Social Justice Reconsidered

Abstract

Much has been written about a research university’s responsibility to contribute towards the public good, especially in Africa. Universities in South Africa consider one of their strategic priorities to be in the realm of social impact. The authors do not want to dispute the necessity for social justice to manifest in African communities. There is no reason to deny the importance of social justice with regard to establishing equality in opportunities, alleviating the plight of the poor and marginalised, ensuring clean drinking water for the masses, making electricity available to rural communities, enhancing the opportunities for disenfranchised communities to go to the polls, and protecting oppressive societies from tyrannical governments—particularly as such dystopias unfold in several communities on the African continent. However, what the authors argue in this chapter is whether the primary tasks of an African university should be to minimise and even eradicate social injustices. Consequently, they contend that an African university should be concerned with cultivating a form of critique that resonates with witnessing so that higher education institutions can remain responsive to the disciplinary knowledge such institutions pursue, instead of focusing on what the potential impact will be on social justice. If critique as witnessing were to become the rationale of a university, such a university would invariably be concerned with an ongoing pursuit of knowledge, and it might be that the concern for social justice might be deepened. However, to argue that a university ought to be concerned primarily with social justice is to lose sight of what such institutions of higher learning should be doing.