Socioeconomic Injustices Research Articles

Beyond transparency: A consideration of extraction's full costs

This special section Beyond Transparency: Rethinking the Government of Extraction examines the relationship between international transparency discourse in the extractive sector, and the persistent association of unaccountable government, socioeconomic injustice and ongoing environmental hazards associated with extractive firms and their operations. Our critical analyses of transparency- situate the discourse and practice within the overall turn-of-millennium regulatory capture of states in the global North - including Canada, the US and the UK - by oil and mining industry interests. Contributors probe how transparency regimes have been applied to oil and extractive sector ‘host states’ in the global South, in particular Nigeria, while the rent-seeking practices that these regimes seek to expose are rarely tied to corporate malfeasance in the North. We employ this introduction to consider global transparency discourse and regulatory regimes in the light of the full cost of extraction. Since the turn of the millennium, we argue, attention to extraction's full costs have been largely overshadowed in policy discourse via global transparency regimes, notably the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative.

Religious entrepreneurial communities as a solution for socioeconomic injustice

PurposeThere are many entrepreneurial communities in the Asian subcontinent, which are known for their economic resilience and religious orientation but have received limited attention in extant literature. These communities include Memon, Delhiwala, Chinioti, Ismaili and Bohri, which have been persistent in keeping their members economically stable, as many centuries, while also retaining their religio-sociocultural identity. This paper aims to add to the body of literature by documenting the possible factors, which contribute toward advancing socio-economic justice for the members of respective communities.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses Eisenhardth research strategy within a social constructivist paradigm to process data from in-depth interviews, memos and documentary sources to explore the internal dynamics of three most prominent of these communities (Memon, Delhiwala and Chinioti) in Pakistan.FindingsThe findings reveal that the secret to their resilience is, perhaps, rooted in their religio-sociocultural communal norms, which may not just ensure effective wealth redistribution among the deserving segments of the society but may also enable its deserving members to achieve self-reliance through community-supported–entrepreneurial–activity. This study proposes that a culture of community-based–family–entrepreneurship coupled with the spirit of cooperation, sacrifice and reciprocity may eliminate the possibility of socioeconomic injustice.Social implicationsThe religious entrepreneurial communities may be seen as an alternate to free-market or state-driven methods to impart socioeconomic justice where needed. The voluntary inclination of entrepreneurs in such communities to facilitate those in need may, perhaps, reduce or even eliminate the need to involve state intervention to redistribute wealth through taxation, which may also eliminate the cost of the state bureaucracy, which is used for the collection and redistribution of taxes.Originality/valueThe findings add to the body of literature which could help similar communities to improve their socioeconomic stability in a just manner for all its members. Policymakers can also take notice of the religio-sociocultural norms at the source of socioeconomic justice within the respective communities to formulate policies conducive to sustaining such norms where necessary.

What Makes Epistemic Injustice an “Injustice”?

What Makes Epistemic Injustice an “Injustice”?

South Asian University and Educational Integration: Potentials and Outcomes for Peace Promotion between Pakistan and India

Through education conflicts, poverty, socio-economic injustice, distrust and constant threats to peace can be eradicated. Education is a powerful tool which can bring positive change, prosperity and justice. Conflict resolution and promotion of peace within the societies and with other nations of world can also bring through education .Role of educational institutions are always been considered most important and powerful to bring different cultures and nations closer. Mutual conflicted issues has created uncertainty and distrust in both countries. The wars of 1965, 1971 and recently Kargil conflict in 1999, cross border terrorism and blame game has pushed the relations into uncertain conditions of distrust. The South Asian University is window of integration where both countries students got the chance to get education under one roof. Objectives of establishing South Asian University for closer integration of SAARC countries is still a big challenge for the member nations as it can be used for the peace promotion and people to people connection. In this research paper the objectives and input of South Asian University is examine for bringing nations closer through education. The study examines the role of university to bring the students of Pakistan and India closer and for developing the atmosphere of friendship and trust in both nations. The study examines the civil society connectivity and different kinds of CBMs in both nations’ students by using the platform of university and its impacts on Pak-India relations and developing the peace in the region.

What has justice got to do with it? Gender and the political economy of post-war Bosnia and Herzegovina

While International Financial Institutions (IFIs) play an increasingly relevant role in post-war countries, the interplay between their interventions and other aspects of post-conflict transitions, such as those related to dealing with the consequences of wartime violence, has not received much attention in the literature. This paper tackles this gap and suggests that, in post-conflict contexts, gendered forms of socioeconomic violence and injustice can be perpetuated through economic reforms led by IFIs. Overlooking justice considerations in post-war economic reforms not only reflects and reinforces a limited understanding of wartime violence and justice issues, but also entrenches gendered forms of socioeconomic injustice that had their roots in the war. A feminist approach to the study of political economy encompassing both gender and socioeconomic justice is adopted here to show how complex and overlapping forms of injustice are supported by wartime and post-war political-economic power structures. To illustrate how and why justice considerations are important for post-war economic reforms, the paper looks at the case of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and analyses the rationale and gendered effects of economic reforms that reorganized welfare and jobs, and promoted privatisations that accelerated deindustrialisation and economic decline.

Reclaiming heritage from anti-communist discourse

This article explores how challenging socio-political contexts have influenced the revival of antifascist heritage sites in post-Yugoslavian states. Despite the official politics of promoting national hegemony through adhering to neoliberal norms, these sites promote the values of shared humanity and antifascism. Drawing on long-term ethnographic fieldwork, this article argues that socialism and antifascism have returned via the rediscovery of utopian spatial possibilities that survive in these spaces. Nostalgia thrives through this process, yet not as a nostalgia for the past; rather, it is a nostalgia for a future that haunts through being unfulfilled due to nationalism and turbo-capitalism. Rediscovery of shared humanity and antifascism through tourism activity provides solace from socioeconomic injustices and empowers those hoping for better futures.

Exploring the Environmental Justice Implications of Hurricane Harvey Flooding in Greater Houston, Texas.

To assess the environmental justice implications of flooding from Hurricane Harvey in Greater Houston, Texas, we analyzed whether the areal extent of flooding was distributed inequitably with respect to race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status, after controlling for relevant explanatory factors. Our study integrated cartographic information from Harvey's Inundation Footprint, developed by the US Federal Emergency Management Agency, with sociodemographic data from the 2012-2016 American Community Survey. Statistical analyses were based on bivariate correlations and multivariate generalized estimating equations. The areal extent of Harvey-induced flooding was significantly greater in neighborhoods with a higher proportion of non-Hispanic Black and socioeconomically deprived residents after we controlled for contextual factors and clustering. Results provide evidence of racial/ethnic and socioeconomic injustices in the distribution of flooding and represent an important starting point for more detailed investigation of disproportionate impacts associated with Hurricane Harvey. Public Health Implications. Our findings highlight the need to prepare for and address the unequal social consequences of climate change-related disasters, which are expected to increase in frequency and severity.

Critique against social injustice in the Book of Amos: its relevance to development in Nigeria

In the Old Testament book of Amos, the basic message of prophet Amos stresses the divine demand for social justice and concern for the oppressed in 8th century Israel. Many among Israel’s wealthy members of the society at the time of Amos chose to be unjust and to treat the disadvantaged as they wished. Amos connects the injustice he sees around him to a society bent on wealth and prosperity while being forgetful of the true worship of God. As justice was denied in Amos’ time, so also it is being denied in contemporary Nigerian society. The research examined some of the social injustices observable in Nigeria such as socio-economic injustice, socio-political injustice, socio-religious injustice and socio-judicial injustice. It is the conclusion of this paper that for a meaningful development in Nigerian society, Nigerians should learn to practise social justice as demanded in the book of Amos.

Cryptocurrencies From Islamic Perspectives: The Case Of Bitcoin

Cryptocurrencies’ popularity has surged during the last few years. This isespecially the case of bitcoin, one among cryptocurrencies which price has soaredfrom USD1,000 in the first quarter of 2017 to USD20,000 by the end of 2017. Ithas now being used by merchants as a medium of exchange. Upon realizing itspopularity, the CME Group that owns the Chicago Mercantile Exchange launcheda futures contract on bitcoin. Yet, there are cases where bitcoin is banned bythe country. This article examines the implication of bitcoin on Islamic financeand questions its acceptance as a medium of exchange (money) based on itscompliancy with shari’ah. By analyzing its nature and characteristics, the paperconcludes that, strictly speaking, cryptocurrencies that are not backed with realassets are not shari’ah-compliant. However, the majority of shari’ah scholarsare leaning towards approving bitcoin on maslahah basis. Bitcoin is neither fiatmoney nor real money. The absence of an intrinsic value coupled with lack orzero supervision by the central bank will result in misusing bitcoin. Furthermore,we content that it has the elements of maysir and gharar. This can contributetowards socio-economic injustices, thereby jeopardizing the maqasid al-shari’ah.Hence, based on a thorough analysis, we conclude that fiat cryptocurrencies arenot shari’ah compliant. However, gold-backed cryptocurrencies are argued to bedesirable and consistent with the maqasid al shari’ah.

It Was (Never) Relajo: Diasporic Chronotope and the Social Work of Jewish Mexican Ethnic Joking

This article examines ethnic joking among young Ashkenazi and Syrian Jewish Mexican men in a Torah class. Jews in Mexico City are participating in social, economic, and political changes at multiple scales. These include the transition from mestizo to multicultural politics of Mexican national belonging, with its potential for greater inclusion of Jews and other ethno-religious minorities. Young Halebi (Aleppan) and Shami (Damascene/Beiruti) Jews are often the first generation in their families to go to university and enter social and professional domains outside of communal networks. At the same time, many engage with the growing presence of Haredi, or ultra-Orthodox Jewish religious sectors. All of this prompts greater self-scrutiny and awareness of external gazes that negatively evaluate many Syrian Jewish beliefs and practices. Jewish Mexican ethnic joking reflects and refracts this context. Because of its similarities to other ethnographic accounts, I argue for characterizing this activity as a variation on relajo, a genre of collaborative verbal jousting known throughout Latin America. However, it is distinctive from other documented instances of relajo in key ways. One is the participants' frank rejection of the relajo label (as hinted in title of this article), which reveals tensions between emic and etic language ideologies. Another is the jokers' invocation of multiple socio-geo-graphic-temporal scales or chronotopes (Bakhtin 1981b) in their wordplay, reflective of their experience as members of a diaspora. I characterize this simultaneity and multiplicity of scale using Peeren's (2006) notion of diasporic chronotope, which exists beyond the narrative event into the lived experience and identities of Jewish Mexicans. Finally, while many scholars have theorized relajo as a mode of empowerment for Mexicans contending with socioeconomic injustice, here I show it to be an effective tool for addressing challenges specific to diasporic and other ethnic/religious minorities in modern Mexico.

Reading the Epistle of James with Socioeconomically Marginalized Immigrants in the Southern United States

Abstract The themes of possessions and socioeconomic injustice have caught the attention of scholars of the Epistle of James in recent years. Nevertheless, most biblical scholars still focus primarily on the epistle’s historical aspects, a notable exception being Latin American scholars. Yet, even though many of these have interpreted James from the perspective of their context of socioeconomic exploitation, their readings do not report how people themselves understand and use biblical texts.1 This article explores the themes of wealth, poverty, and marginality in James using empirical hermeneutics. For this purpose, a group of Latino/a pentecostal believers in the southern United States read James 1:1–11 and 5:1–8 in a small Bible study group from the perspective of their religious experience, social marginalization, and economic exploitation. This article includes a report of the group’s reading of the above-mentioned passages, along with theological and practical reflections aimed at churches and practitioners.

Implementing transformative justice: survivors and ex-combatants at the Comisión de la Verdad y Reconciliación in Peru

ABSTRACTInterest has recently increased in transformative justice. While transformative justice research offers an important contribution to transitional justice, I discuss challenges in its implementation. Drawing on research on affected communities and practitioners at the Comisión de la Verdad y Reconciliación in Peru, I question whether there are tensions between addressing micro and macro causes of conflict and in representing and integrating survivors and ex-combatants. While scholars and practitioners have importantly linked transformative justice to the reconfiguration of macro socio-economic structural injustices, more attention is needed to micro drivers of conflict. I outline a tension for a desire for more established punitive justice (prosecution of perpetrators and reparations for survivors) and the need to engage and reintegrate ex-combatants. These challenges are acute in conflict transitions, where transitional justice has taken on more expansive goals of peace-building. More recognition is also important of lingering legacies of violence and practical impediments.

Islamic Liberation Theology: Qur'anic Hermeneutics for the Challenges of the Modern Age

This paper is both an overview of liberation theology as developed in modern Christian theology in the West and an explanation of Islamic liberation theology from a socio-economic and theological perspective, excerpted from the Qur’an and its hermeneutics. Islam has, since its inception, through the injunctions of the Qur’an and the traditions of the Prophet Muhammad, liberated human beings from all sorts of sufferings and revived their dignity from social scourges. Islam, by its initial teachings, denounced ignorance and socio-economic injustice and then promoted knowledge, wisdom, justice, equality, respect, and fairness. All such teachings regarding liberation from all sorts of socio-economic sufferings and oppressions are clearly mentioned and their solution described in the Qur’an and in the traditions of the Prophet Muhammad. Classical Islamic theology in only its metaphysical form has been criticised by progressive Muslims because it does not imply human liberation in worldly life. This paper also discusses liberation theology in Islam through its sociological, ontological, epistemological and axiological perspectives and as many have also been propagated with respect to Islamisation. It also addresses the modern issues and challenges of cultural globalisation or the Westernisation of science in view of new dialectical theology (kalam e jadid) and proposes de-Westernisation of academic culture as an integral part of Muslim’s liberation in modern age.

Islamic Liberation Theology : Qur'anic Hermeneutics for the Challenges of the Modern Age

This paper is both an overview of liberation theology as developed in modern Christian theology in the West and an explanation of Islamic liberation theology from a socio-economic and theological perspective, excerpted from the Qur’an and its hermeneutics. Islam has, since its inception, through the injunctions of the Qur’an and the traditions of the Prophet Muhammad, liberated human beings from all sorts of sufferings and revived their dignity from social scourges. Islam, by its initial teachings, denounced ignorance and socio-economic injustice and then promoted knowledge, wisdom, justice, equality, respect, and fairness. All such teachings regarding liberation from all sorts of socio-economic sufferings and oppressions are clearly mentioned and their solution described in the Qur’an and in the traditions of the Prophet Muhammad. Classical Islamic theology in only its metaphysical form has been criticised by progressive Muslims because it does not imply human liberation in worldly life. This paper also discusses liberation theology in Islam through its sociological, ontological, epistemological and axiological perspectives and as many have also been propagated with respect to Islamisation. It also addresses the modern issues and challenges of cultural globalisation or the Westernisation of science in view of new dialectical theology (kalam e jadid) and proposes de-Westernisation of academic culture as an integral part of Muslim’s liberation in modern age.

The Supreme Court of India: A People’s Court?

The Supreme Court of India has long been thought of as a court for the common people. This perception is rooted in the Indian constitution, which grants the Supreme Court original jurisdiction to hear cases alleging violation of fundamental rights. The Court has also embraced this vision of its role, and conceives of itself as an institution of “last resort for the oppressed and bewildered.” In a judgment from 1987, it expressly notes that it gives greater access to certain marginalized groups: this Court has always regarded the poor and the disadvantaged as entitled to preferential consideration than the rich and the affluent, the businessmen and the industrialists. The reason is that the weaker sections of Indian humanity have been deprived of justice for long, long years: they have had no access to justice on account of their poverty, ignorance and illiteracy. . . . The majority of the people of our country are subjected to this denial of access to justice and, overtaken by despair and helplessness, they continue to remain victims of an exploitative society where economic power is concentrated in the hands of a few and it is used for perpetuation of domination over large masses of human beings. This court has always, therefore, regarded it as its duty to come to the rescue of these deprived and vulnerable sections of Indian humanity in order to help them realise their economic and social entitlements and to bring to an end their oppression and exploitation. The Court’s self-conscious pro-poor discursion is most evident in its public interest jurisprudence, through which the Court removed many procedural barriers to accessing the Court; and assumed wide ranging remedial powers to ameliorate a range of socio-economic injustices.

Towards a theology of development in the Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa (URCSA): Embodying Article 4 of the Belhar Confession

The Belhar Confession gained shape following the social injustices that resulted from the policy of apartheid. Whilst the former mission church's role during the apartheid regime was that of resistance, its role in a post-apartheid South African context was supposed to change to reconstruction and assistance. Given the current socio-economic situation and injustices, the Belhar Confession is now more than ever relevant and should therefore be the basis and motivation for the church to serve and be involved in the fight against poverty in South Africa. The church is therefore challenged to not solely depend on welfare projects in their role as poverty combaters but to move beyond a charity mode towards a mode of development.

Social justice for the poor: The framing of socioeconomic rights in selected South African newspapers

Apartheid South Africa created a society of deep-seated inequalities divided along race, class, and gender lines. The promotion of socioeconomic rights and redistributive justice is thus an important element in the country’s on-going transformation. This article analyzes the framing of stories on socioeconomic rights by three South African national newspapers. Using a combination of framing analysis and critical political economy insights, we show that although the newspapers foreground the importance of socioeconomic rights and recognize voices of the marginalized, the majority of the stories contain gaps and silences on critical issues concerning the structural causes of inequality and socioeconomic injustices in South Africa. The argument concludes by motivating a rethinking of the country’s normative media frameworks for the development of a journalism practice that would resonate in a country characterized by social polarization and material inequalities.

Remembering and constructing Israelite identity in postexilic Yehud: Some remarks on the penitential prayer of Nehemiah 9:6�37

That there is a growing focus and elaboration of prayers in the Old Testament scholarship on the postexilic biblical writings suggests that such prayers received an authoritative status in postexilic Yehud. Firstly, this paper argues that not only did the remembrance of the story of Israel confer an authoritative status to Nehemiah 9:6�37, it also served the purpose of casting a hopeful and prophetic imagination of a liberated community in Yehud. Secondly, it is argued in this paper that the prayer of Nehemiah 9:6�37 shaped the identity of the Jews in Yehud amidst socio-economic injustices. This identity was linked to the patriarch Abraham (cf. Neh 9:7�8), to the liberation of the Jews from Pharaoh under the leadership of Moses (cf. Neh 9:9�15, 21), to the possession of the Promised Land (cf. Neh 9:22�25), to the caution about the consequence of disobedience to Yahweh � the exile (cf. Neh 9:16�21, 26�30)- and to the demise of the kingdom in the Babylonian exile (cf. Neh 9:31�37). On the whole, it is argued in this paper that the prayer of Nehemiah 9:6�37 was composed and transmitted with the view to remember and construct the identity of the Jews in postexilic Yehud.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: Not only does this article explore the religious aspect of Nehemiah 9:6�37, it equally investigates the socio-economic and political undertones in the text in order to determine the context from which the penitential prayer emerged. It is argued here that in the postexilic Yehud context, Nehemiah 9:6�37 served to remember and construct the identity of the Jews.Keywords: Nehemiah; story of Israel; identity construction; prayer; prophetic imaginations; socio-economic injustice

Constructing the ideal victim in the United States of America’s annual trafficking in persons reports

Human trafficking as a global phenomenon continues to elude accurate quantitative measure, and remains a controversial policy domain significantly influenced by anecdotal evidence. Drawing on the policy analysis framework of Bacchi (1999, Policy and Society, 26(3), 5–20, 2007) the problem representation of trafficking through narratives can be considered a direct antecedent of contemporary anti-human trafficking policy. This article explores the construction of human trafficking within the Trafficking in Persons Reports, published annually by the United States of America’s Department of State. An examination of the victim and offender narratives contained within the reports published between 2001 and 2012 demonstrates that human trafficking is predominantly represented as a crime committed by ideal offenders against idealized victims, consistent with Christie’s (1986) landmark criteria of ideal victimization. This representation of an ideal prototype has the potential to inform policy that diverts focus from the causative role of global socioeconomic injustice towards criminal justice policies targeting individual offenders.

Assessing the Efficiency of Transitional Justice

Transitional (hereinafter TJ) has originally been associated with a from one (totalitarian, authoritarian) regime to another (democratic) or from war/armed conflict to peace. After all, the use of the term „transitional‟ implies some kind of transition or change, that is, something grander than mere „justice‟ responses in the form of limited and selective reactions to rights violations. Of course, such a narrow, transition-focused reading of TJ would exclude situations where, like in Colombia or – perhaps – Palestine/Israel, the parties to an ongoing conflict want to make use of the toolkit of TJ. It is for this reason that a broader, justice-focused reading of TJ appears more appropriate. Accordingly, in its current form, TJ refers essentially to the adequate responses to (human) rights violations, irrespective of the nature of the underlying conflict (negative peace or armed conflict within the meaning of IHL). TJ, so understood, entails investigation and prosecution, reparations, truth-seeking, reconciliation, institutional reforms, vetting, and other measures, which, alone or in combination, all aimed to provide adequate responses to rights violations. These measures may be judicial and/or non-judicial and involve domestic and/or international state and non-state actors. A more ambitious approach goes beyond the mere focused responses to violations and advocates a structural transformation of the society concerned. While such a concept of transformative justice rightly points to some of the shortcomings of TJ and stresses the importance of socioeconomic injustice and inequality as the root causes of violence and rights violations, it faces even more problems regarding its actual implementation on the ground.