Economic Justice Research Articles

Social work faculty attitudes towards diversity and oppression content in MSW curricula

ABSTRACT The Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) has mandated teaching both multicultural diversity and oppression content since the first decade of the 21st century. Yet, little research examines social work faculty’s attitudes toward the content they teach. A national online survey of faculty teaching in accredited MSW programs across the United States was conducted to investigate faculty’s attitudes toward content related to diversity, oppression, and social and economic justice. This paper examines (a) faculty’s attitudes toward diversity and oppression content, (b) faculty’s perceived importance of content on social groups (e.g. different social classes) compared to content on oppression (e.g. classism), and (c) the factors that predict faculty’s attitudes. Findings revealed that faculty are generally supportive of most diversity and oppression content, with some notable exceptions. However, results indicated that faculty perceive content on diversity as more important than its corresponding oppression content. Lastly, faculty who indicated that their school had more resources on diversity and oppression reported higher perceived importance of including this content in their courses. The current study reveals there can be a discrepancy between how faculty think about this content and the CSWE curriculum policy. Findings have implications for education, workshops and training for social work faculty.

Addressing race in economics: Teaching to Transgress

ABSTRACT In economics, race is often used as an explanatory variable. However, context for observed correlations is not often discussed and when it is, the discussion truncates history to the 1960’s and the era of the Civil Rights movement. The latter is consistent with the projection that regulation has limited or eliminated racial disparity and therefore, other factors, cultural and individual, account for observed economic status. However, the evidence to counter this is observable. For example, to the extent that the intergenerational impact of oppression is factored into economic analysis, and qualitative attributes such as anxiety and depression are incorporated into the explanation for the persistence of poverty, social norms rather than race are revealed to be the contributors to present period variations in economic outcomes. Inspired by bell hooks’ Teaching to Transgress we address how the teaching of economics has contributed to the normalization of racialized discrimination. We then address how the economics curriculum can be used as a tool to facilitate racial equity. The discussion adds value to the discourse on race by addressing how the commoditization of teaching has eliminated classroom engagement and critical thinking and concludes with the value of transgression in addressing social justice in economics.

Sparky and Rhonda Rucker at Govans Music Mondays

Sparky and Rhonda Rucker at Govans Music Mondays

Senator Elbert Thomas and the Hope for Industrial Equity

Senator Elbert Thomas and the Hope for Industrial Equity

The Boltzmann fair division for distributive justice

Fair division is a significant, long-standing problem and is closely related to social and economic justice. The conventional division methods such as cut-and-choose are hardly applicable to real-world problems because of their complexity and unrealistic assumptions about human behaviors. Here we propose a fair division method from a completely different perspective, using the Boltzmann division. The mathematical model of the Boltzmann division was developed for both homogeneous and heterogeneous cake-cutting problems, and the realistic human factors (contributions, needs, and preferences) of the multiple participating players could be successfully integrated. The Boltzmann division was then optimized by maximizing the players’ total utility. We show that the Boltzmann fair division is a division method favorable to the socially disadvantaged or underprivileged, and it is drastically simple yet highly versatile and can be easily fine-tuned to directly apply to a variety of social, economic, and political division problems.

THE ROLE OF LEADING SECTOR IN REALIZING INCLUSIVE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN NORTH CENTRAL TIMOR DISTRICT

Inclusive economic development prioritizes equity in order to realize economic justice for all. Therefore, each local government is expected to be able to optimize the leading sector so that it can act as the locomotive of the regional economy. This study aims to determine changes and shifts in the economic sector and then formulate appropriate strategies in developing leading sectors in realizing quality development in North Central Timor Regency. The analytical tools used are Shift Share analysis, Klassen typology and SWOT analysis. The type of data used is primary data for the needs of SWOT analysis and secondary data for the needs of shift share analysis and classification typology, especially GRDP and Employment data per sector from 2015-2020. The results of the study show that the agricultural sector is the leading sector because it has the largest contribution value in the formation of GRDP but on the other hand it also holds various poverty problems in it. From these conditions, the results of the SWOT Analysis recommend the right policy in an effort to realize inclusive development is the Strength–Opportunity (SO) Strategy where the government is expected to take advantage of the strengths of the agricultural sector by looking at all aspects of the opportunities that exist.

Op-Ed: Failing to Bend the Arc of the Moral Universe? Dr. King, Newton, Piaget, and Social Work

To achieve a more just universe, the momentum and historical forces of racism, sexism, heterosexism, privilege, etc. must be met with equal and opposite forces through policies, structures, and the courageous acts and voices of many. Dr. King’s claim that “the moral universe bends toward justice” is joined with Newton’s Laws of Motion where arcs only bend through external forces. Bending the arc necessitates a large membership, including social workers. Membership in a group confers advantages while simultaneously ushering in implicit biases against those outside of the group ultimately disadvantaging both groups. Educating tomorrow’s social workers necessarily involves ingroup and outgroup membership, instructors and students. We argue well-meaning social work educators often act against Social Work’s mission of producing a cadre of individuals who will pull the arc toward social and economic justice. Students in social work programs, eager to pull on the moral arc, are often criticized for being inexperienced and not further along in their “woke” development. Criticism may discourage students, thereby losing needed ingroup members. Students are canceled. Algebra, evolutionary theory, and cognitive development theories provide guidelines for unifying social work educators and students to promote Dr. King’s vision.

Algorithmic harms and digital ageism in the use of surveillance technologies in nursing homes.

Ageism has not been centered in scholarship on AI or algorithmic harms despite the ways in which older adults are both digitally marginalized and positioned as targets for surveillance technology and risk mitigation. In this translation paper, we put gerontology into conversation with scholarship on information and data technologies within critical disability, race, and feminist studies and explore algorithmic harms of surveillance technologies on older adults and care workers within nursing homes in the United States and Canada. We start by identifying the limitations of emerging scholarship and public discourse on “digital ageism” that is occupied with the inclusion and representation of older adults in AI or machine learning at the expense of more pressing questions. Focusing on the investment in these technologies in the context of COVID-19 in nursing homes, we draw from critical scholarship on information and data technologies to deeply understand how ageism is implicated in the systemic harms experienced by residents and workers when surveillance technologies are positioned as solutions. We then suggest generative pathways and point to various possible research agendas that could illuminate emergent algorithmic harms and their animating force within nursing homes. In the tradition of critical gerontology, ours is a project of bringing insights from gerontology and age studies to bear on broader work on automation and algorithmic decision-making systems for marginalized groups, and to bring that work to bear on gerontology. This paper illustrates specific ways in which important insights from critical race, disability and feminist studies helps us draw out the power of ageism as a rhetorical and analytical tool. We demonstrate why such engagement is necessary to realize gerontology's capacity to contribute to timely discourse on algorithmic harms and to elevate the issue of ageism for serious engagement across fields concerned with social and economic justice. We begin with nursing homes because they are an understudied, yet socially significant and timely setting in which to understand algorithmic harms. We hope this will contribute to broader efforts to understand and redress harms across sectors and marginalized collectives.

Seizing the Populist Moment: Towards a New Penal Politics?

AbstractIn the context of rising populism across the globe, penal populism has returned with a vengeance. However, somewhat paradoxically, this paper asks if the populist moment may be regarded as an opportunity rather than a threat when it comes to promoting less punitive solutions to the crime problem. This is a moment that appears to be marked by a strong desire for increased popular participation in politics, as exemplified by the gilets jaunes movement in France. It is argued that democratization of the policy-making process through greater representativity and accountability could respond to this desire while promoting justice, especially by refocussing attention away from punishment and demonstrating how political, social, economic and legal justice are inextricably linked together.

Youth Perceptions of Their Futures, Society, and the Work Landscape: A Psychology of Working Perspective

In recognition of growing economic inequality and rapid transformation in the world of work, we seek to understand how young people perceive their futures to develop career development education that supports both personal goals and promotes social and economic justice. Thirty-six students attending high-performing high schools in the United States ( n = 19) and Israel ( n = 17) were interviewed to assess their espoused future plans and conceptions of work and society. Consistent with the psychology of working theory, students' plans were reflective of the social, economic, national, and historical contexts in which they are embedded. US and Israeli students expressed optimism and anxieties about their futures, along with recognition of social and economic inequalities and limited motivation and awareness of how to effect social change. The findings are discussed with regard to implications for career development education and the promotion of social and economic justice.

The Radical Civil Rights Movement: The Highlander Folk School and the Legacies of the Left in Cold War America

Abstract In the spring of 1965, hundreds of billboards arose across the American South purporting to show Dr Martin Luther King Jr at a ‘Communist training school’. By tracing the history of that infamous image, this article examines how civil rights activists fought against racist propaganda, and argues that the legacies of the American Left remained vital to the civil rights movement despite Cold War repression. At the centre of this story is the Highlander Folk School, an integrated institution in the hills of Tennessee, at which the photo was taken. Highlander’s democratic approach to education created a space in which Leftist ideas and strategies could coalesce, a space that stood in sharp contrast to both the fantasy of a ‘Communist training school’ and the anti-communist segregationists who propagated that fantasy. Both in the content of its workshops and the manner in which they were organized, Highlander preserved the heritage of the American Left in ways that help to explain how many civil rights activists came to reject Communism and the Red Scare, to embrace civil liberties and economic justice, and to respect local traditions of African American resistance and expansive anti-colonial solidarities.

The Labor Angle: Reflections on the History of the Working-Class and Radical Press

The Labor Angle: Reflections on the History of the Working-Class and Radical Press

America's Public Philosopher: Essays on Social Justice, Economics, Education, and the Future of Democracy

America's Public Philosopher: Essays on Social Justice, Economics, Education, and the Future of Democracy

Decolonizations, Colonizations, and More Decolonizations: The End of Empire in Time and Space

In the 1950s and 1960s, colonial empires turned into what seemed to be a world of nation-states. But the first wave of decolonization came in the Americas between the 1780s and the 1820s. This article explores the relationship between these two waves and the wave of colonizations that occurred in between. Rather than assimilating the two episodes of decolonization to a single narrative, I argue that both entailed profound struggles in which national sovereignty was only one possible outcome and that in between empires were reinvigorated, transformed, and reinvented. The second wave of decolonization entailed what the first did not: undermining the very idea of empire. Both waves left unanswered a question that had concerned activists in their times: could political liberation be turned into economic and social justice? This article points to the uses and limits of the concept of decolonization in understanding struggles for global equality.

Operationalizing Urban Climate Justice: A Case Study of Sunset Park, Brooklyn, New York City

Cities are increasingly incorporating climate resiliency goals into planning, development, and sustainability efforts. Such efforts are often touted as opportunities to promote climate justice that will not only support adaptation and mitigation efforts but also improve local environmental quality and bring higher paying, green jobs to frontline communities. Yet many local community leaders and residents remain skeptical of the promised benefits of climate-resilient development in their neighborhoods, fearing that new investments will attract higher income earners, intensify real estate pressures, and contribute to green gentrification. This study investigates the synergies and tensions that are emerging as cities develop policy responses to address climate change, implement resiliency projects, and meet economic, equity and social justice goals. Through a case study of Sunset Park, Brooklyn, a low-income working waterfront community in New York City, the paper explores community efforts to exert influence over two large-scale, climate resiliency-focused development projects. Data sources for the study include interviews with city officials, private sector representatives, community leaders and residents, participation in community events and workshops, and analysis of planning and policy documents. The study finds that an extensive legacy of community-led planning, the presence of proactive community champions, and grassroots mobilizations were critical factors that strengthened local influence over urban resiliency planning processes. It offers lessons and strategies for empowering local voices in community-based adaptation and resiliency efforts and for achieving climate justice objectives.

“Piers Plowman” and the Reinvention of Church Law in the Late Middle Ages

“Piers Plowman” and the Reinvention of Church Law in the Late Middle Ages

A Perspective to Carbon Footprint in the Economic Justice Context

A Perspective to Carbon Footprint in the Economic Justice Context

Ethnicity and Identities in Iran: Progress and Equality

With worldwide progress, development and diversification come tensions between individual, local, national, and global identities, and the fight for equality and justice and opposition to discrimination. Iran is no different, but little has been written about the historical, current, and future identities of Iran’s ethnic groups. This study looks at the Azeris, Kurds, Arabs, and Baloch alongside the Persian ethnic identity, which is predominant in modern Iran and which many claim is upheld politically and socially as the ideal for a future, collective Iranian ethnic identity, promoting discrimination against different ethnic identities. This theory is grounded by conducting and analysing in-depth questionnaires across 13 Iranian provinces in relation to religious, local, and national identities; inter-ethnic cultural borders; hindrances to progressive movements; the purging of certain ethnic cultures; and possible steps to resolve crises. Some data has been extracted from the author’s recently published book, From Border to Border: Comprehensive research study on identity and ethnicity in Iran. This data presents practical steps to achieving stable, equitable and sustainable cultural, social, economic, legal, and political conditions in Iran, based on the results of questionnaires. Taken into consideration is the realization of economic, socio-cultural, and political justice and indiscriminate social welfare, promoting interethnic solidarity and justice in the media, separating the legal and political systems from religious and ethno-centric thought in acknowledgement of the diversity of religious identities in Iran, and implementing the pending articles of the Constitution.

Testimony of witnesses in the system of evidence in economic judicial procedure

The article considers the place and role of witness testimony in the system of means of evidence in economic litigation. To this end, the relevant economic procedural legislation is analyzed, which provides a definition of the testimony of witnesses and regulates the procedure for obtaining them. The analysis of scientific sources revealed that the institute of witnesses, in economic litigation, is one of the topics of discussion not only among practitioners but also among scholars. A critical review of the positions of scholars on the place and role of witness testimony in the system of evidence in economic litigation. It is determined that the introduction of the institution of witnesses in economic litigation is aimed at unifying and simplifying the procedural aspects of litigation.
 It is established that despite long discussions on the use of the institution of witnesses in economic litigation, practice has shown the need to expand the means of proof through witness testimony, as it is seen that the study of such testimony in some cases can help establish objective truth and completeness. and comprehensiveness of the case.
 From the analysis of procedural norms it was concluded that the subjects of evidence in economic litigation may be persons who are not directly involved in the case. The witness belongs to this group of subjects. The positive feature of the witness is that he directly perceived the circumstances of the case with the help of the senses and the lack of legal interest in resolving the case. In economic litigation, there are cases in which the testimony of witnesses can be used, which determines the existence of certain relationships between the witness and the party.
 It was emphasized that if witnesses are involved in the trial, there is a risk of delaying the trial and, as a consequence, violating the principle of efficiency of the trial due to abuse of non-appearance of witnesses at the hearing. Amendments to the economic procedural legislation have been proposed to regulate the obligation to testify as a witness.
 It is proved that the introduction of the institute of witnesses in the economic procedural legislation is a positive change, which is aimed at bringing the economic justice of Ukraine closer to European standards.

Effectiveness of Landless Workers’ Movement in Brazilian Democracy

It is true that civil resistance is closely related to the democracy and it creates a condition of dissent if citizens are not satisfied by a policy. Brazilian democracy is not absent in this context. Brazil’s civil resistance especially Landless Worker’ Movement also played a major role in the democratic process through the movement’s awareness programme and helped to change the policymaking process. The Landless Workers’ Movement, which fought for economic justice, and social democracy through Non-Violent action against the authority, and the capitalist elites. The Landless Workers’ Movement disclosed the agenda of economic exploitation of civilians in a democratic regime. Their methods of struggle have given two important dimensions to the Brazilian democracy, one is to put pressure on the government through organization and other to make people aware through their mechanism. The present article is an attempt to check the effectiveness of the Landless Workers’ Movement and its impact on Brazilian democracy critically.