history go together? Is this a forced marriage or one born in true love? That is, do these three belong together in some very basic way? One chapter in the section argues that the philosophy of mathematical practice intersects with the history of mathematics (...) essentially. If the first section of this introduction is persuasive that will also show that the history of mathematics intersects with ontological questions as well, specifically, that historical questions are very much about the ontological commitments of past mathematicians. The last section will take up what might seem a very different theme, namely, how these things matter to mathematics education. This section is connected closely to the second section since mathematics education has taken an interest in the role of history of mathematics in mathematics education, and much insight can be gained by seeing the issues in relation to the ontology-practice-history triad. The question of education is also important since teachers must consider what it is exactly that they are teaching, or, to adapt the title of Reuben Hersh’s well-known book, “What is mathematics really about?” And the “aboutness” of mathematics is really the ontological question. (shrink)

Zusammenfassung Hintergrund Stigmatisierung hat einen erheblichen Einfluss auf die Gesundheit verschiedener gesellschaftlicher Gruppen und trägt zu Ungleichheiten im Gesundheitswesen bei. Sexarbeit ist mit erheblichem sozialem Stigma verbunden, das sich nachteilig auf den Zugang von Sexarbeiter*innen zur Gesundheitsversorgung auswirkt. Die vorliegende explorative Studie gibt erste Einblicke in die Sichtweisen von Sexarbeiter*innen und Berater*innen in Deutschland auf den Zugang, die Bedürfnisse und die Barrieren von Sexarbeiter*innen in Bezug auf die Gesundheitsversorgung. Dabei lag der Fokus auf einem etablierten Netzwerk von Gesundheitsangeboten für Sexarbeiter*innen (...) in Bochum. Methoden Leitfadengestützte Interviews wurden mit 4 Berater*innen durchgeführt, die soziale und medizinische Beratung für Sexarbeiter*innen anbieten, sowie mit 3 Sexarbeiter*innen, die diese Angebote nutzen. Die Interviews wurden mittels qualitativer Inhaltsanalyse nach Kuckartz ausgewertet. Ergebnisse Es zeigten sich verschiedene Hürden bei der Inanspruchnahme von Gesundheitsversorgung, insbesondere aufgrund unzureichender Krankenversicherung oder fehlendem Wissen über den eigenen Krankenversicherungsstatus, Sprachbarrieren, Bürokratie, Mobilität und Diskriminierung in der Gesundheitsversorgung. Diskriminierung aufgrund von Sexarbeit überschnitt sich mit anderen Diskriminierungsformen, wie beispielsweise antislawischem Rassismus oder der Stigmatisierung von Schwangerschaftsabbrüchen. Spezifische Bedürfnisse und Barrieren wurden hinsichtlich psychischer Gesundheit angegeben, die sich als wichtiges Thema für Sexarbeiter*innen erwies. Die bestehenden kostenlosen, anonymen und zugänglichen Angebote für Sexarbeiter*innen, insbesondere aufsuchende Angebote, wurden als hilfreich beschrieben. Sexarbeiter*innen und Berater*innen wiesen auf einen Mangel an Angeboten für unterschiedliche Bedürfnisse von Sexarbeiter*innen hin, die über Tests auf sexuell übertragbare Infektionen und deren Behandlung hinausgehen, z. B. im Bereich der psychischen Gesundheit. Schlussfolgerung Nach wie vor bestehen Barrieren für den Zugang zur Gesundheitsversorgung, von denen viele besonders Sexarbeiter*innen mit Migrationsgeschichten aus osteuropäischen Ländern betreffen. Die Studie zeigt, dass die Etablierung antidiskriminierender Gesundheitsangebote für Sexarbeiter*innen notwendig ist. Bei der Entwicklung solcher Angebote sollten die Perspektiven von Sexarbeiter*innen eine zentrale Rolle einnehmen. (shrink)

Bioethics increasingly recognizes the impact of discriminatory practices based on social categories such as race, gender, sexual orientation or ability on clinical practice. Accordingly, major bioethics associations have stressed that identifying and countering structural discrimination in clinical ethics consultations is a professional obligation of clinical ethics consultants. Yet, it is still unclear how clinical ethics consultants can fulfill this obligation. More specifically, clinical ethics needs both theoretical tools to analyze and practical strategies to address structural discrimination within clinical ethics consultations. (...) Intersectionality, a concept developed in Black feminist scholarship, is increasingly considered in bioethical theory. It stresses how social structures and practices determine social positions of privilege and disadvantage in multiple, mutually co-constitutive systems of oppression. This article aims to investigate how intersectionality can contribute to addressing structural discrimination in clinical ethics consultations with a particular focus on mental healthcare. To this end, we critically review existing approaches for clinical ethics consultants to address structural racism in clinical ethics consultations and extend them by intersectional considerations. We argue that intersectionality is a suitable tool to address structural discrimination within clinical ethics consultations and show that it can be practically implemented in two complementary ways: 1) as an analytic approach and 2) as a critical practice. (shrink)

Last year, the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations for the first time included provisions in its Hospital Accreditation Manual requiring institutions to have mechanisms in place to consider ethical issues arising in the care of patients and to educate care givers and patients on bioethical issues. This new requirement is notably vague. There is no indication of what type of mechanisms would be appropriate or how those involved in considering ethical issues should conduct themselves. This vagueness is by (...) no means accidental, but it reflects a recognition that clinical bioethics is still in its formative stages and that there are currently almost as many different mechanisms for dealing with bioethical issues in the healthcare setting as there are institutions that have such mechanisms. The Joint Commission's action, however, also implies that the time for experimentation will soon be over. (shrink)

Bilateral investment treaties constitute an important instrument to facilitate global investment. Recent discussions in political theory have highlighted several normative concerns raised by bilateral investment treaties. One worry is that investment treaties undermine national self‐determination as they grant investors far‐reaching protections that can be legally enforced. Another worry is that the benefits and burdens entailed in bilateral investment treaties are distributed unfairly in a way that benefits investors at the expense of states and disadvantaged groups within states. Instead of critiquing (...) bilateral investment treaties from a perspective of global (distributive) justice, in this article I develop a class‐based critique. This involves a twofold departure. First, the article shifts the focus from distributions to the power relations that are built into the global capitalist economy and that come into sharp relief in the practice of global investment. Second, rather than focusing on the relation between states and investors, I claim that in a class‐based critique the relation between workers and investors should take centre stage. I argue that bilateral investment treaties are effectively an instrument of class domination, insofar as they reproduce and increase the power of transnational corporations while at the same time decreasing the power of workers. (shrink)