Lecture and Seminar Programme

Understanding Contemporary Society

Lecture and Seminar Programme

Lecture 19 Social Justice and Social Inequality

This lecture outlines the main theories of social justice which have been developed to understand and critique various injustices. It concentrates in particular upon inequalities of income/wealth and gender. Possible approaches to social reform suggested by this synergy of theoretical conceptualisation and empirical data are outlined.

Seminar Reading and Preparation

Miller, D. (2005) ‘What is Social Justice?’, in N. Pearce and W. Paxton (eds.) Social Justice: Building a Fairer Britain, London, Politico’s.

- Can we really distinguish clearly and usefully between just and unjust forms of inequality?

- How would you define notions like “fairness” and “social justice”?

Further Reading

Arrighi, B. (ed.) (2001) Understanding Inequality, Lanham, Md.:Rowman & Littlefield.

Baker, J. et. al (2009) Equality, 2nd ed. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan

Barry, B. (2005)Why Social Justice Matters, Cambridge:Polity.

Butler, T. and Watt, P. (2007)Understanding Social Inequality, London:Sage.

Clayton, M. & Williams, A. (eds.) (2004) Social Justice, Oxford:Blackwell.

Cohen, G. A.(2000) If You're an Egalitarian, How Come You're so Rich?,Cambridge, Mass.:Harvard University Press.

Cohen, G. A. (2008) Rescuing Justice and Equality, Cambridge, Mass.:HarvardUniversity Press.

Dean, H. (2009) ‘Critiquing Capabilities: The distractions of a beguiling concept’, Critical Social Policy, Vol. 29, No. 2, pp. 261-278

Graham, P. (2007) Rawls, Banbury: Oneworld.

Hills, J. (2004) Inequality and the State, Oxford: OxfordUniversity Press.

Hills, J. & Stewart, K. (eds.) (2005) A More Equal Society?,Bristol:Policy Press.

Hills, J., Sefton, T. and Stewart, K. (2009) Towards a more equal society?Bristol: Policy Press

Miller, D. (1999)Principles of Social Justice, Cambridge, Mass:HarvardUniversity Press.

Nussbaum, M. and Sen, A. (eds.) (1993) The Quality of Life, Oxford: Clarendon Press

Pogge, T. (2007) John Rawls, Oxford: OxfordUniversity Press.

Rawls, J. (1971) A Theory of Justice, Cambridge, Mass: HarvardUniversity Press.

Rawls, J. (2001) Justice as Fairness, Cambridge, Mass: HarvardUniversity Press.

Sen, A. (1999) Development as Freedom,Oxford: OxfordUniversity Press

Sen, A. (2009) The Idea of Justice, London: Allen Lane

Svallfors, S. (ed.) (2005) Analyzing Inequality, Stanford: StanfordUniversity Press.

White, S. (2007) Equality, Cambridge: Polity Press.