The term “social justice” has existed since the 1840s and has continued to transform over the years. “Global justice” is simply another in a long line of interchangeable prefixes such as “national justice”, “economic justice” etc that precede the word justice. A plethora of policies are advocated under the name of “global justice”. This paper will consider the more popular proposal of income redistribution and consider its intellectual foundation and how it relates to justice, as well as its real world implications.
The most apparent and theoretically, the most easily overcome obstacle inherent in this idea is the very definition of the term “social justice”. As the years go by the term grows to encompass an ever increasing number of issues. It can mean anything from income redistribution to AIDS prevention. For some contemporary examples, the student activist group Global Justice1 has no definition of the term it so prominently uses as its name yet states that its purpose deals with “AIDS, trade and child survival”. Nowhere does the organization attempt to explain why their particular stand on those particular issues has anything to do with “global justice”. USC professor Robin D.G. Kelley is the executive editor of the “Social Justice Wiki”2. The stated objective of the online encyclopedia is to document various activist groups and movements3. Any attempt to discern any further insight of the term 'social justice' from the very encyclopedia dedicated to its name will result in failure as there is no indication as to why those specific groups fall under the banner of social justice and other groups do not, except for purely subjective and arbitrary guidelines4.
The pervasiveness and the emptiness of the term speak volumes ab...
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...e on “society”, but rather we have a clear case of who is being unjust to whom. The incredible irony of this situation would be that this legitimate and justifiable form of 'global justice' (in which case the guilty parties were unjust in their individual conduct and are clearly identified) would usually be invoked in order to counter policies enacted precisely under the justification of “social justice”. Perhaps “social justice” activists can redeem themselves of this past error, but only if they begin advocating against the injustice of trade barriers and immigration restrictions; for that is the only valid application of “justice on a global scale”. Any other justification for income redistribution leads to innocent individuals who justly acquired their material wealth, unjustly forced to pay compensation for the suffering of others they had no part in promoting.
Theories of global distributive justice address the following sorts of questions. Should we feel morally concerned about the large gap between the developing countries and the developed countries? What duty do us citizens have to provide assistance to the global poor? And what scale should we take the duties to?
Playing a role in the fight for social justice is not nearly as immediate or direct a positive change. Matters of life and death are much more simple than those concerning the complex socioeconomic and political nuances of racial and gender inequality.
In the article - Social Justice & the Global Economy, Pranab Bardhan examines whether social justice can survive the predatory onslaught of globalization? According to him, all is not lost, and much is within our grasp, even though globalization poses a compelling threat towards achieving equity and social justice. I wish to take some of the cogent points raised by him further in their scope.
Income inequality not only harms us fiscally, but also affects our mental and physical wellbeing; therefore, it is important to identify the right ways to control wealth distribution among people.
In the Social justice system, there is a conglomerate of individuals that are motivated to question injustices along with advocating against the biases that society afflicts on a diverse population. Subsequently, these Individuals promote social justice and seek positive solutions for a designated population. In addition, social justice promotes advocacy and inhibits a humanitarian approach.
The concept of social justice means finding justice for all genders and races that have been mistreated whether it is physical, mentally, or verbally by others. Social justice is stopping inequality within society and helping others that fall from injustice towards society. With social justice provided, it helps make the world a just, sustainable, fair place. The most effective method for a positive change is taking time and doing activities with each other to understand individual’s belief, and their identity. In addition, respecting and accepting the way an individual identify their selves can create a positive change.
In the United States, the gap between the rich and the poor has been substantially increasing over the years. This growth between the rich and poor illustrates the wealth inequality between the social classes in our nation. Although it is impractical to precisely measure the morality of wealth inequality, we can use philosophical thought to determine what makes a political and economic system just. By analyzing the theories of political philosophers, Robert Nozick and John Rawls, it is clear that wealth inequality is morally justified, as long as equal opportunity and concern for justice among a society is provided under certain conditions.
Throughout several readings on social justice, various views was communicated by individual that align themselves along a liberal or a conservative liberal position. A central theme arose that centered on the different values held and how these values define their view of social justice. Likewise, with each attitude expressed, the risk for vulnerable individuals was explored as was the need for social protection
Although globalization induces worldwide inequality in many aspects such as educational inequality and income inequality, the most serious one is income inequality since it exacerbates the wealth gap and consequently causes severe social problems. The world GDP has risen from 36 percent to 55 percent since 1980 as a result of the expanding world trade caused by globalization (Lall, Jaumotte, Papageorgiou & Topalova, 2007). Global Domestic income has increased, but the income distribution across the continents appears to be unequal. For instance, in the United States (U.S.), among the income distribution, the bottom 20 percent have an income boost of only 3.7 percent while the top 5 percent enjoy an income boost of 57 percent (Kearney, 2014). Furthermore, this widened wealth gap makes the people in poverty become poorer and has resulted in many serious social problems. According to Thorbecke and Charumilind (2002), the crime rate may become higher since “legal wages represent the opportunity cost to crime”. Also, because the level of income has a positive and explicit correlation with the health condition, the poor’s average life expectancy may become shorter. Therefore, the income inequality is severe since it increases the wealth gap and gen...
Feminist theory, in particular, has influenced my sense of social justice and helped me discover my personal sense of social activism. Feminism, by definition, is a social justice movement. Its four main philosophies (liberal feminism, cultural feminism, radical feminism, and socialist feminism), as explained by Jones-Smith (2012) focus on equality. Of the four philosophies, I was very interested in social feminism. Socialist feminist has a goal of “change in institutional and social relationships” (Jones-Smith, 2012, p.365). I relate strongly to this philosophy as I believe that in order to attain social justice, change must be made at an institutional and political level. This philosophy has largely influenced my definition of social justice in the field of
Defined by the NASW (2016), social justice is the idea that everyone is entitled to equal economic, political, and social rights and opportunities. This is one of the main goals social workers aim to achieve. There are many injustices occurring in the world today, such as wage inequalities, institutional racism, and the amount of people living in poverty. Fighting for social justice is fighting for equality in all of these
Social justice is the fair and just relation between the individual and society. This is measured by the explicit and tacit terms for the distribution of wealth, opportunities for personal activity and social privileges. In western as well as in Asian cultures, the concept of social justice has often referred to the process of ensuring that individuals fulfill their societal roles and receive what was their due from society. Today social justice lies in between the balance of chaos and insanity. In what possible way could law enforcement be viewed as criminals while professional athletes who show no respect to the country that pays them millions of dollars be viewed as political figures and heroes?
...nly distributed, and no traces of economic justice even exist. People living in poverty need some kind of hope, some sign that their government has not forgotten them. The truth is, there are plenty of people who do care, and there are many efforts to help. The discrepancies are simply too big to go unnoticed, and a change is inevitable. As for right now, the trend continues. The rich get super-richer, the poor get poorer
Capeheart, L., Milovanovic, D. (2007). Social Justice: Theories, Issues and Movements. USA: Rutgers University Press
This is because interpretations of socioeconomic rights on an international level are regarded as too expansive, going further than what it means to be free from poverty. To be free from poverty, one would have basic subsistence necessary to lead a minimally good life. In this essay, I will argue that there is a human right to be free from poverty. I will focus primarily on the argument that poverty undermines human rights, therefore there is an implicit right to be free from poverty. An implicit right is still a right as some implied rights, depending on the legal precedent and statute, are protected by law and able override explicit rights. By considering the link between poverty and human rights intrinsic, the argument will be presented by questioning the capacity for freedom in relation to the right to liberty. I will also discuss limitations to the argument using the claimability objection to rights and how it is necessary for a right to be enforceable and have duty-bearers to be considered a right. My conclusion will be highlighted by showing that rights can be claimed as entitlements via a pre-existing social