Social Justice Challenges Research Articles

Design and Justice: A Scoping Review in Engineering Design

Abstract Our society faces complex social justice challenges, often exacerbated by existing engineered products and technologies. To avoid unintentionally contributing to social justice, engineering designers play a critical role in creating and studying products and technologies that can aim to address challenges of social injustice. There is a growing priority in the engineering design research community to incorporate justice into design and to do so meaningfully and intentionally. Therefore, there is a need to more deeply understand how scholars have integrated concepts of justice into design and to bring to light areas of future research. In this paper, we conduct a scoping review of design and justice in twelve scholarly venues relevant to the engineering design community. A scoping review allowed for a broad range of topics to be covered to identify major research themes and gaps, and to explore boundaries of the nascent study of design and justice. After searching the relevant venues, we conducted a thematic analysis to capture the major themes in the dataset of papers relating to justice and design. Along with relevant terminology used, we found that scholars connected justice to design in ways that we categorized into three main areas of design: Designers, Design Outcomes, and Design Process. Our analysis highlighted areas of future research in studying justice as relevant to Designers, Outcomes, and Processes, as well as identifying an overall call to redefine the field of design in the pursuit of justice.

The Prophet Muhammad

Life of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) is a unique model for spiritual, moral, and ethical guidance. And as the final prophet of Islam, his teachings (in both the Quran and Hadith) remain a significant influence in the lives of over a billion Muslims globally. The major features of his life were described in some detail, beginning with the years he spent in Mecca, wrestling with the revelations that came to him; his migration to Medina and subsequent role as the leader of a nascent society, founded on principles of social justice; and culminating in his final sermon that enjoined unity among citizens irrespective of their tribe, race or colour. Moreover, the legacy of the Prophet in modern times provides framework for tackling pressing contemporary challenges of social Justice, diplomacy and environmental protection. The teachings of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) are still used as guidance for everyday personal behavior and collective prosperity.

Promoting social justice and women's rights: Mitigating the negative impacts of large hydropower projects on tribal women in the Hindu Kush Himalaya region

This study highlights the significance of comprehending the region's caste system and cultural norms and their influence on implementing compensation and resettlement programs in hydropower projects to gain social sustainability. By leveraging Social Justice Theory, we examine how systemic inequalities affect tribal women, particularly in the context of large-scale hydropower projects. Tribal women's social and cultural identities expose them to vulnerabilities, leading to negative consequences concerning large-scale hydropower projects. The lack of access to justice and limited participation in decision-making poses social justice challenges, undermining their fundamental rights, such as basic needs, healthcare, and education. Consequently, their well-being and quality of life suffer, impeding support for such projects. The extent of these adverse effects may vary depending on whether women belong to local (Indigenous) or non-local tribes (non-Indigenous). Our analysis reveals the critical role of tribal affiliation in moderating the relationship between social justice dimensions—such as distributive, procedural, substantive, and recognition justice—and social sustainability, offering new insights into Social Justice Theory. This study explores the potential of careful planning that prioritises the needs of tribal women regardless of tribal affiliation to mitigate these negative social consequences. The study employs a social justice framework to address these challenges. Through the analysis of 511 questionnaires using PLS-SEM, the study revealed that tribal affiliation moderates the relationship between social justice and sustainability. This contribution enriches Social Justice Theory by providing empirical evidence of the intersectionality of social justice issues in the context of development projects. The study further identified that social sustainability and community satisfaction mediate the relationship between social justice and support for hydropower projects, while tribal affiliation moderates this relationship.

Neither this nor that: the challenge of social justice for non-indigenous English teachers in First Nations Australian education contexts

ABSTRACT This article examines and critiques gap-based education policies that are based on statistical and reductive conceptualisations of success for First Nations students in Australia. The policy desire to achieve social justice underpinned by parity of outcomes across a range of life indicators (including standardised English literacy) between First Nations Australians and non-Indigenous Australians is embedded in programmatic approaches to pedagogy such as Accelerated Literacy (AL). We examine the experiences of Bruce, a teacher teaching English in the middle years of school in a school that mandated AL as a whole-of-school approach to English and literacy instruction. We show how intersecting notions of social justice can collide in the English classroom and how teachers in these contexts are in danger of re-colonising through English teaching practices that neither produce statistical improvement nor advance culturally responsive teaching based on giving primacy to Indigenous-authored texts in subject English.

Labour market resilience will be tested in the near term

AbstractThis chapter presents the state of the world's labour markets. On account of stronger than expected GDP growth, unemployment continued to fall in line with rising employment and labour force participation. Mounting fragilities, such as slowing growth and rising sovereign debt will take a toll on unemployment and the jobs gap in 2024, both of which are set to slightly deteriorate through 2025. Moreover, persistent working poverty and informality continue to present major challenges for social justice that are unlikely to improve over the medium term.

Participatory action research: advocacy and activism for promoting social justice in and through CALL

Participatory action research (PAR)—the inquiry procedure adopted by researchers who collaborate with communities experiencing injustices to identify workable and evidence-based solutions to existing problems—is not well-known in the area of CALL. Taking the social justice challenges existing in CALL, PAR methodology may be of relevance and importance to CALL researchers-educators committed to initiating change and cultivating social justice in and through CALL. Accordingly, this methodological paper sets out to bring PAR methodology closer to the CALL research community as a type of socially engaged research inquiry. It (re)introduces the notion of social justice in CALL and indicates a range of equity-related challenges and opportunities existing in the field, provides an overview of PAR methodological issues, its foundational principles, and the essential phases, and articulates the relevance of PAR for the CALL research community. The paper ends with an illustration of PAR using an advocacy project conducted by the present author for social justice in L2 education through CALL at her university.

A Qualitative Exploration of Coaches’ Perceived Challenges and Recommendations Relating to Social Justice in Canadian High School Sport

Sport can at once promote social justice and reinforce systemic inequities. Considering the influence coaches have on athlete development, research related to coaches’ perspectives on social justice issues is warranted. The purpose of the study was to explore Canadian high school sport coaches’ attitudes towards social justice. An online survey saw 392 coaches respond to six open-ended questions on perceived challenges (three questions; n = 989 responses) and recommendations (three questions; n = 724 responses) related to social justice within their teams, schools, and school boards. A content analysis led to coaches’ responses being classified into three groups: (a) high school sport faces social justice issues (57.38%), (b) no social justice challenges and/or recommendations to share (39.34%), and (c) urgency regarding social justice issues is overblown (3.28%). A reflexive thematic analysis, guided by the critical positive youth development framework, was used to develop several overarching themes, highlighting persistent inequities, a lack of involvement from school boards, missed/ignored social justice issues, and a small group of antisocial justice coaches within the Canadian high school sport system. Considerations for coach education programmes and future research are discussed.

Exploring New Judicial Models under the Sustainable Development Goals

Amidst global environmental issues and social justice challenges, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) serve as essential guidance for policy formulation and societal advancement worldwide. As a pivotal institution for upholding legal fairness and justice, the judiciary must also align with this global consensus. Contemporary judicial models emphasize traditional legal procedural fairness while integrating considerations of environmental protection, resource allocation, and social inclusivity. This paper examines the judiciary’s evolving role within the framework of the SDGs, analyzing how it synthesizes the three pillars of economy, society, and environment to more comprehensively achieve justice and equity. The SDGs provide novel perspectives and impetus for judicial innovation. The judiciary must not only render equitable decisions in civil and criminal matters but also foster sustainable societal development through legal reforms. This emerging model underscores the judiciary’s enhanced focus on social responsibility, commitment to safeguarding vulnerable populations, raising environmental consciousness, and promoting values of peace and justice in society.

Attempting affirmative political ecologies: Collective transformative learning for social justice in Nepal's community forestry

Whilst political ecology scholarship has contributed much to articulating social injustices associated with Nepal's community forestry, here we took a different approach, by attempting an 'affirmative political ecology.' We drew on feminist and activist scholarship to inspire collective action that engaged directly with challenges of social justice and those charged with delivering it through their work. Guided by theories and practices of 'transformative learning' and a range of associated reflective practices, our participatory action research involved 4 facilitators and (up to) 25 participants who work across Nepal's forest bureaucracy (and for some, the wider community-based natural resource management sector). Together physically, remotely and through our writing, we reflect upon the operation of power in our professional – and personal – lives, exploring how that may enable a more informed and meaningful engagement with social justice within the workplace, and beyond. This article presents the process of our collective reflection and learning, and shares some of its initial outcomes based on the experiences of the 15 co-authors. Whilst 'simply' having the time and space to come together was hugely important, it was the form and feel of that space that was particularly significant, as we focused on co-creating a safe space which was non-judgmental and based on mutual respect, enabling comfortable and open discussion of often unspoken and uncomfortable issues. Ultimately, this article argues that collective practices of reflection and transformative learning can create shared learning, understanding, empathy and solidarity, and thus that it offers hope in the face of on-going social injustices. It therefore urges political ecologists to work towards such caring and affirmative collective engagements with practitioners as one way in which to affect change.

The Big Scran: building community resilience through a volunteer movement in partnership with homelessness charity, Blue Triangle, and the Health and Social Care Partnership. 

Ben View Community Resource Centre has been a leading community anchor organisation within the Greater Glasgow and Clyde Health Board Area for two decades, diligently uniting the community by co-designing and building volunteering movements to meet community needs in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland.
 In partnership with homelessness charity, Blue Triangle, and the West Dunbartonshire Health and Social Care Partnership, a new volunteering movement, entitled ‘The Big Scran’, has been created to provide essential practical support, food, heat and social interaction. In tandem, the partnership has addressed wider needs, effecting generational change for individuals and families, such as maximising income or supporting delivery of health outcomes.
 Ben View’s expertise in anticipating local needs and galvanising community resources positions them as expert. Against the backdrop of the global financial crisis and complex public health challenges facing the community, such as gender-based violence, substance misuse, youth homelessness and other population health themes, the partnership, including Blue Triangle and West Dunbartonshire HSCP are a force for good. Their approach addresses immediate needs (hunger, heat and social interaction) and affects generational change, taking a person-centred and trauma informed approach, building individual relationships, leveraging the skills, talents and local knowledge of volunteers, supporting translation of needs assessment into meaningful interventions.
 Against all the Social Determinants of Health, West Dunbartonshire fairs poorly internationally. The burden of depression, anxiety, mental illness, substance misuse, alcohol dependency, smoking and interpersonal violence are key drivers contributing to our burden of disease, more so in West Dunbartonshire. The impact of social isolation and loneliness on individual’s physical and mental wellbeing has been well documented. It increases the risk of stress, anxiety and depression and doubles the risk of dementia. 
 The Health and Social Care Partnership understands that the status quo is no longer an option and that building a resilient and compassionate community of people, is essential to tackle the complex social justice challenges facing the population. The thought leadership from this initiative builds the compassionate community by creating and co-producing a new volunteering movement, in partnership with service delivery organisations and the Health and Social Care Partnership, which carries the statutory duty for health and social care.
 The relational approach to health improvement by creating a volunteering movement of local people, supported by known and respected local organisations, builds the community resilience required during the harsh global financial crisis. The success of this initiative has been such that other communities are now launching their own ‘Big Scran’.
 ‘The Big Scran’s’ processes and assets have been created to be transferable and scalable to all communities. Other communities across Scotland are using this model and their assets and to build similar partnerships and volunteer movements in their own areas. This fits with the policy landscape in Scotland and beyond and its desire to create and connect compassionate volunteering movements across Scotland and globe. The success and impact of the Big Scran movement is informed and sustained by people’s needs. All involved, recipients and volunteers positively gain from this replicable model.

Coping the Challenges While Promoting Social Justice in Mathematics Classroom

The purpose of this study is to explore the coping strategies applied by the teachers in the mathematics classroom to mitigate the challenges of social justice. I employed an interpretive inquiry for data collection, analysis and interpretation. I selected three mathematics teachers and their three students (one for each teacher) purposively from three public secondary schools in Kathmandu. I generated narratives through in-depth interviews with each participant. I conducted multiple layers of thematic analyses and interpretations of the narratives from the interviewed data. Altogether four themes -- persuasion, watching and caring, individual treatments, and grouping emerged from the analysis of the data. This study is likely to bring awareness among teachers for socially just pedagogy.

Social justice in higher education: The forgotten needs of students with visual impairments in Bangladesh

Students with disabilities face myriad barriers and hurdles to success in higher education settings. Institutions in developing nations often lack the necessary resources to provide accessible instruction, and the absence of clearly defined policies further impedes upholding the educational rights of such a special population. The purpose of this study was to examine how undergraduate students with visual impairments in Bangladesh felt about their experiences related to social justice and challenges in learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. A convenience sample of 133 students was recruited from two public universities. The authors developed two instruments, namely, the Social Justice Experiences in Higher Education Scale and the Social Justice Challenges in Higher Education Scale, to measure how the participants felt. The results showed that most of the participants experienced some sort of difficulty in receiving social justice in higher education. However, the differences in the group mean score on social justice experiences and challenges in higher education were not statistically significant between the male and female participants of this study. The outcomes of the study and their implications for rehabilitation research and practice have also been addressed in this paper.

Exploring socio-ecological inequalities in heat by multiple and composite greenness metrics: A case study in Belfast, UK

In light of pressing environmental and social justice challenges, levels of interest in green infrastructure as a possible solution have increased markedly for reasons related to both climate change adaptation and enhancing quality living environments. This study explores how green infrastructure influences the urban heat island effects experienced by communities across the socio-economic strata found in Belfast. To avoid scale effects and obtain accurate results, we devise multiple and scale-composite greenness metrics to assess the distribution of green infrastructure based on each residential unit. The results indicate that despite widespread recognition that green infrastructure significantly contributes to the mitigation of heat island intensity, socio-economically deprived communities are exposed to greater urban heat. Further examinations identified the close correlations between green infrastructure distribution and socio-economic factors, which relate to two major spatial patterns: that the suburbs are better catered for than the inner city, and that south and east Belfast are better than west and north. Moreover, our findings identified a tendency that communities with higher proportions of female- and ageing- populations have greater greenness and are less exposed to heat, which suggests the distributional and environmental injustice in GI provision and related heat adaptation are driven by the underlying socio-economic dynamics and the vulnerable groups may change based on local context. Overall, we found that there is a need to incorporate and prioritise different types of green infrastructure in plans for heat adaptation and to integrate green infrastructure development with environmental justice in areas that suffer socio-ecological deprivation in mitigating urban heat island effects.

'It doesn't happen any other way': relationship-building and reflexivity for equity-focused intersectoral practice (EquIP).

Intersectoral processes that bring together public institutions, civil society organizations and affected community members are essential to tackling complex health equity challenges. While conventional wisdom points to the importance of human relationships in fostering collaboration, there is a lack of practical guidance on how to do intersectoral work in ways that support authentic relationship-building and mitigate power differentials among people with diverse experiences and roles. This article presents the results of RentSafe EquIP, a community-based participatory research initiative conducted in Owen Sound, Canada, in the midst of a housing crisis. The research explored the potential utility of equity-focused intersectoral practice (EquIP), a novel approach that invests in human relationships and knowledge co-creation among professionals and affected members of the community. The three-phase EquIP methodology centred the grounded expertise of community members with lived/living experience of housing inadequacy to catalyze reflexive thinking by people in professional roles about the institutional gaps and barriers that prevent effective intersectoral response to housing-related inequities. The research demonstrated that EquIP can support agency professionals and community members to (i) engage in (re)problematization to redefine the problem statement to better include upstream drivers of inequity, (ii) support reflexivity among those in professional roles to identify institutional practices, policies and norms that perpetuate stigma and impede effective intersectoral response and (iii) spark individual and collective agency and commitment towards a more equity-focused intersectoral system. We conclude that the EquIP methodology is a promising approach for communities seeking to address persistent health equity and social justice challenges.

Towards a Sustainable Social Law: What Role for Legal Scholars?

This article outlines an initial research agenda for legal researchers who intend to contribute to the shaping of a ‘sustainable social law’. This notion refers to a social law system that continues to meet the challenges of social justice, without transgressing planetary boundaries and endangering ecosystems. The development of the research agenda is based on two observations. First, the transformation of social law into a sustainable discipline will require its emancipation from the productivist ideology according to which human well-being depends on constant increase in production. Second, social law is pluralist and therefore contains, at its margins, mechanisms that deviate from productivism and can help frame a sustainable future. On this basis, the proposed research agenda is centred on the comparison and classification of non-productivist time-spaces that are already protected by social law, or could become so, through the unfolding of creative legal interpretations. Social law is also approached as a category for analysing equality issues in times of ecological transition, according to the distribution of non-productivist time-spaces it institutes between individuals. Finally, legal scholars could investigate, in empirical studies, whether resistance to the productivist imperative could explain the uses, illegal or not, and non-uses of social law measures by individuals. Sustainable Social Law, Productivism, Non-productivist Time-Spaces, Non-Take-Up of Social Rights; Welfare Fraud; Global Warming, Ecological Transition, ; Eco-social Policies

Healthiness as a Virtue: The Healthism of mHealth and the Challenges to Public Health

Abstract Mobile health (mHealth) technologies for self-monitoring health-relevant parameters such as heart frequency, sleeping patterns or exercise regimes aim at fostering healthy behavior change and increasing the individual users to promote and maintain their health. We argue that this aspect of mHealth supports healthism, the increasing shift from institutional responsibility for public health toward individual engagement in maintaining health as well as mitigating health risks. Moreover, this healthist paradigm leads to a shift from understanding health as the absence of illness to regarding health as the performance of certain rituals in order to project healthiness. By drawing from the analogy between healthiness and traditional virtues, we evaluate the promises made by proponents of mHealth technologies for self-monitoring. We argue that the implementation and use of mHealth risk entrenching existing inequalities and, more particularly, tend to exclude populations situated at the losing end of those inequalities from participating in the quasi-virtue of healthiness. Consequently, the implementation and use of mHealth technologies not only present challenges for social justice but also undermine their primary societal goal—to promote public health. Finally, we offer several suggestions on how to realize the potential benefit of mHealth.

Social Justice Challenges of “Teaching” Languages

Abstract This essay explores the challenges to linguistic justice resulting from widely held negative perspectives on the English of young Latinx bi/multilinguals and from common misunderstandings of individuals who use resources from two communicative systems in their everyday lives. I highlight the effects of these misunderstandings on Long-Term English Learners as they engage with the formal teaching of English. I specifically problematize language instruction as it takes place in classrooms and the impact of the curricularization of language as it is experienced by minoritized students who “study” language qua language in instructed settings.

Participatory pedagogies enhance engineering education for sustainability

ABSTRACT Using a survey, interviews, and reflections by the teaching-research team, we explored the effects of almost a decade of experimentation, inspired by Freire’s pedagogy for liberation, which applied participatory action research in engineering courses and in cities to develop professionals who are more committed to sustainability and more able to interact with ‘ordinary’ citizens in all their diversity. We found that using a planning-based participatory action research methodology, in the living laboratories of real city neighbourhoods, increased engineers’ appreciation of citizenship, sustainability and equity. While this experience does not pretend to universality, it does suggest ways that structuring action research into course activities and critical reflection can improve students’ understanding of sustainability and related social justice challenges. Moreover, this innovative pedagogy proved robust during two years of extreme disruption due to social protest and strict COVID-19 quarantines in Chile. The findings may benefit researchers and teachers grappling with similar challenges.

Realizing the Promise of Disaggregated Data and Analytics for Social Justice Through Community Engagement and Intersectoral Research Partnerships

In Canada, community and policy leaders have issued urgent calls to collect, analyze, and mobilize disaggregated data to inform equity-oriented initiatives aimed at addressing systemic racism and gender inequity, as well as other social inequities. This essay presents critical reflections from a national Roundtable discussion regarding how meaningful community engagement within academia–community–government research collaborations offers the opportunity to harness disaggregated data and advanced analytics to centre and address the priorities of equity-deserving and sovereignty-seeking groups. Participants emphasized four key priorities: (1) Building equitable and engaged partnerships that centre community-driven priorities and address structural barriers to community engagement; (2) Co-creating ethical data governance policies and infrastructure to support community data ownership and access; (3) Stimulating innovation and pursuing community involvement to create contextualized, advanced analyses and effective visualizations of disaggregated data; and (4) Building the capacity of all partners to effectively contribute to partnership goals. Capacity building was viewed as a bridge across a diversity of lived and professional expertise, enabling intersectoral research teams to collaborate in culturally safe and respectful ways. Beyond identifying key structural barriers impeding the promise of disaggregated data, we present practical opportunities for innovation in community-engaged scholarship to address social justice challenges in Canada.

Empowering Asian Educators in the Time of Crisis

In this article, I draw from my experience working as a Korean American music teacher in the US. I reflect on what it means to be Asian American and to bring Asian narratives to the forefront. I examine the distinct challenges of social justice in the context of Asians and Asian Americans’ lives—particularly through the lens of the “model minority.” The COVID-19 pandemic has spotlighted Asians and Asian Americans’ lived experiences in ways unlike before. I discuss perceptions of Asians throughout US history and the current representativeness of Asian music in the framework of multicultural education. Grounded in Erving Goffman’s notion of covering, Kenji Yoshino’s extension of this concept (the four axes of covering), and Edward Said’s Orientalism, I make seven recommendations to empower Asians and Asian educators in this time of crisis. The article explores and situates the current challenges of anti-Asian racism, connecting it to aforementioned theories and briefly proposes the concept of 홍익인간 (Hongik-Ingan) to course-correct, support, and acknowledge Asian educators’ multiplicity of identities as allies.