Plural conceptions of social justice: implications for policy sociology

Abstract

Concern with multi-faceted or ‘plural’ conceptions of justice has grown within policy sociology. This paper briefly summarizes some of the dimensions and facets of such plural models and considers their implications for policy sociology. Three implications, in particular, are considered. It is suggested that: first, plural models of justice substantially enlarge the agenda of evaluation; second, tensions within and between different facets of justice need to be acknowledged and responded to; and third, plural models entail a collapse of the distinction between evaluation and action. The paper argues that the latter two implications are frequently overlooked in policy sociology, particularly in work with a dominant focus on critiquing educational and social reproduction in a style the paper labels ‘sociology from above’. By contrast, the paper discusses examples of scholarship that meet the challenges of plural models — scholarship that has more in common with the cultural studies tradition. In so doing, the paper indicates the importance of a ‘sociology of just practices’, and a modified ‘reflective equilibrium’ approach is identified as one means of developing such a sociology.