Economic Injustice Research Articles

Capsule commentary on Anderson et al., quality of care and racial disparities in medicare among potential ACOs.

In this issue of JGIM, Anderson and colleagues report on an evaluation of the impact of physician group size (as a reflection of eligibility for Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)-defined Accountable Care Organizations [ACOs]) on racial disparities for Medicare beneficiaries.1 The investigators model the contribution of practice size, racial composition and health care quality on black-white differences in the delivery of select HEDIS measures and preventable hospitalizations for patients with diabetes and cardiovascular disease. The authors find that large, ACO-eligible practices serve a high proportion of white and high socioeconomic status (SES) beneficiaries. Large practices were associated with smaller disparity gaps in evidence-based care. There was no advantage associated with large practice groups in preventable hospitalizations. There was no consistent correlation between process quality and disparities; and the authors found larger disparities within ACO eligible groups than between them. At best, the findings represent a cautionary tale for those who believe that ACOs could address healthcare inequities and disparities.2 At worst, the findings reinforce the fears of those who predict unintended consequences and worsening disparities with the diffusion of ACOs.3 But, overall, the results of the study are not surprising. High SES and non-minority patients have historically received care in health systems with adequate resources and high quality care delivery.4 Under the current CMS definition, developing ACOs may merely represent consolidation of smaller provider groups that retain old, highly variable and potentially discriminatory practice patterns. This may explain why within-group disparities were generally more pronounced than between-group disparities. In 2006, Samuel RG Finlayson suggested that in order to truly address disparities, we must end the racial discrimination and economic injustice of the society in which the US healthcare system functions.5 Until that time, policymakers must remain vigilant and consider the rational design of incentivized programs that reward ACO’s for promoting health equity and reducing disparities in care. Based on the work by Anderson, and colleagues, it is quite clear that increasing practice size without enforcing change in practice patterns is simply not enough.

Redistribution, recognition, power: Austerity or an alternative Kaleckian feminist macroeconomic model in the EU?

The aim of this paper is twofold. The first is to highlight the regressive impacts on gender equality in Europe of the EU’s macroeconomic model and governance, despite the claims in official EU do­cuments that the intention is to close the gender gap, with reference to research into gender and gender-blind austerity policies and feminist commentary on the social content of macroeconomic policies. The second aim is to assess these processes from both a political-philosophical and an economic perspective. From a political-philosophical perspective this paper aims to update Nancy Fraser’s focus on “redistribu­tion/recognition”, in order to show how the austerity paradigm – by increasing economic disadvantages for women – prevents women’s equal participation in the public sphere and fosters political practices of “institu­tio­na­lized misrecognition”. The review of Fraser’s analytical perspective serves to highlight the com­­plici­ty between economic injustice and maldistribution (exploitation, female economic marginaliza­tion, insecurity, female unemployment) and cultural injustice and misrecognition, and to focus attention on the fundamental need for gender-aware distributional policies. In a Feminist-Post-Keynesian/Kaleckian eco­no­­mic paradigm, new research emphasizes the economic relevance of gender-aware redistribution, star­ting from a range of hypotheses. At the same time, in this theoretical perspective, the inherently confron­tational nature of gender-aware distribution policies is shown. The interdisciplinary approach propo­sed in this paper provides an analytical framework for debating women’s political claims in Europe

A Catholic Perspective on Capitalism and Economic Democracy: Edward M. Marciniak’s Advocacy for Justice

Edward M. Marciniak (1917-2004) was a labor activist and crusader for justice who left his mark on Catholic social action in his native Chicago and beyond. What began as a personal response to depression-era problems evolved into a vocation to challenge the systemic causes of social and economic injustice. He built on his experiences as a Catholic Worker to found the Catholic Labor Alliance in Chicago and dedicated himself to educating workers, employers, and public officials to undertake economic reforms. While he recognized the failures of communism, he did not substitute anti-communism for patriotism. Rather he called for an economic justice that recognized the rights of workers and those of management as an alternative to the unrestricted individualism of American capitalism. His solution was to support economic democracy, often known as the Industrial Council Plan, wherein the interests of workers, management, and government were balanced in a partnership aimed at the common good. As leader of Catholic Labor Alliance and editor of its paper, Work , he was not unique in Catholic social action. However, his blend of idealism and realism, grounded by life in the labor movement trenches and daily rubbing shoulders with the victims of injustice was uncommon. This realism with his constancy and drive made him a voice to be reckoned with in Catholic social action.

Interactions between the government and Diasporas: the West-African case of Cameroon

This paper titled ‘Interactions between the government and Diasporas: The West-African case of Cameroon’ gives a fillips of some countries across the globe and the negative manner in which they deal with their Diaspora. Most of these issues come up due to the challenges being posed by most Diasporas, which are more observatories for development and change with the political, economic and social situations in most African countries, where democracy has refused to take its course and the leadership structures have become an inherited phenomenon. Positive criticisms cannot come from within their respective communities for fear of being arrested and assaulted; those in the Diaspora are the ‘power force’ to objectively denounce the political, social and the economic injustices going within their respective countries. The paper further emphasised on the neglect, if not refusal for the government to allow community strategies in open platforms/symposia's or conferences for their Diaspora to come home for a roundtable … which would have an impact on change, prospects and developmental strategies for their respective home countries. Significantly enough, the paper will X-ray much and direct examples on the West African Country of Cameroons’ political, social and economic situations, which her Diasporas have been demanding an opportunity for government proposals to be involved in its change and development strategies. In specific terms, the Cameroon government has not shown interest or has refused/neglected its interaction with her Diaspora due to their challenging ideas of change and growth.

Editors’ Note: The Teaching Poor

To admit to one's own poverty and debt, as an academic, is to step into a minefield of shame and self-doubt, even within circles. To be sure, many scholars have labored intensely to document structural economic injustice around the globe, and a large number of academics productively extend their research into practices of advocacy and activism. Most of us have been trained to recognize that the personal is the political. That does not necessarily make it easier to disclose that one is in debt or struggling to pay one's bills, particularly to colleagues or advisors. Poverty is something that happens to someone else, or that one can proudly claim to have overcome in the historical past (neoliberal-bootstrap stories abound, but they can also function as a moral reproach to those currently in debt, a status that still smacks of a personal failure). Poverty is something we research, not something we experience or are complicit in, certainly not within our own departments.And yet many of us are in debt and struggling with poverty. Contingent faculty comprise the majority of the academic workforce, and fewer and fewer PhDs entering the field can expect to find fulltime employment. Most students in the United States graduate in debt, and they owe significantly more than in previous years.1 The economic crisis in academia disproportionately impacts women, who are paid less than their male colleagues (based both on rank and overrepresentation at lower-paying institutions), are less likely to receive tenure, are more likely to head single-parent households, and are more likely to work as contingent faculty, particularly in the humanities (Schell 1998; Mason and Goulden 2004; Finley 2009). Even those who secure coveted tenure-track positions are not immune from the economic crisis, particularly when teaching at public institutions where research and travel funds are limited and workloads are heavy. The line between contingent and fulltime faculty blurs, too, when one considers that many tenure track faculty began their careers as adjuncts, accruing increased debt along the way.With so much at stake, it is critical for scholarship to address the economic crisis within academia head-on. As evidenced by the heated exchanges that have recently erupted via social media, the process will be a painful one (Potter 2013; Schuman 2013). Yet those among us who have the privilege of job security bear a responsibility-to the students we are training and the contingent faculty who support our positions-to advocate for more equitable working conditions and a sustainable field. To do so, however, requires confronting a seemingly insurmountable and deeply entrenched system, one in which we are all insidiously imbricated. We are in dire need of a frank conversation about the nature of debt, about its history and temporal nuances, about the ways in which it binds and severs ties between various actants, about its psychological machinations, and our own participation within its cycles.Rosalind Petchesky and Meena Alexanders intervention into these waters could not be more timely. Debt offers an inspired and often startling take on the multifaceted nature of indebtedness. These range from Monica Johnsons graphic novel depicting the struggles of a loan-burdened graduate, to Nell Painters meditation on Beloved, to a roster of chapters grappling with questions of reparations, refusals, credit, feminist indebtedness, gratitude, and the fraught economies of care-based labor. The global focus of these interdisciplinary efforts, which include significant and queer critiques of prevailing discourses on debt, dovetail into both activist and artistic proposals for upending paradigms of obligation. It is a collection that significantly advances our understanding of the gendered nature of debt. …

Kebijakan Distribusi Ekonomi Islam dalam Membangun Keadilan Ekonomi Indonesia

Market has always been part of development in Indonesia and in any country in that matter. How far development will succeed depends very much therefore on the nature of market. Well-managed market will certainly affect the process of development. This paper deals with the relationship between market and development with particular attention to the notion of justice. It argues that in Indonesia economic injustice is the main cause for the failure of development for many decades. The paper tries to show the many indicators of that injustice which includes among others, the unequal distribution of wealth among the citizens. The paper then moves to the economic system of Islam which –it argues- is based on the concept of justice, and maintains that this Islamic system can be both the solution and alternative for the ailing Indonesian economy.

Worker–intellectual unity: Trans-border sociological intervention in Foxconn

What are the implications for global public sociology and labor studies when more than a score of Foxconn workers jump to their death and when a wave of protests, riots and strikes occur in their wake? This article documents the formation of a cross-border sociological intervention project and illustrates how sociological research fueled regional campaigns that gradually developed into a global campaign. This experience confirms the premise that ‘social science’ should never be separated from ‘politics.’ The authors also shed light on how social and economic injustice was creatively challenged by combining the strengths of workers, researchers and transnational movement activists. The study uses both quantitative (semi-structured questionnaires) and qualitative (in-depth interviews and participation observation) methods to gain insights concerning the experiences, world views and collective agency of Chinese workers who are struggling to make sense of the global production regime they inhabit and to contest the forces that shape their working and social lives.

Cultural Organizing as Critical Praxis: Tamejavi Builds Immigrant Voice, Belonging, and Power

Established in 1998, the American Friends Service Committee's Pan Valley Institute (PVI) is a popular education center located in Fresno, California. Since its inception, PVI has placed a high value on what immigrants bring with them to this country—their experiences, abilities, and cultural practices, which are often informed by prolonged and daily struggles against economic and social injustice. This article profiles PVI's “cultural organizing” work that supports immigrant cultural leaders representing the Valley's diverse populations. In conclusion, three contributions are highlighted that the Tamejavi approach brings to academic conversations about art as social practice.

The Suffering of Economic Injustice: A Christian Perspective

The Suffering of Economic Injustice:A Christian Perspective Ulrich Duchrow Together we are facing a global kairos of humanity because these years are decisive for whether our civilization will irreversibly continue to produce death or whether we find a way out toward a life-enhancing new culture. So let me try to make a humble contribution to our common search for liberation from suffering toward life through justice. suffering caused by economic injustice in the axial age and in the capitalist civilization of modernity We do not need to spend much time on describing the sufferings caused by economic injustice. They cry to high heaven every day. Jean Ziegler, the former UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, speaks of more than 60 million people dying of hunger and its consequences every year, especially children, although there is more than enough to feed them. That is an annual World War II against the poor. He continues to say: “A child that dies of hunger is murdered.” He calls this a daily crime against humanity.1 Others call it structural genocide.2 All these victims are human beings with a human face, according to biblical tradition created in the image of God. So we are talking about murdering living images of God, about blasphemy. Also, the blue planet Earth’s suffering is growing dramatically. The extinction of species is accelerating, desertification is expanding, the poisoning of water and soil is increasing, and climate change is producing irreversible effects like lifting the sea level, devouring islands in the Pacific and growing parts of Bangladesh, creating weather disasters everywhere, and possibly increasing temperature in parts of Africa by ten degrees. We all know this, but so far we have not been able to make the necessary changes in global economics and politics to stop or at least slow it. Often forgotten are the psychological and spiritual sufferings and diseases of a growing number of people. In India an average of more than fifty farmers, driven into debt beyond their means, commit suicide daily out of despair.3 Workers suffer increasing stress and anxiety, and middle-class people fall into depression, projected to be the second most common illness in 2020, according the World Health Organization. So what are the roots of all of this? [End Page 27] My thesis is that what we are experiencing now started nearly three thousand years ago within what is called the Axial Age, beginning in the eighth century bce, in the whole of Eurasia from Greece to China. At that time a new economy started to appear in daily life, built on money and private property. It had tremendous social as well as psychological and spiritual effects. To analyze what happened then helps us understand what is happening today. Looking at the responses to this development by the different faiths and philosophies in Israel/Judah, India, China, and Greece may also help us to better understand the tasks and possibilities of engaged Buddhists and liberation theologians in our age. The philosopher Karl Jaspers coined the term “Axial Age.”4 According to him, the experience of violent crises between 800 and 200 bce might have prompted the parallel efforts of the prophets, the Buddha, Confucius, Daoism, and Greek philosophy to find new foundations for living together. He characterized the new approach as intellectual and spiritual (geistig), looking only marginally at the economic and political context. Recently Karen Armstrong and, based on her findings, Jeremy Rifkin took up this theory, looking particularly at war and violence as causes for the responses within the different cultures.5 Also José María Vigil, who is present here, has just published a chapter in his book on Theology of Axiality and Axial Theology.6 As far as the sociohistoric context of the Axial Age is concerned my thesis comes nearest to what David Graeber has worked out in his book Debt: The First 5,000 Years,7 although he is not very interested in the religious responses. Combining his insights with my own research,8 let me summarize how the new economy affects ancient societies. Money as unit of account was used in the palaces and temples of Mesopotamia as early...

Economic Injustice as an Understanding of the Existence of Two Americas—Wealth and Poverty

This essay speaks to government policies, the practices of the corporate sector, the inherited wealth of the few, and the consumptive behavior of the masses as the underlying causes of economic injustice. This is perceived as leading the country to an oligarchy.

Christian Ethics and Human Trafficking Activism: Progressive Christianity and Social Critique

This essay argues that the antitrafficking movement's dominant rhetorical and conceptual framework of human trafficking as sold sex has significant limitations that deserve greater critical moral reflection. This framework overlooks key issues of social and economic injustice, and eclipses the experiences of marginalized people and communities, including immigrants and gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, intersex, and queer people, whose welfare and empowerment have been key concerns for progressive people of faith. By asking what insights progressive Christian social ethics might contribute to shaping alternative perspectives on antitrafficking analysis and activism, we explore progressive Christian critiques of neoliberalism and feminist critiques of the hetero-normative family as resources for crafting analyses of and responses to human trafficking that foreground queer, feminist, and antiracist commitments.

Editors’ Introduction

Editors’ Introduction Rita M. Gross and Terry C. Muck Returning to be guest editors of this journal for a short period of time, we are delighted to present such a rich 2014 issue. In April 2013, Union Theological Seminary in New York City welcomed a distinguished international group of scholars, theologians, and other commentators to a gathering of engaged Buddhists and Christian liberation theologians. Those of us who attended were invited for a conference that also celebrated the career and retirement of Paul Knitter, of the Union Seminary faculty and one of the great voices for Buddhist-Christian interchange in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. We were delighted when Paul took up a suggestion from Sallie King, the conference keynote speaker, that this journal publish some of the papers from that conference. Paul agreed and quickly expedited Sallie’s suggestion, clearing the way for this journal to publish the comments found in these pages. We are grateful to Sallie, Paul, and everyone else who made this a smooth and easy transition into our guest editorship. They made possible a wonderful issue. The conference itself, which Rita attended as one of the invited speakers, was a wonderful celebration of collegiality and friendship across continents, religions, generations, disciplines, and social concerns, as the table of contents for this issue will quickly demonstrate. Friendship and collegiality were enhanced by the fact that participants lived together in guest rooms at Union Seminary and ate together there, dining on a variety of ethnic cuisines. In addition to many distinguished speakers, only some of whom are represented in these pages, the event featured music, dance, liturgy, and meditation from a wide variety of religious and cultural traditions. The print medium of this journal cannot begin to capture all the richness provided by this conference. Nevertheless, we are delighted to bring some flavor of the conference to you through the papers selected for this issue of the journal. This conference also demonstrated what many would regard as a significant advance in what Buddhist-Christian interchange involves from standard fare in the earlier days of that encounter. Some will remember that this journal, founded by David Chappell in 1980, grew directly out of one of the first large English-language international gatherings dedicated to Buddhist-Christian interchange, which took place in Hawai’i and was also organized by David Chappell. That first issue of this journal published some papers from that early conference, including Rita’s. That paper was one of the very earliest statements on feminism and Buddhism, but papers dedicated to joint pursuit of solutions to large-scale social problems were much less [End Page vii] in evidence in those early years. The field has grown, such that subdisciplines within Buddhist-Christian interchange are now commonplace and no one is surprised that we can easily dedicate a whole issue of this journal simply to Engaged Buddhism and Christian liberation theology. We also take pride in the fact that both that very first issue and this issue, as well as many issues in between, contain articles and essays on gender and feminism. We take pride in this fact because even engaged Buddhists and Christian liberation theologians often forget that sexism in its many varieties, including heteronormativity, ranks very high among the causes of human misery. In addition, the conference and contributors to this issue took on issues of economic injustice, racism, and environmental degradation. Others spoke directly out of and about the experiences of those who suffer from those types of injustice. Theological and spiritual responses to those injustices are also presented. Conference organizer and newly minted PhD Kyeongil Jung and keynote speaker Sallie King present overviews of the conference itself and of interchanges between engaged Buddhists and Christian liberation theologians. Honoree Paul Knitter closed the conference with a moving tribute to his many friends in the worlds of engaged Buddhism and Christian liberation theology and an account of what he has learned from them over the many years we have all worked together. This set of conference papers is followed by a varied collection of book reviews and the News and Views section, thanks to Sid Brown, book review editor, and Jonathan Seitz...

The Suffering of Economic Injustice: A Response to Ulrich Duchrow and David Loy

The Suffering of Economic Injustice: A Response to Ulrich Duchrow and David Loy

Poverty, wealth and ecology – A theological perspective

Reflecting on poverty, wealth and ecology – and connecting it with a call for social and environmental transformation – demands an understanding of the present and at the same time a vision of a transformed future. For this reason this the essay takes as point of departure a fictitious newspaper report on a conference in 2100 that reflects on the history of the world over the past century, a history of exploding globalization, economic injustice, massive growth in the divide between rich and poor and increased ecological degradation. All of this, according to the report, lead to a gradual global change in consciousness and efforts to address these challenges to make the twenty-first century an age of global transformation towards a true “world society”. In light of this fictitious future, our societies, but especially also our churches, and where they find themselves today are reflected upon. Then some of the sources we come from, beginning with the Bible and continuing onto some of the rich traditions of our churches is followed by an appeal for overcoming certain false alternatives in how we as churches act in a developing global civil society.

The Impact of Nationalism on Civlisational Development and Human Security: Works of Said Nursi and Musa Jarullah

This essay is an attempt to outline the ideology of nationalism, its types and impact on the well-being of societies from the viewpoints of two Muslim intellectuals, Said Nursi and Musa Jarullah. Based on the predictions of these two scholars and the current political developments, it identifies the ideas of negative nationalism and racism to be one of the main reasons behind moral corruption, social, political and economic injustice prevalent in the modern world; and it offers some solutions to bring compassion, security, peace and harmony to humankind. The essay suggests that the universal principles of peace, fairness and virtue derived from the revealed religions can produce true civilisations, and offer true happiness and harmony to all members of the society regardless of their ethnic or ideological backgrounds. It also suggests that modern methods of studying political and social developments in the Muslim world should be urgently revised.

The Impact of Nationalism on Civilisational Development and Human Security : Works of Said Nursi and Musa Jārullāh

This essay is an attempt to outline the ideology of nationalism, its types and impact on the well-being of societies from the viewpoints of two Muslim intellectuals, Said Nursi and Musa JArullAh. Based on the predictions of these two scholars and the current political developments, it identifies the ideas of negative nationalism and racism to be one of the main reasons behind moral corruption, social, political and economic injustice prevalent in the modern world; and it offers some solutions to bring compassion, security, peace and harmony to humankind. The essay suggests that the universal principles of peace, fairness and virtue derived from the revealed religions can produce true civilisations, and offer true happiness and harmony to all members of the society regardless of their ethnic or ideological backgrounds. It also suggests that modern methods of studying political and social developments in the Muslim world should be urgently revised.

Performing the ‘wounded Indian’: a new platform of democracy and human rights in Bolivia’s autonomy movement

This article examines Right-wing political performances in the Bolivian Eastern lowlands where regional elites claim to be living under the authoritarian dictatorship of Left-leaning President Evo Morales. We analyse how regional elites advocate for political autonomy through embodied and spectacular performances linked to discourses of indigeneity, human rights and democracy. Right-wing leaders try to legitimise their claims for justice and territorial control by strategically aligning themselves with lowland ‘Indians’ – who are equally wounded by Morales’s plan to run a massive highway though their communities and territories. Through theatrical exhibits in the plaza and a spectacular assembly spotlighting an indigenous representative as an emblematic hero of TIPNIS, regional elites perform a shared history of marginalisation, while simultaneously presenting themselves as ‘saviors’. We argue, however, that there is a dark side to these performances, as they elide long histories of racialised labour and economic injustice in the region.

Interpreting the North African Arab Spring: Based on a Four-Stage Model of Economic Injustice and Peace

Interpreting the North African Arab Spring: Based on a Four-Stage Model of Economic Injustice and Peace

Globalization and Economic Injustice in Modern India

Globalization and Economic Injustice in Modern India

Racial Realities and Corrective Justice

Abstract I reply to Mills's critique of my effort to show the relevance of Rawls's theory of justice for thinking about and responding to racial injustices. Contrary to Mills's claims, my suggestion that the fair equality of opportunity principle can remedy socioeconomic disadvantages caused by the legacy of racial oppression is compatible with Rawls's framework, does not conflate distributive justice with corrective justice, and does not confuse racial injustice with economic injustice. I also raise doubts about Mills's project to radically reconstruct contractarian political philosophy. He seeks to displace ideal theory with nonideal theory by foregrounding the realities of past racial domination. Against this approach, I argue that an ideal theory that abstracts away from these realities is not inherently ideological, useless for corrective justice, or too ideal to guide social reform. And I defend the view that ideal theory is indispensible for nonideal theorizing about racial justice.