Termine & Aktivitäten

Di. 02.06.2026

“Family First” – Family Partiality as an Obstacle to More Equal Redistribution

With the “great wealth transfer” ahead, the rise of “inheritocracy” and patrimonial forms of capitalism appear increasingly likely unless new policies are introduced. The third and final lecture explores the contemporary (neo-)familistic turn and the re-familization of the economy, treating the family as a central moral institution that may constrain more equal redistribution of wealth and resources.

Drawing on research on wealthy families in Finland, philanthropic donors, and contemporary popular culture, the lecture shows how family loyalties are returning as a legitimate moral foundation of the economy.

It asks whether the egalitarian ideals that have historically guided welfare states are now being replaced with familistic ideologies – ideologies that marginalize structural questions of inequality because addressing them would require the needs of the most disadvantaged to be placed above those of one’s own immediate family.

Hanna Kuusela is Associate Professor in Sociology at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland, and the MPIfG Scholar in Residence 2026. During her stay at the Institute, she presents a lecture series entitled „The Redistributive Ethos in Crisis: Three Imaginaries Dismantling the Welfare State.“ The three lectures will take place on May 5, and May 26, and June 2, 2026.

> Scholar in Residence Lectures 2026