Social Justice And Anti-Discriminatory Practice

Social justice is one of the core aspects of social work practice and is deployed by practitioners to define their practice. However, equality and fairness are main facets of social justice and are extracted widely by social work practitioners to describe social justice which they reflect in their practice (O’Brien, 2011). Social work is commonly defined as a profession that is situated at the borders between the included and the excluded (Jordan & Parton, 2004; Sheppard, 2006). But Jordan and Parton (2004) define the practice as vague because working round the borders imply that practitioners must concentrate towards both the included and the excluded through active interactions. Nevertheless, a social work practitioner is liable to “promote

Social justice can be classified into two approaches, which are; narrow and broad. The narrow approach is related to the redistribution of wealth and is linked with class and economic inequalities. Here, there is an emphasis on the eradication or the alleviation of poverty (Lister, 2004). The broad approach is related to a much variety of social inequalities, which include; “gender, religion, language, sexuality, race, age, disability and inequality based on social categories” (Barry, 2005). An anti-discriminating practice is associated with the broader and holistic content of social justice (Ferguson, 2008). The word social justice signifies that it is more than an individual fairness, and it is more of understanding how social procedures and institutions methodically combine to create unfair consequences. Social justice is thus regarded as a socio-political subjects rather than a subject of personal ethics (Thompson and Thompson,

Such person is treated unfavourably because of their age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, marriage and civil partnership and pregnancy and maternity (Adams, Dominelli and Payne, 1998). Consequently, it can be said that individuals or groups that are socially excluded are unable to participate fully in the society due to a range of problems they are challenged with, such as unemployment, lack of skills, poor health. Simultaneously, these same people that are socially excluded are also stigmatised in the society and this will not only deepen the individual distress but will also hinder the individual from seeking necessary help. Therefore, social exclusion and discrimination could impede access to services and resources such as housing, employment, parental rights, immigration, health care and fair justice (Sayce,