Why social

justice?

What is it?

Your definition…
 Consequentialist moral reasoning: locates
morality in the consequences of action.
• An example of this is Utilitarianism (Bentham; Mill):
maximise happiness (utility) and minimise pain and
unhappiness.
 Do what is best for the greater good.

 Categorical moral reasoning: locates

morality in certain duties and rights
 Some other thoughts on justice (key
thinkers)
 J. Rawls
• A theory of justice (1971)
 D. Harvey
• Social justice in the city (1973)
 I.M. Young
• Justice and the politics of difference (1990)
 S. Fainstein
• The just city (2010)
 E. Soja
• Seeking spatial justice (2010)
 Rawls – A Theory of Justice (1971)

 Perhaps THE leading figure in the theory of

social justice. At the centre of debates on how to
theorise social justice.
 John Rawls
 The ‘original position’ and veil of ignorance

 Hypothetical situation / thought experiment to

analyse our principles of justice.
 Rawls contends that the most rational choice for
the parties in the original position are two
principles of justice:

 The first principle

• guarantees the equal basic rights and liberties (so, no
slaves, no domination or injustice of opportunity – all
have the right to vote, etc)

 The second principle

• fair equality of educational and employment
opportunities enabling all to fairly compete for powers
and positions of office…
 John Rawls
 …a fair distribution of benefits ( but not
necessarily equal) and the mitigation of
disadvantage should be the aims of public
policy

 The expectation is not of eliminating material

inequality, but lessening it, thus, the criterion for
evaluating policy, is to ensure that they most
benefit the less well off…
 David Harvey

 Social justice in the city (1971)

 Marxist approach to social

justice

 Structural limits inherent in

capitalism produce inequalities
 Iris Marion Young
 Justice and the Politics of Difference (1990)

 Must contextualize justice in concrete

geographical, historical and institutional terms.

 Moved focus on the structural forces that generate

inequalities and injustice

 Shifted the emphasis from outcomes to process

and from assuring equality and fairness to
respecting difference and pluralistic solidarity.

 ‘Social justice…requires not the melting away of

differences, but institutions that promote
reproduction of and respect for group differences
 Soja
 Seeking spatial justice (2010)

 Influenced by Rawls, Young,

Harvey and Lefebvre’s Right to
the City.

 ‘spatial’ awareness to social justice

 (waste paper basket exercise)

 Some key thinkers and concepts
 Rawls – concerned with distribution; fairness

 Harvey – structural constraints – class,

capitalism

 Young – process, communities of difference,

pluralism

 Soja – inequality is expressed in ‘space’ – there

is a geography of (in)justice
 Discussion
 How do we know what is ‘just’?

 What role do our individual backgrounds play?

 Is justice in planning a utilitarian practice? Can

you think of examples?