SOCY09001 2022 Introduction to Social Justice Theory
The aim of this module is to introduce learners to core theories in the field of social justice and assess their application to contemporary contexts in social care. Learners study the development of social justice theory, and will develop the skills to critically analysis of the range of social justice theories and examine their contribution of conceptualisations of recognition, redistribution, capabilities, rights and fairness, to various practice settings such as disability, family support and children/young people.
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this module the learner will/should be able to;
A systematic understanding of social justice knowledge an examination of major western theories of social justice
Scrutinise the principles of social justice as they developed in different historical contexts
Engage with the contribution of the contemporary theorists, on fairness, needs, and on recognition and distributive justice
Critically assess various theories of justice in the modern era, for example the capabilities approach of Nussbaum and its relevance to social care
Apply understandings of social justice to social care arenas of practice: distribution, recognition, group rights, participation
Teaching and Learning Strategies
This module will be delivered in a blended learning format comprise of the following elements:
- Online lectures, accompanied by discussion requirements on key learning points
- Workshop periods or block teaching to facilitate in depth learning, discussion and assessment
- Where residential workshops will be delivered on campus, there will also be an option for students to attend online where they cannot attend in person.
- Independent study by learners
Module Assessment Strategies
Students will be required to engage with continuous assessment during the semester, this may be a single piece of work or two pieces of work where students engaging in peer learning.
At the end of term there will be an essay that is a workplace based project to assess learners understanding of key tenets of the module and their capacity to interpret their learning in the context of their particular work place. Such an assessment strategy enables learners to demonstrate their capacity to develop their own thinking in relation to frameworks for social justice work and engage with the practical challenges of initiating change in their own work setting.
Continuous Assessment 50%
Final Essay 50%
Repeat Assessments
Learners will repeat either the essay or the project with assignment guidelines provided
Indicative Syllabus
Defining social justice and the relationship between principles of social justice and associated values: equality, freedom, rights, citizenship
Formal and substantive equality; Equality of access, participation and outcome
Rawls theory of justice - outline and critique
Theories of distribution and recognition: the work of Alex Honneth and Nancy Frazer
The concept of group rights and equality: the work of Okin and Parekh
Democracy, difference and inclusion: the work of Young and Philips
The capabilities approach and human development: the work of Nussbaum and Sen
Application to social care contexts: examine the contribution of the above theories of social justice to emancipatory practice in social care
Coursework & Assessment Breakdown
Coursework Assessment
Title | Type | Form | Percent | Week | Learning Outcomes Assessed | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Reviewing and demonstrating theories of social justice in context | Coursework Assessment | Assessment | 40 % | Week 7 | 1,2,3 |
2 | Applying social justice theory to practice | Project | Essay | 60 % | Week 13 | 4,5 |
Online Learning Mode Workload
Type | Location | Description | Hours | Frequency | Avg Workload |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Workshop / Seminar | Flat Classroom | Workshops on Social Justice in context | 9 | Twice Per Semester | 1.20 |
Online Lecture | Online | Substantive theoretical content | 1.5 | Weekly | 1.50 |
Required & Recommended Book List
2019-09-24 In the Shadow of Justice Princeton University Press
ISBN 9780691163086 ISBN-13 0691163081
In this first-ever history of contemporary liberal theory, Forrester shows how liberal egalitarianism--a set of ideas about justice, equality, obligation, and the state--became dominant, and traces its emergence from the political and ideological context of the postwar United States and Britain.d Britain.
2018-04-10 Not Enough Harvard University Press
ISBN 9780674737563 ISBN-13 0674737563
Jacobin legacy: the origins of social justice -- National welfare and the universal declaration -- FDR's second bill -- Globalizing welfare after empire -- Basic needs and human rights -- Global ethics from equality to subsistence -- Human rights in the neoliberal maelstrom
2005 A Theory of Justice Harvard University Press
ISBN 0674017722 ISBN-13 9780674017726
Though the revised edition of A Theory of Justice, published in 1999, is the definitive statement of Rawls's view, so much of the extensive literature on Rawls's theory refers to the first edition. This reissue makes the first edition once again available for scholars and serious students of Rawls's work.
2013-06-27 Governing the World
ISBN 0141011939 ISBN-13 9780141011936
The compelling and provocative history of world government, from acclaimed author Mark Mazower Shortlisted for the RUSI 2013 Duke of Wellington Medal for Military LiteratureIn 1815 the shocked and exhausted victors of the decades of fighting that had engulfed Europe for a generation agreed to a new system for keeping the peace. Instead of independent states changing sides, doing deals and betraying one another, a new, collegial 'Concert of Europe' would ensure that the brutal chaos of the Napoleonic Wars never happened again.Mark Mazower's remarkable new book recreates two centuries of international government - the struggle to spread values and build institutions to bring order to an anarchic and dangerous state system.
2020-01-31 The Human Rights Dictatorship Cambridge University Press
ISBN 1108440789 ISBN-13 9781108440783
Richardson-Little exposes the forgotten history of human rights in the German Democratic Republic, placing the history of the Cold War, Eastern European dissidents and the revolutions of 1989 in a new light. By demonstrating how even a communist dictatorship could imagine itself to be a champion of human rights, this book challenges popular narratives on the fall of the Berlin Wall and illustrates how notions of human rights evolved in the Cold War as they were re-imagined in East Germany by both dissidents and state officials. Ultimately, the fight for human rights in East Germany was part of a global battle in the post-war era over competing conceptions of what human rights meant. Nonetheless, the collapse of dictatorship in East Germany did not end this conflict, as citizens had to choose for themselves what kind of human rights would follow in its wake.
2018-12-05 On the Spirit of Rights University of Chicago Press
ISBN 9780226588988 ISBN-13 022658898X
By the end of the eighteenth century, politicians in America and France were invoking the natural rights of man to wrest sovereignty away from kings and lay down universal basic entitlements. Exactly how and when did rights come to justify such measures? In On the Spirit of Rights, Dan Edelstein answers this question by examining the complex genealogy of the rights regimes enshrined in the American and French Revolutions. With a lively attention to detail, he surveys a sprawling series of debates among rulers, jurists, philosophers, political reformers, writers, and others, who were all engaged in laying the groundwork for our contemporary systems of constitutional governance. Every seemingly new claim about rights turns out to be a variation on a theme, as late medieval notions were subtly repeated and refined to yield the talk of rights we recognize today. From the Wars of Religion to the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen to the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, On the Spirit of Rights is a sweeping tour through centuries of European intellectual history and an essential guide to our ways of thinking about human rights today.
2011-09-11 Justice and the Politics of Difference Princeton University Press
ISBN 9780691152622 ISBN-13 0691152624
In this classic work of feminist political thought, Iris Marion Young challenges the prevailing reduction of social justice to distributive justice. The starting point for her critique is the experience and concerns of the new social movements that were created by marginal and excluded groups, including women, African Americans, and American Indians, as well as gays and lesbians. Young argues that by assuming a homogeneous public, democratic theorists fail to consider institutional arrangements for including people not culturally identified with white European male norms. Consequently, theorists do not adequately address the problem of an inclusive participatory framework. Basing her vision of the good society on the culturally plural networks of contemporary urban life, Young makes the case that normative theory and public policy should undermine group-based oppression by affirming rather than suppressing social group differences. Danielle Allen's new foreword contextualizes Young's work and explains how debates surrounding social justice have changed since and been transformed by the original publication of Justice and the Politics of Difference.
2020-02-29 Catholic Cosmopolitanism and Human Rights Cambridge University Press
ISBN 9781108486125 ISBN-13 1108486126
Provides a more complete account of the human rights project that factors in the contribution of cosmopolitan Catholicism.
2008-04-17 Inventing Human Rights: A History W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN 9780393331998 ISBN-13 0393331997
In this extraordinary work of cultural and intellectual history, Professor Hunt grounds the creation of human rights in the changes that authors brought to literature, the rejection of torture as a means of finding out truth, and the spread of empathy over the centuries.
2015-04-04 Political Emotions Belknap Press
ISBN 0674503805 ISBN-13 9780674503809
Martha Nussbaum asks: How can we sustain a decent society that aspires to justice and inspires sacrifice for the common good? Amid negative emotions endemic even to good societies, public emotions rooted in loveintense attachments outside our controlcan foster commitment to shared goals and keep at bay the forces of disgust and envy.
2011 Creating capabilities
ISBN OCLC:821823435
Module Resources
Cray, G. Burchardt, T. and D. Gordon (2008) Social Justice and Public Policy-seeking fairness in diverse societies. Bristol: Policy Press
Frazer N. (1996) Social Justice in the Age of Identity Politics: Redistribution, Recognition, and Participation THE TANNER LECTURES ON HUMAN VALUES Stanford University April 30–May 2
Fraser, N. (1997). Justice interruptus: critical reflections on the "postsocialist" condition. New York: Routledge
Honneth, A. (2003) Redistribution or Recognition?: A Political-Philosophical Exchange, co-authored with Nancy Fraser New York London: Verso.
Miller, D. (1999) Principles of social justice. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press
Nussbaum, M. C. (2000) Women and human development. The capabilities approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Nussbaum, M. (2003) Capabilities as fundamental entitlements: Sen and social justice. Feminist Economics, 9(2–3), 33–59.
Nussbaum, M. C. (2011) Creating capabilities. The human development approach. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
Okin Moller S. (1989) Justice, Gender and The Family. New York: Basic Books, Inc.
Parekh, B. (2000) Rethinking Multiculturalism: Cultural Diversity and Political Theory. Basingstoke and London: Macmillan
Payne. M. (2014) Social Justice and Social Care in Routledge International Handbook of Social Justice (ed) M. Reisch. Oxon: Routledge
Rawls, J. (1999). A theory of justice (Revised edition). Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
Sen, A. (1979) Equality of what? The Tanner lecture on human values. California: Stanford University.
Sen, A. (1999) Development as freedom. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Young, I. M. (1990) Justice and the politics of difference. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
Equality and Social Justice Ireland Website: http://www.equalityandsocialjustice.com/campaigns.php
Hanlon N. (2009) Valuing Equality in Social Care availble online at http://arrow.dit.ie/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1116&context=ijass
Vincent de Paul Website http://www.svp.ie/Social-Justice.aspx
Social Justice Ireland website http://www.socialjustice.ie/