Social Justice

Social justice is a term often used but rarely defined. Much more has been written about the nature of injustice than the concept of social justice. Yet, throughout history, philosophers and scholars have attempted to define this elusive idea. Aristotle envisioned social justice as a society whose benefits and burdens would be distributed fairly to achieve a basic level of goodness for all. More recently, Maurianne Adams, Lee Anne Bell, and Pat Griffin (1997), professors in the Social Justice Education Program at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, defined a socially just society as one in which all members have their basic needs met and all individuals are physically and psychologically safe and secure, able to develop to their full capabilities and to participate as effective citizens of their communities and nation. To be authentic and relevant for students, social justice education needs to begin with children's lived experiences-their concerns, hopes, and dreams-and then move toward multiple perspectives and action directed toward social change (Bigelow, Christensen, Karp, Miner, and Peterson 1994).

[Adapted from Rahima Wade's, "Citizenship for Social Justice," published in the Winter 2004 Issue of the Kappa Delta Phi Record.]

According to Young (1991) an enabling definition of social justice implies a clear vision of what this concept is intending to address: oppression. In order to maximize the understanding of of social justice Young (1990) deconstructs the large category of oppression into a set a conditions that are shared by people who “suffer some inhibition of their ability to develop and exercise their capacities and express their needs, thoughts, and feelings” (p.40). She describes what she calls the five faces of oppression. They are 1) exploitation; 2) marginalization; 3) powerlessness, 4) cultural imperialism; and 5) violence. Young’s views on oppression have clear implications for the advocacy of social justice as they primarily focus on the nature of the economic system. We live and benefit from an advanced economic order that in order to succeed needs to make profit and to exploit; and that in order to expand and grow needs to create a hegemonic process that naturalizes slavery, colonization, conquest, linguistic genocide, and military intervention. It is in this context that critical educators for social justice need to frame their work.

Education is one of the most powerful institutions implicated in the process of reproduction of social inequalities, and as such, critical educators need to deal and engage with the totalizing nature of late capitalist societies manifested in the explosion of the global market, the creation of neo-liberal economic policies, and imperialism in all its form: cultural, economic, political, diplomatic, and military. Therefore, any standards, guidelines or framework for the protection of social and environmental justice must deal with an understanding of the geo-political forces that shape the current globalized economic order.

[Adapted from Marta P. Baltodano's, "Transformative Principles for Social Justice" paper presented by the AERA CESJ SIG, and portions of which will published in the Journal of Cultural Studies Critical Methodologies' Special Issue on Critical Pedagogy.]

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