Social Justice as a Disposition for Teacher Education Programs: Why is it Such a Problem?

The authors question the actions of National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) leadership for removing social justice in the glossary of terms to describe dispositions for education graduates, trace the origins of the multiple discourses surrounding social justice, and argue for problematizing social justice issues.

Social Movement Unionism or Social Justice Unionism? Disentangling Theoretical Confusion within the Global Labor Movement

After the election of John Sweeney as President of the AFL-CIO in October 1995, activists and supportive intellectuals in the United States began thinking about how to revitalize the almost moribund American labor movement. A key part of this literature has revolved around the concept of “social movement unionism.” This term touched a nerve, and has garnered widespread usage in North America over the past two decades. However, most researchers using this term have no idea that it was initially developed to understand the new unionism developed by members of specific labor movements in Brazil, the Philippines and South Africa, a type of unionism qualitatively different from that found in North America. This paper argues that the term “social movement unionism” should be confined only to labor organizations developing the same type of unionism, wherever in the world such should be found. Accordingly, this concept should not be utilized in North America today as there are no labor centers or unions present that are developing this type of trade unionism. It is important to clarify this confusion because it is leads to incorrect understandings and miscommunication. Accordingly, the current situation—whereby the same term is used to refer to two qualitatively different social phenomena —theoretically works against efforts to build global labor solidarity. What about the progressive, broad-scope unionism emerging in North America over the past two decades? Taking a page from labor history, this article argues that the proper precedent is progressive unionism developed by the United Packinghouse Workers of America, CIO, and others, and therefore should be referred to as “social justice unionism.” An Appendix provides a measurement tool. The argument is empirically grounded and theoretically developed, allowing us to better understand trade unionism around the globe.

Housing and Planning in London under the Conservative Government: Spatial impacts, social polarisation, sustainable development and social justice

This paper will be based on my continuing research on planning and housing development in London. It will focus on the proposals in the Government’s Housing and Planning Bill, which are likely to be enacted in Spring 2016. It will review the evidence of potential spatial impacts in terms of the supply of existing affordable homes and the location and affordability of new supply. This will be related to a review of the alternative development options for London’s growth in the context of the Mayor of London’s draft 2050 Infrastructure Plan. The paper will analyse the potential impact of new Government policy and legislation on whether London’s housing requirements can be delivered in accordance with the objectives of sustainable planning and social justice, and will also consider the constraints on the ability of the new Mayor of London, to be elected in May 2016 to achieve manifesto commitments.

Design as Symbolic Violence. Design for Social Justice.

Design embeds ideas in communication and artefacts in subtle and psychologically powerful ways. Sociologist Pierre Bourdieu coined the term ‘symbolic violence’ to describe how powerful ideologies, priorities, values and even sensibilities are constructed and reproduced through cultural institutions, processes and practices. Through symbolic violence, individuals learn to consider unjust conditions as natural and even come to value customs and ideas that are oppressive. Symbolic violence normalises structural violence and enables real violence to take place, often preceding it and later justifying it. Feminist, class, race and indigenous scholars and activists describe how oppressions (how patriarchy, racism, colonialism, etc.) exist within institutions and structures, and also within cultural practices that embed ideologies into everyday life. The theory of symbolic violence sheds light on how design can function to naturalise oppressions and then obfuscate power relations around this process. Through symbolic violence, design can function as an enabler for the exploitation of certain groups of people and the environment they (and ultimately ‘we’) depend on to live. Design functions as symbolic violence when it is involved with the creation and reproduction of ideas, practices, tools and processes that result in structural and other types of violence (including ecocide). Breaking symbolic violence involves discovering how it works and building capacities to challenge and transform dysfunctional ideologies, structures and institutions. This conversation will give participants an opportunity to discuss, critique and/or develop the theory of design as symbolic violence as a basis for the development of design strategies for social justice.

Social Justice Cannot, in the Form Commonly Articulated, Meaningfully Guide Action

Nurses – along with many others – are often told that they should or must accept and work towards the promotion of social justice. Further, it is claimed that social justice represents or is a shared nursing value. This presentation challenges these assertions. Claims regarding shared values easily fall prey to forms of attribution error. Alternatively, while social justice is sometimes presented as a remedy or alternative to market disutility, the quality of arguments in which this linkage appears leave much to be desired and, in such instances, the robustness of these claims collapse. Or, assertions regarding social justice frequently appear without supporting explanation or justification. It is simply assumed that social justice (inadequately defined) is a ‘good thing’. This is not necessarily a problem. The normative strength of a claim does not rest only upon the arguments put forward in support of it. However, when social justice is advanced as mere assertion, often in a manner devoid of specificity, claims that the concept should be embraced and claims that the concept should or can promote action in the world, lack persuasive force. Moreover, in some articulations, the concept appears to generate illiberal and intolerant consequences. This presentation does not argue for inequality or social injustice. Rather, it suggests that underdeveloped and frail arguments require improvement or dismissal.

Labor Regime and Social Justice: Consequences of Economic and Social Stratification among Maya Peasants in Central Quintana Roo, Mexico

The article explores consequences of socioeconomic stratification for milpa agriculture and for the organization of labor in a Lowland Maya peasant society. Both present-day and past situations are analyzed. The article includes a discussion of the concept of local social justice which serves as a framework of analysis of institutions that allocate goods and services and provide rules and norms for social interaction.

Catalyst: Architecture for Change and Social Justice

In major cities today, there are neighborhoods that have been continually underserved and as a result are in decay. Private investors and developers turn to these particular neighborhoods, propose large developments that gentrify these areas, displacing communities and with them their social, political, and economic issues. The purpose of this thesis is to analyze South West, Baltimore, a community composed of 8 neighborhoods on the verge of being gentrified, by incoming development. Through investigating the key issues present in this community for many years, this thesis will attempt to develop a catalytic environment, which will facilitate change within the community by providing a place for its members to help tackle these issues, improving their circumstances, and the circumstances of the neighborhoods they form part of.

In Search of Social Justice: Current Developments in Higher Education and the Labour Market in Bulgaria

The discussions about social justice date from ancient times, but despite the enduring interest in the topic and the progress made, we are still witnessing injustices throughout the world. Thus, the search for social justice, under some form, is an inseparable part of our lives. In general, social justice may be considered as a critical idea that challenges us to reform our institutions and practices in the name of greater fairness (Miller 1999, p. x). In political and policy debates, social justice is often related to fair access (Brown, 2013) but at the same time its meanings seem to vary when we consider different definitions, perspectives and social theories (Zajda, Majhanovich, & Rust, 2006). When seen in the context of higher education, social justice appears in relevant literature as a buzzword (Patton, Shahjahan, Riyad, & Osei-Kofi, 2010). Within the recent studies of higher education and public debates related to the development of higher education, more emphasis is placed on the link between higher education and the economic growth and how higher education could be more responsive to the labour market demands, and little emphasis has been put on social justice. Given this, the present study attempts to at least partially fill the gap with regard to this apparently very topical issue, especially in the context of the unprecedented worldwide expansion of higher education in the last century (Schofer & Meyer, 2005), an expansion that is expected to continue in the next decades. More specifically, the expansion of higher education intensified in the second part of the 20th century, especially after World War II. It was seen as a result of the intertwined dynamics related to demographic, economic and political pressures (Goastellec, 2008a). This trend undoubtedly contributed to the increase of the size of the student body. To illustrate this trend, we may point out that in the period between 2000 and 2007, the number of tertiary students in the world increased from 98,303,539 to 150,656,459 (UNESCO, 2009, p. 205). This growth occurred in all regions of the world, including Central and Eastern Europe, North America and Western Europe, and contributed to raising the number of tertiary graduates. Thus, in the period between 2000 and 2008, the total number of tertiary graduates in the European Union (EU) 27 increased by a total of 35 percent (or 4.5 percent per year). However, this growth was very uneven, ranging from 21.1 percent in Romania to 0.7 percent in Hungary (European Commission working staff document, 2011). The increase of the number of students and graduates was seen as enhancing the social justice in higher education, since it is assumed that expansion “extends a valued good to a broader spectrum of the population” (Arum, Gamoran, & Shavit, 2007, p. 29). However, concerns for a deep contradiction for 21st-century higher education also emerged with regard to its expansion.

Structured decision making as a tool for facilitating stakeholder engagement in non-renewable resource management: using the case study of hydraulic fracturing in the Green Point Shale formation in western Newfoundland

This thesis examines the importance of effective stakeholder engagement that complies with the doctrines of social justice in non-renewable resources management decision-making. It uses hydraulic fracturing in the Green Point Shale Formation in Western Newfoundland as a case study. The thesis uses as theoretical background John Rawls’ and David Miller’ theory of social justice, and identifies the social justice principles, which are relevant to stakeholder engagement. The thesis compares the method of stakeholder engagement employed by the Newfoundland and Labrador Hydraulic Fracturing Review Panel (NLHFRP), with the stakeholder engagement techniques recommended by the Structured Decision Making (SDM) model, as applied to a simulated case study involving hydraulic fracturing in the Green Point Shale Formation. Using the already identified social justice principles, the thesis then developed a framework to measure the level of compliance of both stakeholder engagement techniques with social justice principles. The main finding of the thesis is that the engagement techniques prescribed by the SDM model comply more closely with the doctrines of social justice than the engagement techniques applied by the NLHFRP. The thesis concludes by recommending that the SDM model be more widely used in non- renewable resource management decision making in order to ensure that all stakeholders’ concerns are effectively heard, understood and transparently incorporated in the nonrenewable resource policies to make them consistent with local priorities and goals, and with the social justice norms and institutions.

Las facultades discrecionales en el estado social de derecho colombiano: una aproximación a la discrecionalidad técnica desde la doctrina y la jurisprudencia

En el presente trabajo de grado, se realiza un acopio, valoración y respectivo análisis de la jurisprudencia nacional, la doctrina especializada y la legislación vigente en Colombia en materia de Facultades Administrativas Discrecionales, con el propósito de determinar, si en nuestro ordenamiento existe diferencia de fondo en el tratamiento de la Discrecionalidad Técnica entre la jurisprudencia contencioso administrativa y la constitucional. Así mismo, se resalta que en un Estado Social de Derecho como el nuestro, es necesario que el quehacer administrativo se aproxime cada vez más a los ideales constitucionales de transparencia y justicia social, de forma tal que las decisiones que se adopten, estén siempre sujetas a los principios de legalidad y debido proceso, y en todo caso, propendan por la salvaguarda del bien común y el interés general.

Responsabilidade social das empresas e valores humanos: um estudo sobre a atitude dos gestores brasileiros

In the last decades of the 21st century, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has become one of the most widely debated issues in business management, concerning researchers, politicians, managers and society at large. With multilateral implications in economic and social life, CSR refers, essentially, to the discussion about the boundaries of business intervention in society and the ethical limits that should regulate that intervention. It questions the impact of business practices in social well-being, the role left for corporations and for the State in attending to community needs, and which are, at last, the responsibilities that tie enterprises to society. In this research, CSR is approached from the perspective of its ethical foundations, based on the moral reasoning of the business manager, as a key organizational leader with relevant decision power. Specifically, the research aims to understand how the personal human value system and the ethical orientation of managers influence their attitude towards CSR, considering this attitude as an indicator of managerial behavior that translates into corporate performance. Theoretically, CSR concept is discussed and presented as a set of social commitments, based on a strict interpretation of its meaning. As to human values, its philosophical roots are briefly analyzed and Schwartz modern motivational theory is addressed as main reference for studying the personal value system of managers in this research. Concerning ethics, based on classical theory from moral philosophy, references are seek in John Stuart Mill¿s utilitarianism, Immanuel Kant¿s deontological absolutism, John Rawls¿s theory of justice and the ethics of virtue inspired by Aristotle¿s moral thoughts. Based on an extended literature review, research hypothesis are proposed as part of a theoretical model of analysis named Individual Attitude Towards Social Responsibility Model. In order to test the theory¿s empirical validity, it was conducted a field study with 252 Brazilian managers, mainly from the metropolitan areas of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. Results show that managerial attitude aligned with CSR principles is favored by conservative personal values, protectors of stability and centered on collective will, and by an ethical orientation based on egalitarianism as postulated by distributive justice principles. However, results also show that the influence of values and personal ethics on managerial attitude towards CSR only occur in managers younger than 30 years old. Findings and their meanings are discussed, as well as summarized in the Axiological and Ethical Determinants of Managers¿ Social Commitment Model. Finally, methodological limitations are evaluated and clues for further research are suggested.

O princípio da vedação ao retrocesso social e o papel dos poderes públicos na efetivação dos direitos fundamentais sociais

The purpose of this dissertation is to analyze the role of Public Powers in the enforcement of fundamental social rights, according to the principle of prohibition to social regression. The Federal Constitution of Brazil, situated in a position normative hierarchical superior, disciplines the legal and political process of the country, determining how Public Powers (Legislative, Executive and Judiciary) should act to enforce fundamental rights (social). Thus, features a cast of fundamental rights that aim to ensure social justice, highlighting the concern to ensure social values aimed at reducing social inequalities. The will of the state should be prevented by controlling the constitutionality of measures which restrict fundamental social rights, assuming the principle of human dignity, pillar of Social and Democratic State of Right, a dual role in the brazilian legal system, acting as the presupposition of jurisdictional control of the constitutionality of restrictive acts and as supervisory of omission or insufficient action of the State in the fulfillment of their fundamental duties. The constitutional determinations remove from the legislator the option to create or not the law that prints effectiveness to the social rights, as well as from the Executive the option of to execute or not rules directed at realization of the constitutional parameters, and Judiciary to behave or not in accordance with the Constitution, being given to the Powers only the arbitrariness of "how" to do, so that all functions performed by public actors to use the Constitution as a repository of the foundational values of the collectivity. Any situation that does not conform the principle of proportionality in relation to the enforcement of fundamental rights, especially the social, represents an unacceptable social regression unconstitutional. The constitutional rules and principles postulated by the realization of the rights, freedoms and guarantees of the human person, acting the principle of prohibition to social regression to regulate a concrete situation, whenever it is intended to change, reducing or deleting, the content of a social right. This paper of limit of state action serves to provide to the society legal security and protection of trust, ensuring the core of every social right. This should be effected to be sheltered the existential minimum, as a guarantee of the inviolability of human life, respecting the constitutional will, not falling into social regression

Responsabilidade civil como função social na distribuição e revenda de combustível face ao direito do consumidor e ao meio ambiente

The civil liability of the distribution and retail fuel stems from the fact business activity developed to be high risk and can be said as risk inherent or latent danger that has predictability and normality characterized by placing the consumer in a position of vulnerability, such as the environment, both public policies defined and constitutional protection. Consumer protection as a fundamental right and the environment as the primacy of social order aims the welfare and social justice, as inserted right to the third dimension, are guarded by the State when it creates operational standards through public policies and indirectly intervenes in the economic order. This intervention is due to consumer protection and the environment are economic order principles, founded on free initiative and free competition, ensuring everyone a dignified existence which underlies the irradiation of fundamental rights in private initiative, before the commercial evaluation, mass consumption, the emergence of new technologies that link consumers to the environment before the protection of life, health and safety and ensuring a better quality of life for present and future generations. To repair this damage and the right to information are provided as fundamental rights that put the person at the epicenter of the relations and collective interest stands out against individual interests that to be done need public-private partnership. In such a way that the used methodology was an analysis of documents correlating them with bibliographic sources whose goals are to recognize the civil responsibility as limit to subjective right, having to develop a social function where guilt and risk grow distant and the damage is configured as a consequence of inherent risk, requiring the State interventional postures in fulfilling its public policy; prevailing in these risky activities the solidarity of those involved in the chain of production and socialization of damage forward those are provided directly of products of hazardous nature that put in a position of vulnerability the environment and the consumer

Social cohesion: inclusion and a sense of belonging in Latin America and the Caribbean. Summary

Includes bibliography