Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Justice in society
An essay on the topic social justice
Brief essay on social justice
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Justice in society
By This quote Amartya Sen begins his book: The Idea of Justice: “In the little world in which children have their existence’, says Pip in Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations, ‘there is nothing so finely perceived and finely felt, as injustice.” (Sen, 2009: p: vii).
In 1979 Amartya Sen presented the capability approach as an alternative and improvement on the social primary goods approach provided by John Rawls. And also to the preferences satisfaction and real income ideas as measures for well being for the purposes of justice. in his lecture at Stanford University entitled “Equality of What”. Sen argued if People were basically very similar, then an index of primary goods might be quit a good way of judging advantage. But, in fact people seem to have different needs varying with education ,health, longevity and climatic conditions. So what is involved is not only ignoring a few cases, but also neglecting very widespread and real differences (sen 1980 PP: 215-216). Furthermore he believes that people have some preferences (adaptive) not because they believe that their fulfillment will meet their interests , but for a reason that their circumstances have distorted their true interests. If the social structure will allow them to fulfill their aspiration. Some people have preferences that is easy to meet , because they used to have response to injustice , While others may have the opposite because they have failed to exercise restrictions on their aspiration (Sen, 1999, PP:62-63). In addition Sen states his objection on using real income as a measure of well-being. People have differences in their ability to convert money in well- being as well as primary goods. Because people have differences to have control on it such as disable...
... middle of paper ...
...obeyns (2004), Justice as Fairness and the Capability Approach.
Nussbaum, M. (2006), Frontiers of justice: Disability, nationality, species membership. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
Nussbaum, M. (2000) Women and Human Development. The Capabilities Approach (Cambridge, MA, Cambridge University Press).
Rawls, J . (2001) Justice as Fairness: a Restatement ( Cambridge, Harvard University Press).
Sen, A. (2009). The Idea of Justice. London: Penguin.
Sen, A. (1999), Development as Freedom, Oxford: Oxford University Press
Sen, A. (1980) ‘Equality of what?’ S. McMurrin (ed.) Tanner Lectures on Human Values, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Walker, M. (2003), Framing Social Justice In Education: What Does The Capabilities Approach Offer?, British Journal of Educational Studies, ISSN 0007-1005 Vol. 51, No. 2, June 2003, PP 168-187
My definition of social justice in the field of education is based on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of a Child and the British-Colombia School Act that state that every child has a right to a proper education (UNICEF, n.d.; School Act, RSBC 1996, c. 412). A proper education to me is based on opportunity. I believe that in order to have a proper education, children should all be entitled to equal opportunity in their learning process. Children should have equal opportunity to obtain the supports that will assist them in achieving their potential.
Baynton, Douglas. "Disability and Justification of Inequality in American History." The New Disability History. New York: New York University Press, 2001. 285-294. Print.
Nussbaum looks at the Utilitarian approach in order to asses all of the individuals involved, which of course would include women. This approach would allow us to criticize other cultures practices. She also discusses the capability approach, which asserts that preferences might not always be indicators of life quality. She has a list of capabilities, that were generated in order to determine what activities which are so central that they seem definitive of a life that is truly human. Without these, a life would be regarded as not fully human. She further elaborates that this approach is Aristotelian in theory.
Wilkinson, R. and Pickett, K. (2010). The Spirit Level: Why Equality is Better for Everyone. London: Penguin.
Erkulwater, Jennifer L. Disability Rights and the American Social Safety Net. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2006.
Although our world is becoming increasingly more technologically advanced and developed, one billion people are still expected to live in extreme poverty by 2015 (Country Comparisons). As long as humanity has existed, there have been impoverished people left behind in the wake of advancement. Many philosophical theories have been published attempting to solve global poverty, and while some are better than others, they all draw attention to various facets of the issue. Famous theories have built upon one another, giving the next generation new ideas to sift through and ultimately attempt to uncover a viable option to help those in need. The recently introduced Capabilities Approach published by economist Amartya Sen and philosopher supported by Martha Nussbaum gives the most applicable solution to a continuingly complicated problem. While revolutionary, the Capabilities Approach was only conceivable due to centuries of meticulous contemplation of a global issue spanning millennia.
Louis P. Pojman and Robert Westmoreland, eds., Equality: Selected Readings (New York: Oxford University Press, USA, 1997), 33.
Why is it that a person has to offset his initial gain for the betterment of others? Rawls proposes this idea as the criterion for his second principle, the difference principle. What I argue however, is that the difference principle proposes to remove inequality from society but fails in this endeavor due to retaining enough inequality to benefit the disadvantaged, leaving the principle defective in its nature. This will be the question analyzed in this essay where I will first explain the two principles proposed by Rawls as well as the lexical order or priority, which is a central feature within A Theory of Justice. I...
“The world holds enough to satisfy everyone’s need but not everyone’s greed,” Mahatma Gandhi once astutely observed. In a few carefully chosen words, Gandhi pointed out the reason behind economic tension. For example, “Poverty, hunger, homelessness, illiteracy, preventable disease, polluted air and water, and most of the other ills that beset humanity have the same root cause: the inequitable distribution of the planet's wealth and resources” (Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, All social and economic problems caused by an unfair distribution of wealth). Additionally, our economic system—unregulated capitalism—advocates and defends a wantonly unequal distribution of wealth. For instance in 2010, “The top 400 people (.0000013% of the population) held more wealth than the bottom 60% combined” (Brian Rogel, Unequal Distribution of Wealth). The top 1 percent has grown richer while inversely affecting the general population. “From 1983-2009 the bottom 60% have had a decrease in both their perce...
"Disability the facts." New Internationalist Nov. 2013: 20+. Advanced Placement Government and Social Studies Collection. Web. 27 May 2014.
Through the courses that I have taken thus far, I have learned about and experienced many rewards of teaching for social justice. However, I have also learned about the challenges of teaching for social justice, such as mismatches, racial stigmas, and avoiding oppressive teaching, to name a few. From course readings, the dispositions, and real-life situations, I have been able to grasp the understanding of being a teacher for social justice.
http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/dcp171778_270487.pdf [Accessed 28/01/14]. Scotch, R (1989) From Good Will to Civil Rights: Transforming federal disability policy. Temple University Press: Philadelphia, PA. Shakespeare, T (2006) Disability: Rights and Wrongs.
Before I continue, it is important to note the distinction that Singer makes between “equal considerations” and “equal treatment”. For Singer, “equal consideration for different beings may lead to different treatment and different rights”. The principle of equality “does not imply that we must treat two groups in exactly the same way, or grant exactly the same rights t...
“Social Justice in Education” by R. W. Connell discusses the role of education in society and the implications that social justice issues have on education. Connell begins by establishing that education and social justice can be examined separately yet they are inescapably linked through the social medium of their implementation. “Education concerns schools, colleges and universities, whose business is to pass knowledge on to the next generation. Social justice is about income, employment, pensions or physical assets like housing.”(Connell, 1993) Three points validating the equal importance of social justice and the education system to people of all delineations are: 1.) in Western society public schools are key forums of social interaction and comprise some of the largest social institutions 2.) educational institutions are highly economic bodies and have become “major public assets” (Connell, 1993) 3.) teaching becomes a vehicle by which society is ultimately determined and has a great influence over society’s morality. Connell describes the meaning of justice in education as being “a question of fairness in distribution… equality.”(Connell, 1993) “Justice cannot be achieved by distributing the same… standard good to… all social classes.”(Connell, 1993) By stating this, Connell summarizes that in the attempt to achieve equality, unequal means must be employed.
Every day in America, a woman loses a job to a man, a homosexual high school student suffers from harassment, and someone with a physical or mental disability is looked down upon. People with disabilities make up the world’s largest and most disadvantaged minority, with about 56.7 million people living with disabilities in the United States today (Barlow). In every region of the country, people with disabilities often live on the margins of society, deprived of some of life’s fundamental experiences. They have little hope of inclusion within education, getting a job, or having their own home (Cox). Everyone deserves a fair chance to succeed in life, but discrimination is limiting opportunities and treating people badly because of their disability.