Estelle Ferrarese

Estelle Ferrarese is a French professor of moral and political philosophy at Picardie-Jules-Verne University in Amiens.

Education, career, and distinctions Her doctorate in political science was obtained in 2001 from Paris 8 University. Her thesis, "Culture and public sphere : unvarying structures and inflexions in Jürgen Habermas' political theory," was defended under the supervision of Jean-Marie Vincent. Her habilitation to direct research focused on vulnerability as a political object.

Ferrarese a Senior Member (since 2022) of the Institut Universitaire de France,

From 2015-2016, she was a research fellow at Centre Marc Bloch in Germany, which is affiliated with the French National Centre for Scientific Research (also known as the CNRS.) She was also a full professor at the University of Strasbourg.

Research She combines moral and political philosophy to study and write about the ethics of care and vulnerability. Drawing largely on Theodor W. Adorno and influenced by Sandra Laugier, her argument is that our understanding of how care is organized ought to be founded on the normative expectations and material conditions in a social context. Her work reflects the ideas of the Frankfort School on critical theory updated by feminism.

Selected works Books The Market of Virtue: A Critique of Ethical Consumerism, Edinburgh University Press, 2026. 160p. Translated by Steven Corcoran. Une philosophie des sanglots, Payot & Rivages, 2025. . Le marché de la vertu: Critique de la consommation éthique, Librairie philosophique J. Vrin, 2023. . French: La fragilité du souci des autres, Librairie philosophique J. Vrin, 2018. . English translation: The Fragility of Concern for Others: Adorno and the Ethics of Care, Edinburgh University Press, 2020. 160p. Translated by Steven Corcoran. . "Contemporary moral philosophy: three models of vulnerability." Care Ethics in Yet a Different Voice: Francophone Contributions (2020): 125-139. (ebook) . Vulnerability and Critical Theory. Brill Publishers, 2018. . The Politics of Vulnerability. (1st ed., ebook). Routledge, 2017. . Ferrarese edited the work and wrote the introduction, "Vulnerability: A concept with which to undo the world as it is?", a text that was originally published in Critical Horizons, 17:2, May 2016, pp.149-159. Other contributors to the work: Robert Castel, Veena Das, Penelope Deutscher, Sandra Laugier, Noémi Michel, and Alyson Cole. Ethique Et Politique de l’Espace Public: Jurgen Habermas Et La Discussion. Librairie philosophique J. Vrin, 2015.

Collaborative work With Alyson Cole: How Capitalism Forms Our Lives. Journal for Cultural Research; 2018; 22, pp. 105-12. With Nancy Fraser. Le féminisme en mouvements: des années 1960 à l'ère néolibérale. Paris: La Découverte, 2012. . With Sandra Laugier: Formes de vie. Paris: CNRS Éditions, 2018. "Politique des formes de vie." Raisons politiques, 2015/1 N° 57, 2015. p.5-12. Cairn.info.

Articles "Comment vivre de manière juste dans un monde mauvais ?" ("How can we live rightly in an unjust world?", Madame Figaro, 26 June 2026. "Emmanuel Macron traite l’exercice du pouvoir politique comme la résolution d’un casse-tête"]. Le Monde, 17 October 2025. link "La critique comme forme de vie démocratique." Multitudes 71, no. 2 (2018): 189-198. “Vulnerability: A Concept with Which to Undo the World As It Is?”] Critical Horizons 17 (2): 149–159. 2016. link "Nancy Fraser and the Theory of Participatory Parity". College de France: Books & Ideas. Translated by Nathalie Ferron. 14 September 2015. "Le projet politique d’une vie qui ne peut être séparée de sa forme. La politique de la soustraction de Giorgio Agamben." Presses de Sciences Politique; 2015; 1, pp. 49-63. link "Judith Butler’s ‘not particularly postmodern insight’ of recognition." Philosophy and Social Criticism 37 (7):759-773. link "“Gabba-Gabba, We Accept You, One of Us”: Vulnerability and Power in the Relationship of Recognition." Constellations: An International Journal of Critical & Democratic Theory 16, no. 4 (2009): 604. link