Idea Of Social Justice Research Articles

The Idea of Social Justice: A Sociological Analysis of the University Students’ Reflections on the Reservation Policy in India

KEYWORDS Social Justice. Students' Reflections. Reservation Policy. Social Hierarchy. Development Policy ABSTRACT The reservation policy has been one of the contentious issues in India. This issue is being discussed and debated among politicians, media, students, and various other social players. Universities also offer a social space wherein students' opinion on this issue is shaped by different forms of affiliations and associations inside the campus. At this juncture, this study attempts to analyse the opinion of university students on different forms of reservation in India. It was carried out at the University of Hyderabad (UoH), Hyderabad. For this study, both qualitative and quantitative techniques were employed. These 450 students were selected in proportion to the number of students in each reservation category based on the stratified sampling technique. This quantitative data was supplemented by the qualitative data collected from 20 selected students through an open-ended questionnaire. The data analysis shows that the universities students' opinion on reservation policy mostly corresponds to their social categories like caste, class, gender and religion.

La cuadratura del círculo: el intento de Friedrich von Hayek por resolver la tensión entre igualdad política y desigualdad económica

The purpose of this article is to highlight themost important contributions Friedrich von Hayekmade to social and political theory, and to reviewvarious critiques directed against his ideas.This article also traces back those contributionsto Hayek’s engagement in the debate about socialistplanning. Hayek’s most important ideais that the market offers the best solution to thefact that social knowledge is always dispersedand incomplete. In tandem with this idea, Hayekopposed to the model of a centralized andplanned order another one in which that order isspontaneous, being the market its paradigmaticinstance. From this conception, Hayek derivedthe corollary that the idea of social justice is a mirage for, in a complex society, each one’sposition and income is the result of uncountableinteractions. Following this line of reasoning,Hayek strengthened his conviction that democraticgovernments’ intervention in the marketshould be severely limited. From left and fromright, various critics have shown shortcomingsin Hayek’s arguments that concern the idea ofincomplete and dispersed social knowledge, therelevance of social justice, the interdependencebetween the rule of law and democracy and theidea that the market is not a self-generating orderbut rather depends on a larger set of socialinstitutions.

Flexible Professional or Brilliant Individualist?: The Challenge of Employability. The University Perspective

The current socio-economic crisis sets society and the employer new challenges. To answer to these, employers put in place new requirements which form the core of the model of employability for workers. This model is officially recognized, and serves as a matrix for public awareness and for universities which are responsible for the formation of professionals. However, this model is not as perfect as it seems, because it contradicts the idea of social justice. If we combined all the qualities which society and employers demand from students as a model of employability, we would create a mythical figure, one which could never really exist. This study allows us to define the problem of the responsibility of the system of higher education for the formation of professional competence and universal values. Descriptive, analytical and comparative methods were used in this research, as were relevant publications from literature.

Repensar la comunicación para el desarrollo

El siguiente texto es la transcripción de la intervención de la profesora Venu Arora en la conferencia de la Asociación International para la Investigación en Medios y Comunicación (IAMCR, por sus siglas en inglés), que tuvo lugar en Hyderabad (India) en 2014. Como directora ejecutiva de Ideosync Media Combine, una iniciativa que integra metodologías comunicativas en pro del cambio social, expone brevemente dos experiencias ejemplares de comunicación para el cambio social, mientras que discute cuestiones críticas alrededor de la práctica de la Comunicación para el desarrollo e ideas acerca de la voz y la justicia social.

“Comprovisation or Imposition?”: An Improvised Composition on a Life of Improvisation

In this essay, originally delivered as the opening keynote address at the 2012 edition of the Guelph Jazz Festival, improvising percussionist and improviser Jesse Stewart reflects on his own experiences as both a student and teacher of improvised music, using those experiences as a way of opening discussion about the ways in which improvisation pedagogy might intersect with the ideas of social justice and social responsibility.

Faith and the State: A History of Islamic Philanthropy in Indonesia

Amelia Fauzia (2013). Faith and the State: A History of Islamic in Indonesia. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill. ISBN: 9789004233973. i-xxxi + 346 pages.Amelia Fauzia's thorough analysis of Islamic philanthropic practices in Indonesia from the early decades of Islam in the archipelago to today is more than a timely review of a tradition that both perpetuates and influences state-civil society relations. Given their historical continuity, cultural tenacity, and social, political, and economic relevance, these practices - also referred to as zakat (almsgiving), sedekah (donation, giving), and waqf (religious endowment) - play a vital role in Indonesian society today.As a lecturer of Islamic History and Civilization at the Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University in Jakarta and holding a PhD in Indonesian history and Islamic studies from the University of Melbourne, Amelia has been working on the topic of Islamic philanthropy since 2002, when she engaged with a global research project on Philanthropy for Social Justice in Muslim Societies. This project brought together researchers from six different countries under her leadership, supported by a team of experts at the Center for the Study of Religion and Culture (CSRC) in Jakarta (in- cluding Chaider S. Bamualim and Irfan Abubakar, with whom she co-edited Filantropi Islam dan Keadilan Sosial [Islamic philanthropy and social justice] in 2006). Following several publications on the above-mentioned topics as well as on Islamization, Islam- ic identity, and civil society, Faith and the State is the subsequent publication of her PhD thesis - extensive review and detailed analysis of the practices of zakat, se- dekah, and waqf in Indonesia and their role in shaping the between the state and Muslim civil society. Her central argument is that Islamic philanthropic ac- tivities, including the establishment of educational institutions, the provision of com- munity services, or the financial support of community development projects, repre- sent element of a strong civil society and grow in the face of a weak state (p. 7). Amelia maintains this idea throughout her book without ignoring the complexity of the specific historical, socio-political, and cultural contexts.Faith and the State deals exclusively with Islamic philanthropic practices in Indone- sia and their development from the early centuries of Islamization to the more recent events of the post-New Order regime. It looks at the social and cultural consolidation of different forms of giving against the background of Islam and at various processes of reformation, (re)organization, and legislation of these practices. Islamic philan- thropy is presented as a dynamic and a highly contested space between the private and the public realm, between faith and the state (p. 6). Both a part of civil society (following Kathleen D. McCarthy, author of the American Creed: and the Rise of Civil Society) and an indicator of the state-civil society relationship (p. 9), philanthropy renders a neat separation between the private and public as well as between the state and society hard to achieve. Avoiding structural and conceptual di- chotomizations, Amelia indicates how, regardless of the role played by Muslim elites, religious authorities, or the state, Islamic philanthropy will never be fully formalized or regulated, mainly because of its authentic origin in the altruistic and reciprocal nature of people (p. xvii) and in the collective awareness and concern for the wel- fare of others (p. 1). And, although Islamic philanthropic activities are every so often used as a tool to communicate advanced ideas of social justice and to promote social change, the majority of philanthropic practices remain mostly traditional and self- contained, performed by Muslims motivated mainly by their faith.The book is chronologically structured around three major periods in the history of Indonesia. …

The “Mirage” of Social Justice: Hayek Against (and For) Rawls

ABSTRACTThere is an odd proximity between Hayek, hero of the libertarian right, and Rawls, theorist of social justice, because, at the level of principle, Hayek was in some important respects a Rawlsian. Although Hayek said that the idea of social justice was nonsense, he argued against only a particular principle of social justice, one that Rawls too rejected, namely distribution according to individual merit. Any attempt to make reward and merit coincide, Hayek argued, would undermine the market's price system, leaving us all poorer and less free. Like Rawls, Hayek held that we should assess social institutions from behind a veil of ignorance, and he thought that doing so pushed us toward egalitarianism. Most of the distance between Hayek and Rawls at the level of policy stems from Hayek's optimism about the operation of markets, his equivocation about the meaning of central concepts, and his appeal to under-argued slippery slopes. Hayek wavered, however, between claiming that private property and markets benefit everyone, compared to the feasible alternatives, and the principle that they maximize the opportunities of a randomly selected member of society, i.e., aggregate opportunity. Contemporary Hayekians claim that capitalism raises the position of the worst off in the long run, in future generations, whereas Rawlsians insist that inequalities between social positions should benefit the worst off now.

Igualdade, equidade e outras complexidades da justiça educativa

Grande parte dos debates sobre a estrutura educativa repousam em conceções igualitárias ou meritocráticas de justiça escolar. Neste trabalho sustenta-se que as sociedades defendem ideias da justiça social que, embora em diferentes graus, combinam critérios de igualdade (direito a um acesso igual aos recursos) e de equidade (direito à compensação segundo a contribuição). Isto é próprio das economias que vivem quer de recursos recebidos do passado (da natureza e do património herdado) quer produzidos no presente (pelo trabalho e pela poupança). Os educadores têm que proceder à tradução escolar desses valores sociais, combinando igualdade e equidade. Mas têm também que responder a duas possibilidades extremas mas não raras: por um lado, a de quem, desfavorecido pela natureza ou pela história, se vê condenado a uma posição de desvantagem por um tratamento formalmente igual, requerendo um esforço compensatório, de solidariedade; por outro, a de quem possui capacidades extraordinárias, que também tem direito a desenvolver ao máximo, o que requer uma política de cultivo da excelência. Esses critérios, em tensão mas não incompatíveis, compõem a justiça escolar. Palavras-chaveIgualdade; Equidade; Solidariedade; Excelência

Semiotics of comic in English-language fairy tale discourse

In the paper the comic, as a form of manifestation of the miraculous, is studied in short-story fairy tales, fairy tale anecdotes and fables. Represented in the comic framework confrontation undergoes a transformation from the existential to the social, representing the movement from the conflict between the social and the natural, the human and the supernatural to the social conflict itself, which is based on the idea of social justice. The most important semiotic means of actualization of the comic aspect of the supernatural in the English-language fairy tale discourse are signs of manipulative, auditive and esoteric codes.

Globalization and Politics of the Poor in India

The paper addresses two basic questions in the globalization literature: (1) is globalization a threat or an opportunity? And (2) how far does market deepening actually encourage genuine substantive democracy in the world? Many scholars have argued that globalization has resulted in increasing inequality and marginalization of the poor, which is not conducive for democracy. Drawing on the case of India, this paper, however, argues that the rolling back of the welfare state and the demise of developmentalism led to the mobilization of the masses against the elitist and exploitative agenda of globalization. As a result, a counter-hegemonic vibrant civil society has emerged, which challenges the hegemony of the elites and channels the empowerment agenda of the subaltern groups. This new politics of the subaltern is grounded on the idea of social justice and citizenship rights, which is redefining the nature of the Indian state and democracy.

All Justice is Social but it’s not all Social Justice

I take social injustice to be injustice perpetrated on members of society by laws and public social practices. I take social justice to be the struggle to right social injustice. After explaining these ideas, I then address the question: why are so many people opposed to the very idea of social justice? I offer a number of explanations, among them, that to acknowledge that there is social injustice in one’s society often requires considerable change on one’s part.

Основні пріоритети соціальної політики очима населення України

Presented the results of the Ukrainian population survey concerning the state and the main priorities of government social policy, the idea of social justice and its compliance.

From vagueness to precision: raising the volume on social issues for the water sector

The paper raises the volume on complex social issues that affect water management. The paper proposes Amartya Sen's capability approach (CA) as a suitable framework against which to consider these complex ideals. This is because the CA is attentive to issues of social justice and it addresses a range of intangible goods that contribute to human well-being which are critical if the gap between progressive ideas about water policy and their practical application is to be lessened. We isolate certain attributes within the CA and propose that these attributes are particularly relevant when considering ideas of social justice concerning water. We then conclude that a sharper focus on intangible social issues brings more precision to a water discourse that is all too often vague and fuzzy in its dealings with society.

Competing Ideas of Social Justice and Space: Locating Critiques of Housing Renewal in Theory and in Practice

This article considers the experience of the English government's policy of Housing Market Renewal from the perspective of spatial justice. The paper first proposes an analytical framework that situates competing notions of territorial social justice within a space of complex sociospatial relations. The dialectic of two formulations of social justice is first set up, comparing ‘procedural’ or deontological forms of justice and the distributional justice of outcomes. Soja's formulation of spatial justice is advanced as an appropriate balance between spatial and socio-historic contexts for the justice question. Drawing on the literature on sociospatial relations, concrete critiques and justifications of HMR are then positioned in terms of the intersection of structuring principles and policy fields. The role of demolition in urban restructuring programmes is used to explore the differential spatialities involved in different justicial perspectives. It is concluded that ‘gentrification’ critiques of HMR are only partial in their evaluation of justice and lack normative power. Some practical implications for the design of urban restructuring policies are offered.

What a Difference in 3 Years! Risking Social Justice Content in Required Undergraduate Music Education Curricula

Preparing future music educators to teach diverse students in U.S. schools is essential; diversity is increasing, especially in urban schools. Music teacher education infused with social justice content promotes successful student learning and an understanding of diversity. This 3-year narrative includes social justice materials, successful pedagogical strategies, pitfalls, and students’ comments. The 111 Caucasian students and 3 students of color were enrolled in three required music education undergraduate courses at an urban university. Students reflected about their cultural identities, created presentations with sensitive content, and revealed positive attitudinal changes about diversity. The risk for future music teachers was the requirement to learn a vast amount of traditional music education material plus social justice ideas. The risk for the professor involved breaking the canon of traditional music teacher preparation by teaching social justice content in required courses. What the author learned might persuade others to reevaluate their curricula and include social justice topics.

Us & Them? Entering a three-dimensional narrative inquiry space with white pre-service teachers to explore race, racism, and anti-racism

In this article, two white teacher educators illustrate entering into a three-dimensional narrative space with a white pre-service teacher. The authors explore how their histories have led them to practice teacher education pedagogies that are rooted in ideas of social justice and critical race theory. In order to support the goals and aims of social justice and critical race teaching, teacher educators must be willing to be ‘part of the parade’ of teacher education with pre-service teachers, sharing their stories of racialized experiences alongside the stories of white pre-service teachers. As a result of entering a three-dimensional narrative space with white pre-service teachers, the authors encourage teacher educators to become more cognizant of their roles in shaping pre-service teachers’ understandings of race and racism. To do so, teacher educators must assume a narrative inquiry stance in their teaching.

Growing food justice by planting an anti-oppression foundation: opportunities and obstacles for a budding social movement

The food justice movement is a budding social movement premised on ideologies that critique the structural oppression responsible for many injustices throughout the agrifood system. Tensions often arise however when a radical ideology in various versions from multiple previous movements is woven into mobilization efforts by organizations seeking to build the activist base needed to transform the agrifood system. I provide a detailed case study of the People’s Grocery, a food justice organization in West Oakland, California, to show how anti-oppression ideology provides the foundation upon which food justice activists mobilize. People’s Grocery builds off of previous social justice movements within West Oakland, reflected in activist meaning making around ideas of social justice and autonomy. However, the ongoing mobilization process also faces complications stemming from diverse individual interpretations of food justice—that may not be reflected in the stated goals of food justice organizations—as well as structural constraints. Consequently, building a social movement premised on food justice opens up social spaces for new activism, but may not be a panacea for solving food-related racial and economic inequality. The findings have implications for newly forming food justice organizations, future research on the food justice movement, as well as for theories on social movement mobilization.

Philosophizing social justice in rural palliative care: Hayek's moral stone?

Increasingly, palliative care is being referred to as an essential programme and in some cases as a human right. Once it is recognized as such, it becomes part of the lexicon of social justice in that it can be argued that all members of society should have access to such care. However, this begs the question of how that care should be enacted, particularly in rural and remote areas. This question illustrates some of Friedrich Hayek's critiques of social justice. Hayek has likened social justice to a 'moral stone' arguing that social justice is meaningless to the extent that society is impersonal and as such cannot be just, only those individuals who make up that society can be just. When responsibility for justice is assigned to an impersonal society, ideas of social justice can become a clarion call for whom no one is directly accountable. This opens the door for questionable macro-level political agendas that have no capacity to enact the ideal, and worse, may suppress individual moral acts towards the desired end. Further, acts of interference at the macro level with the ideal of equal opportunity run the risk of disadvantaging other members of society. Instead, he has argued that a better approach lies in finding ways to induce and support individual moral acts that promote the human good. Hayek's arguments are particularly compelling for rural palliative care. In this paper we draw upon data from an ethnographic study in rural palliative care to illustrate the potential misfit between the ethical ideal of palliative care as expressed by rural participants and the narratives of social justice.

Barker's ecology of disadvantage and educational equity: issues of redistribution and recognition

As Barker notes, the link between disadvantage and poor educational attainments is an enduring one. Educational policy over the last 40 years or so has tended to respond to educational inequality in predominately one of two ways – attempts to raise standards across the system as a whole and attempts to redistribute resources to families, schools and neighbourhoods in mainly poor urban contexts to help improve educational outcomes. Over time these later compensatory educational policies and interventions have become known as area-based initiatives (ABIs). This article categorises and documents these important initiatives and provides evidence of impact. The key finding is that although there have been improvements in attainments linked to these interventions, there continues to be an enduring link between disadvantage and educational outcomes. In an attempt to conceptualise why this is the case, this article utilises Barker's ecological macro, meso and micro perspective on educational disadvantage and Fraser's social justice ideas of redistribution and recognition.

The spectre of neoliberalism: pedagogy, gender and the construction of learner identities

In this paper I draw on ethnographic observation data taken from a school-based study of two groups of 12–13-year-old pupils identified as high achieving and popular to explore how relations between teachers and pupils are mediated and constituted through the spectre of neoliberal values and sensibilities – zero-sum thinking, individualism and competition. Specifically, I demonstrate how certain high-achieving male and female pupils respond to and negotiate competing challenges summoned through the classroom – pushes to be competitive, autonomous and achieve academically, and pulls to court the acceptance of others and become or remain popular. This highlights the deep interconnections between neoliberalism and pedagogy and school-based orientations to learning. At the same time, it draws attention to resistance and the efficacy of the interpellating demands of neoliberal discourses in the context of intersecting dynamics of gender, friendship and popularity. I conclude the paper by considering how neoliberal styles, rhetoric and cultural forms impact on ideas of social justice and possibilities for a ‘critical’ or ‘transformative’ pedagogy that takes seriously the positive contribution of learners to education discourses and practices.