Helder De Schutter
Biographic Data
| ID | 1375633 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Helder De Schutter |
| GIVEN NAMES | Helder |
| FAMILY NAME | De Schutter |
| SIGNATURE | DE SCHUTTER H |
| AFFILIATIONS | KU Leuven |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-2031-984X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 30 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 129 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 29 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 2 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2006 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Herder’s Constitutive Recognitionalism
Herder is often recognised as the intellectual originator of a tradition that stresses that language assimilation is a wrong. In what follows, I argue that that the way in which he has influenced that tradition is often misunderstood. Herder’s originality does not lie in his development of ‘linguistic constitutivism’ – the view that language plays a constitutive role in human cognition. Herder surely endorsed linguistic constitutivism, but so did…
Of Borders and Ballots
Are immigrants entitled to the right to vote in receiving societies? Or is voting the most effective path to fostering immigrants’ political agency, integration, and protection of their interests? This special issue explores these core questions through a range of contributions that offer nuanced and forward-thinking insights. In this introduction, we survey key literature at the intersection of democratic theory and migration justice, outlining …
Why voluntariness cannot ground cultural rights restrictions for immigrants
The Impact of a Six-Year Existing Screening Programme Using the Faecal Immunochemical Test in Flanders (Belgium) on Colorectal Cancer Incidence, Mortality and Survival
The faecal immunochemical test (FIT) has been increasingly used for organised colorectal cancer (CRC) screening. We assessed the impact of a six-year existing FIT screening programme in Flanders (Belgium) on CRC incidence, mortality and survival. The Flemish CRC screening programme started in 2013, targeting individuals aged 50-74 years. Joinpoint regression was used to investigate trends of age-standardised CRC incidence and mortality among indi…
A tripartite model of federalism
The classical account of federalism is bipartite. Federal systems are understood to have a dual nature: on the one hand, there is the central government, and on the other hand, there are the constituent units. We argue instead for a tripartite model of federalism. In this model, a third institutional pillar is added to federal systems. This third pillar deals exclusively with matters related to the institutional architecture of the system. We arg…
Solidarity and autonomy in the European Union
To determine at which level a particular policy domain ought to be governed, we need normative principles of levelism. In this contribution, I articulate and defend two normative principles of levelism for distributive justice in the European Union. According to the Highest-Level Solidarity Principle, we should transfer distributive solidarity to the highest level of the multilevel polity. In the EU, this is the EU-wide level. According to the Po…
Two grounds of multiculturalism
Will Kymlicka has grounded group-differentiated rights for nationalcultural groups in the values of freedom and autonomy. An alternative moral foundation for such rights is dignity. In this contribution I contrast the freedom and the dignity case for multiculturalism in terms of their intellectual history and their contemporary justificatory potential. I show that the freedom grounding stands in the Herderian-romantic tradition, whereas the digni…
Linguistic justice for immigrants
Should speakers of immigrant languages have fewer language rights than members of long‐settled nations? In this article, I argue that the interests of immigrant and native groups are normatively equally recognition‐worthy. Any legitimate differential recognition must follow from the different interests immigrants have in language. I distinguish three categories of immigrants: strictly temporary immigrants, immigrants that have become or are to be…
The Role of Socio-Demographic Factors in the Coverage of Breast Cancer Screening
Background: In Flanders, breast cancer (BC) screening is performed in a population-based breast cancer screening program (BCSP), as well as in an opportunistic setting. Women with different socio-demographic characteristics are not equally covered by BC screening. Objective: To evaluate the role of socio-demographic characteristics on the lowest 10th and highest 90th quantile levels of BC screening coverage. Methods: The 2017 neighborhood-level c…
Federalism as Fairness in Ethiopia
In this contribution I apply the normative political theory of multinational federalism to the case of Ethiopia. Can the political philosophy of multinational federalism ground Ethiopian federalism, and does Ethiopia satisfy its moral demands? To do so, I examine the Ethiopian federal system from the perspective of four desiderata of multinational federalism: (1) national-cultural self-government, (2) solidarity, (3) central government, and (4) l…
Population-Based Data Reveal Factors Associated with Organised and Non-Organised Colorectal Cancer Screening
We investigated factors associated with organised and non-organised colorectal cancer screening using faecal occult blood tests, based on data from 308 municipalities in Flanders (6.6 million residents, 57% of Belgium) during 2015-2017. Logistic regression with generalized estimating equations was used to assess the associations between municipal characteristics and organised and non-organised screening coverages. Factors associated negatively wi…
Taming dignity for multiculturalism
This article articulates a theory of multiculturalism grounded in dignity. But dignity claims are often unreasonable, inegalitarian, or harmful. To remedy this problem, this article proposes to tame dignity by subjecting dignity claims to three conditions of reasonability: genuine identification; equal realisation; cultural establishment
Personality and territoriality in theory and in Belgium
Language policy debates regularly refer to the principles of personality and territoriality. Yet the precise meaning of these principles remains unclear. In this contribution, I conceptualize these principles as poles of a continuum between official bilingualism (instantiating the personality principle) and official unilingualism (exemplifying the territoriality principle), with a mixed regime in between (which grants a certain territorial primac…
Cancer risk among individuals of migrant origin in Belgium during the 2000s - Evidence of migration as a 'cancer risk transition
Subordinate language recognition
In this paper, I zoom in on linguistic justice for language groups who do not enjoy either local territorial dominance or equality with other language groups within the state. My question is: is there a separate linguistic justice category for such language groups whose recognition is ‘subordinate’ to that of other language groups? Does subordinate linguistic justice exist? A positive answer would mean that groups who belong to the category would…
Thyroid Cancer Incidence around the Belgian Nuclear Sites, 2000–2014
The present study investigates whether there is an excess incidence of thyroid cancer among people living in the vicinity of the nuclear sites in Belgium. Adjusted Rate Ratios were obtained from Poisson regressions for proximity areas of varying sizes. In addition, focused hypothesis tests and generalized additive models were performed to test the hypothesis of a gradient in thyroid cancer incidence with increasing levels of surrogate exposures. …
Two principles of equal language recognition
Within the umbrella of equal recognition, several principles of linguistic justice can be distinguished. A first, the per-capita principle, mandates prorating language recognition based on a per-capita distribution. A second, the equal-services principle, prescribes upholding the official languages as the languages in which the state speaks and in which public services are provided, irrespective of changing numbers of speakers. Alan Patten defend…
The liberal linguistic turn
This article revisits the principal argument Will Kymlicka has developed for a marriage between liberalism and multiculturalism: that the liberal value of freedom requires a cultural context of choice. I show that this freedom argument rests on a romantic philosophy of language. Critics of this freedom argument have pointed out that it is not necessarily an individual’s own culture that provides freedom: any culture could do so. I articulate a ro…
Van Parijsian linguistic justice – context, analysis and critiques
This introduction does three things. We first give an overview of the linguistic justice debate in normative political philosophy. We then situate Philippe Van Parijs’s position within it, by zooming in on Van Parijs’s two major normative claims: the support of the rise of English as the global lingua franca and the defence of linguistic territoriality. Finally, we clarify how each of the essays that follow this introduction relates to those two …
The British Academy Brian Barry Prize Essay
Long-term immigrants often have the option but not the obligation to acquire citizenship in their state of residence. Contrary to the received wisdom, this article defends the idea of mandatory citizenship for immigrants. It suggests that the current asymmetry in the distribution of political obligations between native-born citizens and immigrants is unfair. It also argues that mandatory citizenship is required by the principle that those who per…
Testing for linguistic injustice
This article develops a linguistic injustice test. Language policy measures passing the test conflict with the normative ideal of equal language recognition. The first part of the test checks for external restrictions - language policies that grant more recognition to one language group than to another. The second part of the test checks for internal restrictions - language policies that grant more recognition to some members of a language group …
Global Democracy and Exclusion
Language and luck
In this article, we examine how language and linguistic membership might feature in luck egalitarianism, what a luck-egalitarian theory of linguistic justice would look like, and, finally, what the emphasis on language teaches us about the validity of standard luck-egalitarian assumptions. We show that belonging to one language group rather than another is a morally arbitrary feature and that where membership of a specific linguistic group affect…
Global Democracy and Exclusion
Is Liberal Nationalism Incompatible with Global Democracy?
This chapter contains sections titled: Introduction Defining the Terms The Global Democratic Potentials of Liberal Nationalism's Main Tenets David Miller's Account The Exclusion Problem Acknowledgments References
Language policy and political philosophy
This paper provides an overview of the emerging debates over language policy and linguistic diversity within political philosophy. It outlines the larger context of this debate and identifies its protagonists and the main issues at stake in it. In addition, it presents an interpretive scheme for the analysis of the variety of approaches that have so far been developed within this field. This scheme relates these approaches back to two clashes of …
The British Academy Brian Barry Prize Essay
Long-term immigrants often have the option but not the obligation to acquire citizenship in their state of residence. Contrary to the received wisdom, this article defends the idea of mandatory citizenship for immigrants. It suggests that the current asymmetry in the distribution of political obligations between native-born citizens and immigrants is unfair. It also argues that mandatory citizenship is required by the principle that those who per…
Linguistic justice for immigrants
Should speakers of immigrant languages have fewer language rights than members of long‐settled nations? In this article, I argue that the interests of immigrant and native groups are normatively equally recognition‐worthy. Any legitimate differential recognition must follow from the different interests immigrants have in language. I distinguish three categories of immigrants: strictly temporary immigrants, immigrants that have become or are to be…
Language and luck
In this article, we examine how language and linguistic membership might feature in luck egalitarianism, what a luck-egalitarian theory of linguistic justice would look like, and, finally, what the emphasis on language teaches us about the validity of standard luck-egalitarian assumptions. We show that belonging to one language group rather than another is a morally arbitrary feature and that where membership of a specific linguistic group affect…
Van Parijsian linguistic justice – context, analysis and critiques
This introduction does three things. We first give an overview of the linguistic justice debate in normative political philosophy. We then situate Philippe Van Parijs’s position within it, by zooming in on Van Parijs’s two major normative claims: the support of the rise of English as the global lingua franca and the defence of linguistic territoriality. Finally, we clarify how each of the essays that follow this introduction relates to those two …
Federalism as Fairness
U NTIL recently, contemporary political philosophy had not devoted much attention to federalism.Theories of federalism were mainly developed from the perspectives of political science and law, and remained largely empirical in nature. 1 Yet, in the past decade, some first normative political approaches have started to appear. 2 Interestingly, this recent interest in federalism has by and large 3 coincided with-and can perhaps be seen as the resul…
Testing for linguistic injustice
This article develops a linguistic injustice test. Language policy measures passing the test conflict with the normative ideal of equal language recognition. The first part of the test checks for external restrictions - language policies that grant more recognition to one language group than to another. The second part of the test checks for internal restrictions - language policies that grant more recognition to some members of a language group …
Taming dignity for multiculturalism
This article articulates a theory of multiculturalism grounded in dignity. But dignity claims are often unreasonable, inegalitarian, or harmful. To remedy this problem, this article proposes to tame dignity by subjecting dignity claims to three conditions of reasonability: genuine identification; equal realisation; cultural establishment
Personality and territoriality in theory and in Belgium
Language policy debates regularly refer to the principles of personality and territoriality. Yet the precise meaning of these principles remains unclear. In this contribution, I conceptualize these principles as poles of a continuum between official bilingualism (instantiating the personality principle) and official unilingualism (exemplifying the territoriality principle), with a mixed regime in between (which grants a certain territorial primac…
Two principles of equal language recognition
Within the umbrella of equal recognition, several principles of linguistic justice can be distinguished. A first, the per-capita principle, mandates prorating language recognition based on a per-capita distribution. A second, the equal-services principle, prescribes upholding the official languages as the languages in which the state speaks and in which public services are provided, irrespective of changing numbers of speakers. Alan Patten defend…
The liberal linguistic turn
This article revisits the principal argument Will Kymlicka has developed for a marriage between liberalism and multiculturalism: that the liberal value of freedom requires a cultural context of choice. I show that this freedom argument rests on a romantic philosophy of language. Critics of this freedom argument have pointed out that it is not necessarily an individual’s own culture that provides freedom: any culture could do so. I articulate a ro…
A tripartite model of federalism
The classical account of federalism is bipartite. Federal systems are understood to have a dual nature: on the one hand, there is the central government, and on the other hand, there are the constituent units. We argue instead for a tripartite model of federalism. In this model, a third institutional pillar is added to federal systems. This third pillar deals exclusively with matters related to the institutional architecture of the system. We arg…
Cancer risk among individuals of migrant origin in Belgium during the 2000s - Evidence of migration as a 'cancer risk transition
Language ideologies in 'American' literary history
This article deals with the accommodation of linguistic alterity in US literary histories. It distinguishes between, on the one hand, a liberal language ideology that tends to domesticate the other by claiming neutrality toward language, and, on the other, a romantic ideology that articulates itself by 'foreignizing' the other and by making cultural groups appear more homogeneous and natural than they actually are. This conceptual apparatus is ap…
Language ideologies in 'American' literary history
This article deals with the accommodation of linguistic alterity in US literary histories. It distinguishes between, on the one hand, a liberal language ideology that tends to domesticate the other by claiming neutrality toward language, and, on the other, a romantic ideology that articulates itself by 'foreignizing' the other and by making cultural groups appear more homogeneous and natural than they actually are. This conceptual apparatus is ap…
Language policy and political philosophy
This paper provides an overview of the emerging debates over language policy and linguistic diversity within political philosophy. It outlines the larger context of this debate and identifies its protagonists and the main issues at stake in it. In addition, it presents an interpretive scheme for the analysis of the variety of approaches that have so far been developed within this field. This scheme relates these approaches back to two clashes of …
David Miller’s theory of global justice. A brief overview
Contemporary political philosophy has only recently witnessed a widespread emergence of analyses of justice beyond the context of the nation‐state. When modern political philosophers devised princi
Global justice as justice for a world of largely independent nations? From dualism to a multi‐level ethical position
Can global justice simply be seen as social justice writ large? According to Miller it cannot. Seen from the viewpoint of justice there are fundamental differences between the national and international sphere. Just like Nagel he strongly rejects monism. Yet unlike Nagel, Miller does not confine duties of justice to sovereign states. Different forms of human association require different principles of justice. Strangely enough, however, Miller do…
Is Liberal Nationalism Incompatible With Global Democracy?
To respond to globalization‐related challenges, many contemporary political theorists have argued for forms of democracy beyond the level of the nation‐state. Since the early 1990s, however, political theory has also witnessed a renewed normative defense of nationhood. Liberal nationalists have been influential in claiming that the state should protect and promote national identities, and that it is desirable that the boundaries of national and p…
Global Democracy and Exclusion
Is Liberal Nationalism Incompatible with Global Democracy?
This chapter contains sections titled: Introduction Defining the Terms The Global Democratic Potentials of Liberal Nationalism's Main Tenets David Miller's Account The Exclusion Problem Acknowledgments References
Federalism as Fairness
U NTIL recently, contemporary political philosophy had not devoted much attention to federalism.Theories of federalism were mainly developed from the perspectives of political science and law, and remained largely empirical in nature. 1 Yet, in the past decade, some first normative political approaches have started to appear. 2 Interestingly, this recent interest in federalism has by and large 3 coincided with-and can perhaps be seen as the resul…
Global Democracy and Exclusion
Language and luck
In this article, we examine how language and linguistic membership might feature in luck egalitarianism, what a luck-egalitarian theory of linguistic justice would look like, and, finally, what the emphasis on language teaches us about the validity of standard luck-egalitarian assumptions. We show that belonging to one language group rather than another is a morally arbitrary feature and that where membership of a specific linguistic group affect…
Testing for linguistic injustice
This article develops a linguistic injustice test. Language policy measures passing the test conflict with the normative ideal of equal language recognition. The first part of the test checks for external restrictions - language policies that grant more recognition to one language group than to another. The second part of the test checks for internal restrictions - language policies that grant more recognition to some members of a language group …
Van Parijsian linguistic justice – context, analysis and critiques
This introduction does three things. We first give an overview of the linguistic justice debate in normative political philosophy. We then situate Philippe Van Parijs’s position within it, by zooming in on Van Parijs’s two major normative claims: the support of the rise of English as the global lingua franca and the defence of linguistic territoriality. Finally, we clarify how each of the essays that follow this introduction relates to those two …
The British Academy Brian Barry Prize Essay
Long-term immigrants often have the option but not the obligation to acquire citizenship in their state of residence. Contrary to the received wisdom, this article defends the idea of mandatory citizenship for immigrants. It suggests that the current asymmetry in the distribution of political obligations between native-born citizens and immigrants is unfair. It also argues that mandatory citizenship is required by the principle that those who per…
Two principles of equal language recognition
Within the umbrella of equal recognition, several principles of linguistic justice can be distinguished. A first, the per-capita principle, mandates prorating language recognition based on a per-capita distribution. A second, the equal-services principle, prescribes upholding the official languages as the languages in which the state speaks and in which public services are provided, irrespective of changing numbers of speakers. Alan Patten defend…
The liberal linguistic turn
This article revisits the principal argument Will Kymlicka has developed for a marriage between liberalism and multiculturalism: that the liberal value of freedom requires a cultural context of choice. I show that this freedom argument rests on a romantic philosophy of language. Critics of this freedom argument have pointed out that it is not necessarily an individual’s own culture that provides freedom: any culture could do so. I articulate a ro…
Thyroid Cancer Incidence around the Belgian Nuclear Sites, 2000–2014
The present study investigates whether there is an excess incidence of thyroid cancer among people living in the vicinity of the nuclear sites in Belgium. Adjusted Rate Ratios were obtained from Poisson regressions for proximity areas of varying sizes. In addition, focused hypothesis tests and generalized additive models were performed to test the hypothesis of a gradient in thyroid cancer incidence with increasing levels of surrogate exposures. …
Subordinate language recognition
In this paper, I zoom in on linguistic justice for language groups who do not enjoy either local territorial dominance or equality with other language groups within the state. My question is: is there a separate linguistic justice category for such language groups whose recognition is ‘subordinate’ to that of other language groups? Does subordinate linguistic justice exist? A positive answer would mean that groups who belong to the category would…
The Role of Socio-Demographic Factors in the Coverage of Breast Cancer Screening
Background: In Flanders, breast cancer (BC) screening is performed in a population-based breast cancer screening program (BCSP), as well as in an opportunistic setting. Women with different socio-demographic characteristics are not equally covered by BC screening. Objective: To evaluate the role of socio-demographic characteristics on the lowest 10th and highest 90th quantile levels of BC screening coverage. Methods: The 2017 neighborhood-level c…
Federalism as Fairness in Ethiopia
In this contribution I apply the normative political theory of multinational federalism to the case of Ethiopia. Can the political philosophy of multinational federalism ground Ethiopian federalism, and does Ethiopia satisfy its moral demands? To do so, I examine the Ethiopian federal system from the perspective of four desiderata of multinational federalism: (1) national-cultural self-government, (2) solidarity, (3) central government, and (4) l…
Population-Based Data Reveal Factors Associated with Organised and Non-Organised Colorectal Cancer Screening
We investigated factors associated with organised and non-organised colorectal cancer screening using faecal occult blood tests, based on data from 308 municipalities in Flanders (6.6 million residents, 57% of Belgium) during 2015-2017. Logistic regression with generalized estimating equations was used to assess the associations between municipal characteristics and organised and non-organised screening coverages. Factors associated negatively wi…
Taming dignity for multiculturalism
This article articulates a theory of multiculturalism grounded in dignity. But dignity claims are often unreasonable, inegalitarian, or harmful. To remedy this problem, this article proposes to tame dignity by subjecting dignity claims to three conditions of reasonability: genuine identification; equal realisation; cultural establishment
Personality and territoriality in theory and in Belgium
Language policy debates regularly refer to the principles of personality and territoriality. Yet the precise meaning of these principles remains unclear. In this contribution, I conceptualize these principles as poles of a continuum between official bilingualism (instantiating the personality principle) and official unilingualism (exemplifying the territoriality principle), with a mixed regime in between (which grants a certain territorial primac…
Cancer risk among individuals of migrant origin in Belgium during the 2000s - Evidence of migration as a 'cancer risk transition
Linguistic justice for immigrants
Should speakers of immigrant languages have fewer language rights than members of long‐settled nations? In this article, I argue that the interests of immigrant and native groups are normatively equally recognition‐worthy. Any legitimate differential recognition must follow from the different interests immigrants have in language. I distinguish three categories of immigrants: strictly temporary immigrants, immigrants that have become or are to be…
The Impact of a Six-Year Existing Screening Programme Using the Faecal Immunochemical Test in Flanders (Belgium) on Colorectal Cancer Incidence, Mortality and Survival
The faecal immunochemical test (FIT) has been increasingly used for organised colorectal cancer (CRC) screening. We assessed the impact of a six-year existing FIT screening programme in Flanders (Belgium) on CRC incidence, mortality and survival. The Flemish CRC screening programme started in 2013, targeting individuals aged 50-74 years. Joinpoint regression was used to investigate trends of age-standardised CRC incidence and mortality among indi…
Political science (25 works) · Law (24 works) · Sociology (24 works) · Law (16 works) · Politics (16 works) · Philosophy (15 works) · Political Philosophy and Ethics (14 works) · Epistemology (12 works) · Philosophy (11 works) · Economic Justice (10 works)