Affirmative action and social justice: Introduction

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Affirmative action programs are those that seek to redress racial and gender discrimination in the work force. Initiated 1965 in the United States, affirmative action focuses on hiring and promotion practices and on broader employment issues, such as the culture at work and effects of gender segregation in jobs (e.g., Holloway, 1989; Kilborn, 1990, 1991; Lowe and Wittig, 1989; Uchitelle, 1990). Affirmative action often elicits strong positive and negative reactions and considerable controversy. In brief, opponents claim that affirmative action unfairly disadvantages non-beneficiaries (i.e., white men) and, in addition, harms and stigmatizes beneficiaries (e.g., Sowelt, 1990; Steele, 1990; see also Nacoste, 1989). Proponents assert the important role of affirmative action in restoring justice and equal opportunity to a society that has been unable to eliminate prejudice and discrimination. Because the basis of this controversy is social justice and because this topic has worldwide relevance, affirmative action is an especially apt focus for Social Justice Research. All papers in this issue focus on affirmative action research. For some papers, affirmative action is a means, a social intervention that offers social scientists an opportunity to examine existing theories of justice. For other papers, affirmative action is an end, for which justice theory can clarify the problems of affirmative action. Papers here are roughly ordered from those whose primary focus is justice theory to those whose primary focus is affirmative action. This array, while useful, is overly simplistic. Each paper examines how theory can (or should) influence practice and at how practice can (and should) inform theory. In doing so, the papers reframe the more obvious justice question of affirmative action--"Is it fair?"--with more subtle and