Episode 77: Prizes and Privilege

State of the Theory

This is Episode 77 of the State of the Theory Podcast. Politics. Power. Popular Culture. And other stuff, probably. In this series, we’re like super nerdy philosophical DJs: mashing up Serious Academic Questions with the most topical news and trends in pop culture. Each week, we’ll tackle a new topic and collide it with ‘critical theory’ (we’re pretty loose with our definitions, though, so expect the unexpected). Our aim is to destroy the stuff we know, explore the stuff we don’t and unsettle everything we think we know about the world. We take the obvious, the commonsensical, the certain, and then we rip it all to shreds. We are your theory doctors and we are always on call. This week we discuss prizes – as the Booker and the Nobel both announce this year’s winners, we think of the role awards play in a capitalist economy. Do prizes help spread privilege, or do they reinforce privilege? Does “trickle-down” work when it comes to award-recognition and representation? And, perhaps most of all, why do we still care about prizes in the first place? You can read about Bernardine Evaristo and Margaret Atwood winning the Booker here: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/oct/15/booker-winners-bernardine-evaristo-margaret-atwood-rule-breaking You can read about Abhijeet Banerjee, Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer winning the Nobel Prize in Economics here: https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/nobel-economics-prize-for-2019-awarded-to-abhijit-banerjee-esther-duflo-michael-kremer-for-studies-on-poverty/story-TgkwgPUwOcvYbmo4xob1lO.html Our theme music is "The Face of God" by The Agrarians (http://freemusicarchive.org/music/The_Agrarians/The_Jovial_Shepherd/The_Face_of_God) State of the Theory is brought to you by Hannah Fitzpatrick (@drhfitz) and Anindya Raychaudhuri (@DrAnindyaR) Find us on Facebook (www.facebook.com/stateofthetheorypodcast) or Tweet us @TheoryDoctors