Toward a Pragmatic Understanding of Rawls’ Social Justice Theory in Social Work: A Critical Evaluation

Abstract

Notwithstanding its popularity, social justice has received little attention in terms of theoretical merits and shortcomings. This paper expands the literature by using the Theory Evaluation Scale (TES) to appraise Rawls’ social justice theory that is commonly used in social work. The TES is an epistemological tool that critically analyzes theories through nine criteria: coherence, conceptual clarity, philosophical assumptions, historical roots, testability, empiricism, scope of competence, usefulness for practice, and human agency. Results showed that social workers should continue to rely on this theory to address social issues as mandated in various national and international social work codes of ethics.