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Social Work and Social Justice: Concepts, Challenges, and Strategies

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Social justice in health system; a neglected component of academic nursing education: a qualitative study

Hosein habibzadeh.

Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery, Urmia University of Medical Sciences, Urmia, Iran

Madineh Jasemi

Fariba hosseinzadegan, associated data.

The interview dataset generated and analysed during the current study are not publicly available due to promises of participant anonymity and confidentiality. However, on reasonable request the data could be available from the corresponding author. All applications should be sent to [email protected]. All requests will be answered within a maximum of 1 month by email.

In recent decades, increasing social and health inequalities all over the world has highlighted the importance of social justice as a core nursing value. Therefore, proper education of nursing students is necessary for preparing them to comply with social justice in health systems. This study is aimed to identify the main factors for teaching the concept of social justice in the nursing curriculum.

This is a qualitative study, in which the conventional content analysis approach was employed to analyze a sample of 13 participants selected using purposive sampling method. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to collect and analyze the data.

Analysis of the interviews indicated that insufficient education content, incompetency of educators, and inappropriate education approaches made social justice a neglected component in the academic nursing education. These factors were the main sub-categories of the study and showed the negligence of social justice in academic nursing education.

Research findings revealed the weaknesses in teaching the concept of social justice in the nursing education. Accordingly, it is necessary to modify the content of nursing curriculum and education approaches in order to convey this core value. Since nursing educators act as role models for students, especially in practical and ethical areas, more attention should be paid to competency of nursing educators, specially training in the area of ethical ideology and social justice.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12912-021-00534-1.

Professional values include action standards that are accepted by group members and provide a framework for evaluating beliefs and notions affecting behavior [ 1 ]. Acquisition of professional nursing values is a prerequisite for resolving conflicts; it improves service quality and increases job satisfaction of nurses [ 2 ]. The core values accepted and presented by American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) (1998) include human dignity, integrity, autonomy, altruism, and social justice [ 3 ], out of which social justice has attracted more attention in recent years. Disproportionate burden of diseases and deaths in parts of the society associated with environmental and socioeconomic factors has been recognized for decades; however, the number of documents on these issues has increased dramatically over the past 15 years [ 4 ]. The WHO Commission on Social Determinants of Health attributes these differences to social inequalities in the distribution of power, income, shelter, education, and healthcare as well as climate change, vulnerability, and other life conditions. It also prioritizes social justice as a mechanism for correcting and eliminating inequalities [ 5 ]. Social justice in the health system refers to providing equal healthcare services for all individuals, regardless of their personal characteristics [ 6 ]. The AACN defines social justice as fair treatment, regardless of one’s economic status, race, ethnicity, age, citizenship, disability, or sexual orientation [ 7 ].

Although social justice has been identified as a professional value in documents issued by reputable nursing associations such as International Council of Nurses (ICN), Canadian Nurses Association (CNA), American Nurses Association (ANA), and AACN [ 8 ], the discussion of social justice in nursing profession has always been accompanied by serious doubts and concerns [ 9 ]. In addition, nurses’ responses to social injustice have not always been admirable, and nursing profession’s poor performance originates from various factors such as unawareness [ 10 ].

Development of a professional value such as social justice is a continuous and long-term process that begins with professional nursing education and continues throughout years of nursing practice. Education plays a key role in acquiring professional values [ 11 ]. Students, educators, faculties, clinical and educational experiences, and individual values are among the most important components of learning and development of professional values [ 12 ]. It is very important to train highly skilled and qualified nurses to provide necessary care for heterogeneous populations in today’s ever-changing demographic prospect. Nursing students must understand their responsibility for poplulation health issues and social factors affecting health (eg, world hunger, environmental pollution, lack of access to health care, violation of human rights, and inequitable distribution of health care resources, including nursing services) and in this regard acquire the necessary knowledge and skills [ 13 ].

To institutionalize the concept of social justice in nursing students, especially in developed countries, measures have been taken in the area of education, which include modifications made to nursing curriculum and education approaches [ 14 ]. For instance, simulation is a one of new methods utilized for teaching this concept [ 15 ]. Since the mid-2000s, there has been an increase in tendency towards online learning [ 16 ], co-curricular experiences [ 17 ], and digital storytelling [ 18 ] in order to promote students’ understanding of social justice issues. Nevertheless, some studies have addressed the weaknesses of nursing curriculum in teaching social justice [ 19 , 20 ] and have attributed nurses’ inability in pursuing social justice to their poor scientific and practical competencies [ 21 ]. Although several quantitative and qualitative studies have been conducted in recent decades to institutionalize the concept of social justice among nursing graduates [ 22 – 25 ], academic nursing education has unfortunately failed to train competent nurses who seek information and training on social justice. Considering the importance of this subject, a qualitative approach [ 26 ] was adopted to provide an in-depth understanding of social justice based on the realistic results derived from the participants’ real experiences. Therefore, in this study, the experiences of nursing educators and students in identifying the main factors for teaching the concept of social justice in nursing education program were analyzed.

Study design and setting

This qualitative study was conducted using a conventional content analysis method. The participants were recruited from three nursing faculties (Urmia, Tabriz, and Tehran) and two teaching hospitals of Tehran (Motahari Hospital) and Urmia (Talegani Hospital) in Iran. These cities were selected due to their large size and forerun in educational, clinical, and social nursing activities.

Study participants

In view of the objective of the study - identify the main factors for teaching the concept of social justice in the nursing curriculum - we initially selected nursing educators by purposive sampling method. Nursing educators who had more than 5 years of service experience and among the prominent educators with activity in nursing institutions that involved in developing social justice were selected. The data from the study then led us to students and clinical nurses. Among the students, the final year undergraduate students, exemplary and active in social fields, and among the nurses, those with more than 2 years of service experience, accepted by the system professionally and actively in the field of social justice, such as voluntary activities in public health promotion, were selected for the interview.

The participants included 6 men and 9 women with the mean age of 39.07 ± 12.92 years old and mean work experience of 20.00 ± 7.22 years. Out of all the participants, 5 individuals had PhD, whereas 2 had Master’s degrees; the rest had Bachelor’s degrees in nursing. In total, 7 individuals were nursing educators, 2 individuals were clinical nurses, and 4 individuals were nursing students (Table 1 ).

Demographic Characteristics of the Participants

No.	Education	Work experience	Position	City
1	PhD	28	Faculty member	Urmia
2	PhD	25	Faculty member	Urmia
3	Master’s	28	Faculty member	Urmia
4	PhD	24	Faculty member	Tabriz
5	PhD	22	Faculty member	Tabriz
6	Bachelor’s	N/A	Student	Urmia
7	Bachelor’s	N/A	Student	Urmia
8	Master’s	10	Faculty member	Urmia
9	PhD	11	Faculty member/Policymaker	Tehran
10	Bachelor’s	20	Clinical nurse	Urmia
11	Bachelor’s	12	Clinical nurse	Tehran
12	Bachelor’s	N/A	Student	Urmia
13	Bachelor’s	N/A	Student	Urmia

Data collection

The data were collected using in-depth, semi-structured individual interviews conducted at the times and in the places selected by the participants (mainly at nursing faculties). Each interview lasted for 30–90 min; they were audio recorded upon the participants’ permission and transcribed verbatim. All the 13 interviews were conducted by the research team (FH, MJ, and HH) between February and November 2019. The participants were asked questions about their experiences of (learning/teaching) social justice issues. Considering the abstract nature of the research subject, the researchers raised more objective questions. For instance, the educators were asked to “describe their experiences of modification to the curriculum to cover social justice issues”, whereas the students were asked to “describe their experiences of social justice-based practices during internships”. In addition, to better identify factors affecting social justice education in nursing, the educators and students were asked questions such as “Considering your experiences, what factors have affected your engagement in social justice in education?” and “How do you describe education approaches adopted by educators for teaching social justice?”, respectively. (See Additional file 1 for details). The researchers continued the interviews until the data were completely saturated, i.e. when no new idea, concept, or category was derived from the final interviews.

To better relate to the environments of the study and the participants and analyze the data realistically, the researchers also used field notes. Field notes are a brief summary of the observations made while collecting data. This is not limited to a particular type of activity or behavior and assesses the non-verbal behaviors of the participants and their interactions with others. It also depicts a picture of a social position. In this study, field notes also made a detailed presentation of the situation in the right place immediately after the interview and provided the opportunity to confirm the psychological and emotional reactions of the participants. For example, attending the emergency ward of one of the teaching hospitals in Urmia city and observing nursing education in the clinical environment led to a field note focusing the training on the clinical procedures that confirm the insufficient educational content and lack of attention to social justice in nursing education.

Data analysis

After the data were collected, they were analyzed using the conventional content analysis approach. For this purpose, Grundheim and Lundman’s (2004) method was adopted [ 27 ]. In this method, an entire interview is regarded as an analysis unit involving notes that must be analyzed and coded. The researchers listened to the interviews for several times and transcribed the recorded interviews verbatim. The paragraphs, sentences, and words were considered meaning units. A meaning unit is a set of words and sentences that are related to each other in content and are categorized based on their content and context. The texts were reviewed several times to highlight words containing key concepts or meaning units and extract the initial codes. The codes were then reviewed several times in a continuous process from code extraction to labeling. Similar codes were merged, categorized, and labeled and the subcategories were determined. The extracted subcategories were finally compared and merged (if possible) to form the main categories.

Assessing data accuracy and stability

Guba and Lincoln’s (1986) criteria were used to ensure the accuracy and stability of the research data. The credibility of the data was assessed using member-checking and prolonged engagement techniques. For member-checking technique, the participants reviewed the content of the interview and the resulting codes to ensure the accurate meaning and for really reflecting their experiences. The data were also assessed by an external researcher (peer debriefing). To ensure the dependability, data collection methods, interview, taking notes, coding, and data analysis were expressed in detail in order to make judging by the external auditor (external auditing). In order to achieve confirmability, the audit trail method was used, so that all stages of the research, especially the stages of data analysis and the results, were provided to checking of two expert colleagues in the field of qualitative research. The transferability of the findings was also established by providing a rich description of the research report and the content of the interviews was represented by the selected quotations from the participants [ 28 ].

Ethical considerations

The participants were selected after the approval of Ethics Committee of Urmia University of Medical Sciences and the necessary permissions (Code: IR.UMSU.REC.1397.223) were granted. Prior to the interviews, the participants were informed about their anonymity, confidentiality of their information, the research method and objectives, and their right to leave the study at will. The participants also signed informed consent forms.

Classification of the interviews showed that three sub-categories of “insufficient educational content”, “limited competency of nursing educators”, and “inappropriate education approaches” led to the emergence of the main category called “social justice; a neglected component of academic education” (Table 2 ).

Categories, Subcategories, and Codes Extracted from the Interview Analysis

Core Category	Subcategories (1)	Primary concepts	Open Codes
			Deficiencies in academic courses provided on nursing ethics Deficiencies in academic courses provided on professional rights Insufficient attention to social determinants of health in education Lack of educational courses on culture-oriented care Insufficient attention to the topic of community-based care
			Presenting ethics course only for Bachelor’s program Failing to present ethics course for nursing students at all programs Failing to adequately repeat the discussed ethical topics presented to nursing students
			Putting unnecessary emphasis on biological health factors Allocating a large number of courses to medical issues Focusing educations on clinical care
			Insufficient knowledge of educators about ethical values Insufficient experience in teaching social justice issues Insufficient experience in social justice due to lack of regular attendance in clinical and social settings
			Discussing social justice issues based on personal beliefs Placing little importance on professional ethics Believing that nurses cannot play an effective role in justice promotion
			Use of teacher-based approaches in teaching ethical issues Concentration on lecturing approach Rare use of group discussions in teaching ethical issues
			Ignoring students’ attitudes towards the issue of social justice Paying less attention to changes occurring in students’ behaviors following an educational course Failing to prepare a proper scenario for teaching ethical issues Paying less attention to self-awareness and self-reflection techniques Failing to encourage students to improve their critical thinking skills

Social justice; a neglected component of academic education

Proper education plays a major role in training justice-seeking nurses. Social justice and its importance in healthcare are constituents of the nursing syllabus. Paying more attention to this issue in practical and objective areas of education by educators can influence students’ thoughts, attitudes, and behaviors to pursue justice in health systems. However, Iran’s education system has unfortunately failed to promote justice because of insufficient educational content, limited competency of nursing educators, and inappropriate education approaches.

Insufficient educational content

Development of a comprehensive nursing curriculum, especially on ethical issues such as social justice, could substantially contribute to the preparation of socially and morally conscious nurses who are able to make significant changes in the public health at local, national, and international levels. In this study, the participants highlighted some weaknesses in the content of the existing nursing curriculum such as lack of attention to social justice, discontinuity in presenting courses on ethical values, and allocating most of the nursing courses to medical issues and clinical care.

Lack of attention to social justice in nursing curriculum

Social justice is a core nursing value which plays a significant role in promoting justice by nursing students and nurses. However, according to the participants, it has unfortunately been neglected in the existing nursing curriculum. In this regard, one participant stated,

“In the fourth semester, we studied a course on nursing ethics. I think there was no discussion on social justice because I don’t remember anything about this topic” (Participant No. 7/Nursing Student).

Regarding the importance of teaching social determinants of health, another participant stated,

“I was not aware of the importance of social issues in health until I participated in a workshop called ‘Social Justice in Health’. It really changed my beliefs and broadened my perspective” (Participant No. 10/Clinical Nurse).

Discontinuity in presenting courses on ethical values

Values are major components of the nursing profession. The institutionalization and development of professional values such as social justice contribute significantly to the future of this profession. The few number of courses presented on ethical values and discontinuity in the presented courses (for instance, no course on ethical values is provided for post-graduate students) were major items mentioned by the participants. In this regard, one of the participants stated,

“When students are repeatedly reminded of the importance of a value, they will realize its importance and the value will be institutionalized in them. We partially studied professional values and social justice issues in the fourth semester of our undergraduate courses; however, no similar course was provided for us afterwards during the Master’s program” (Participant No. 5/ Faculty Member).

Or another participant stated:

“We cannot deny that the ethical issues have been institutionalized in our professional graduates to some extent. But, these issues are not worked on in a principled and scientific manner and that there is no constant focus on them. After all, the effect of the hidden curriculum has been more prominent.”(Participant No.1/Faculty Member).

Allocating most of nursing courses to medical issues and clinical care

Diseases and clinical care are among the most fundamental parts of theoretical and practical training provided for nursing students; however, due to the multi-dimensional nature of the nursing profession, special attention should be paid to other dimensions as well. According to the research results, the existing nursing curriculum focuses mainly on transferring knowledge and skills associated with physical and routine care. One participant expressed,

“Most of our courses were related to various diseases and nursing care, and educators rarely talked about ethical and legal issues during their lectures” (Participant No. 6/ Nursing Student).

Another participant stated the reasons for the focus of nursing education on the physical and caring dimensions:

“Well, when we see that our graduates have problems in providing quality clinical care, we also have to do more in the field of clinical care.”(Participant No.3/ Faculty Member).

Limited competency of nursing educators

Educators play an undeniable role in training competent nurses through institutionalizing beliefs and behaviors. Using proper teaching and behavioral approaches, educators can improve students’ critical thinking skills and prepare them to promote justice in health systems. According to the participants, insufficient competency of nursing educators in teaching social justice issues and inappropriate value perspectives of educators in developing social justice were the main properties of this category.

Insufficient capabilities of educators in teaching social justice issues

Educators must be equipped with sufficient scientific, practical, and ethical capacities in order to effectively institutionalize the concept of social justice in students. According to the participants, nursing educators’ insufficient knowledge and experience about social justice issues make it difficult for them to transfer such knowledge to their students. One participant said,

“When I was a student, I once informed my educator about the unjust patient admission procedure in the surgical department. Yet, my educator recommended me to do what the head nurses would say. I did not see the necessary authority in my educator to establish justice” (Participant No. 11/ Clinical Nurse).

Low presence of nursing educators in clinical and community settings is also one of the factors that, according to the participants, has contributed to this problem.

“Unfortunately, our professors are so involved in education and research, especially to promote themselves, that they do not have the opportunity to address social issues.” (Participant No.9/ Faculty Member).

Inappropriate value perspectives of educators in developing social justice

The participants highlighted the important role of nursing educators’ ethical perspectives in promoting the quality of education and training qualified nurses who would provide services tailored to the needs of the society. They also argued that ethical values could help educators establish and expand social justice in health systems. According to the results, most of the educators had undesirable value perspectives on establishing social justice in the area of health. In this respect, participant no. 5 stated,

“When a nurse has no right to make any decisions in a healthcare system, what can I say to the student about social justice?” (Participant No. 5/ Faculty Member).

“My main responsibility is to transfer knowledge in the field of nursing and I think ethics should be taught by educators in medical ethics.” (Participant No.2/ Faculty Member).

Inappropriate education approaches

Education approaches are considered an essential part of the educational structure and play a key role in transferring ethical values such as social justice to students. Given the abstract nature of social justice, choosing the best education approach could help educators resolve complicated problems during teaching in order to institutionalize professional values and beliefs. According to the findings, educators adopt poor education approaches to transfer ethical values such as social justice and self-awareness to students. In this regard, focusing on traditional education approaches and using insufficient affective learning approaches were cited by the participants.

Focusing on traditional education approaches

Undoubtedly, lecturing is one of the most widely used education approaches; however, this traditional method is very ineffective in teaching abstract concepts such as social justice. According to the participants, educators mostly use lecturing approach to teach social justice issues and students are rarely involved in the teaching process. One participant argued that educators mainly use teacher-centered approaches in ethical discussions, stating,

“We (the students) had no active role in the professional ethics class. The educator spoke on relevant topics based on the availed syllabus and provided some examples of clinical ethical issues. However, I think that educators must discuss social justice issues with students to help them visualize and understand cases of injustice and discuss appropriate reactions in such situations” (Participant No. 13/ Nursing Student).

Another participant stated this:

“The predominant teaching method in professional ethics classes has been lecturing. Every now and then, there was some discussions in between, but it was very rare. Other nursing educators were also using the lecture method when talking about ethics” (Participant No. 7/ Nursing Student).

Using insufficient affective learning approaches

The use of affective learning strategies such as reflective activities and simulations leading to emotional responses plays an important role in creating self-reflection and transferring professional knowledge and skills to nursing students. However, based on the participants’ experience, affective learning approaches are not used effectively and systematically in teaching ethical issues such as social justice. In this regard, one participant stated,

“Since there are too many topics on professional ethics, we (educators) can only convey basic issues to students and it is difficult for us to adopt other learning strategies such as the affective approach” (Participant No. 4/ Faculty Member).

The same participant further stated:

“Now, in the professional ethics class, I do my best to teach the content with a combination of methods. For example, we have formed a group for medical students in the cyberspace (WhatsApp) and asked students to express the issues and questions of clinical ethics. They should raise it there because there is no time in the classroom for these issues. However, we have not performed the same for nursing students yet” (Participant No. 4/ Faculty Member).

According to the research findings, social justice in a health system is a neglected component of academic nursing education due to factors including insufficient educational content, limited competency of nursing educators, and inappropriate education approaches. These factors were introduced as the main research subcategories in this study.

Some weaknesses were observed in the content of nursing curriculum, which is an main factor in promoting professional nursing values such as social justice in nursing students. Lack of attention to the issue of social justice in nursing curriculum has also been mentioned in other studies [ 13 , 20 ]. Based on the participants’ experience, most of the nursing courses are allocated to medical issues and clinical care. According to Thurman, clinical specialties have received the main focus of nursing curriculum, whereas little attention has been paid to social justice issues [ 21 ] . This problem can be attributed to the poor performance of nurses in clinical care. The participants also believed that there was discontinuity in presenting courses on ethical values because the professional ethics course was presented only to undergraduate students. This issue disrupts the proper institutionalization of ethical values such as social justice in nursing students. Frenk et al. believe that the preparation of healthcare professionals to address current healthcare inequalities and challenges has been slowed down by obsolete, fragmented, and static curriculum [ 29 ]. In addition, Rozendo et al. highlighted inconsistencies in terms of presenting social justice-related issues in nursing curricula and argued that there was little material on social justice in post-graduate nursing programs [ 14 ].

Nursing educators’ competencies also affect teaching social justice issues. In today’s rapidly-changing world facing numerous crises, experienced educators play a significant role in training qualified nurses equipped with various skills enabling them to create social development. Accordingly, Read et al. highlighted the critical role of nursing educators in institutionalizing fundamental principles of social justice and health equity in students [ 30 ]. According to Ellis, educators should shift nursing students’ learning and thinking attitudes from individualism to community-centered frameworks and from tertiary (reactionary) to primary (preventive) care approaches [ 31 ]. However, unfortunately, the research findings indicated that nursing educators are not sufficiently qualified to teach and institutionalize social justice in students. In this regard, educators’ insufficient knowledge and experience in teaching social justice issues were highlighted by the participants. Borhani et al. found that ethical knowledge of nursing educators determined their students’ professional ethics competencies [ 32 ]. Akbas et al also argued that nursing educators’ knowledge and skills were the first and most important factors affecting their success in teaching issues of professional ethics [ 33 ]. As mentioned by the participants, inappropriate value perspectives of educators in developing social justice was another weakness of nursing educators. The significant impact of educators’ perspectives on teaching ethical values such as social justice has also been emphasized by Parandeh et al. [ 12 ].

Education approaches adopted to present and convey ethical values to students are of high importance. In this regard, Einhellig discussed the ineffectiveness of traditional approaches such as lecturing in institutionalizing social justice in nursing graduates and outlined the benefits of affective learning approaches [ 19 ]. According to the findings, lecturing is the dominant approach used to teach social justice in Iran’s nursing faculties, which is an inefficient teaching approach, as suggested by the research literature. This is probably due to the large number of students and limited time allocated to each academic course. While cognitive learning approaches rely on principles and concepts, affective learning approaches support the integration of knowledge with emotions, attitudes, and personal beliefs [ 34 ]. Neumann found that affective education approaches could enhance students’ understanding and use of ethical values [ 35 ]. Einhellig highlighted that nursing faculties need to use various strategies with a focus on behavior changes in order to successfully institutionalize the concept of social justice in nursing graduates [ 24 ].

Limitations

The findings of the present study were limited to factors affecting education of social justice in the nursing curriculum in the health system in the culture of Iran. Other limitations of this study was the consideration of the three nursing faculties and two teaching hospitals in Iran. As such, it may not be a representative of the experiences of all the nursing profession members in Iran. Limitations of our study proposed the need for conducting further studies with larger and mixed groups and in different cultures.

The research findings provided researchers with an insight into the weaknesses of nursing curricula, educators, and education approaches in social justice development in Iran. It seems that more attention must be paid to professional values and social determinant of health in nursing curricula in order to train justice-seeking nurses with a sense of responsibility. Educators play a prominent role in training competent individuals who are aware of and sensitive to social issues and inequalities. It is necessary to change the education approaches adopted by nursing educators in order to institutionalize the concept of social justice in students. After changing the content of nursing curriculum and applying different education approaches, future studies can focus on the impact of such changes on social development and social justice promotion.

Acknowledgments

This study is a part of a PhD dissertation approved and funded by Vice Chancellor for Research, Urmia University of Medical Sciences. The researchers would like to thank the authorities of School of Nursing and Midwifery, Urmia University of Medical Sciences, as well as the participants for their kind cooperation.

Abbreviations

WHO	World Health Organization
AACN	American Association of Colleges of Nursing
ICN	International Council of Nurses
ANA	American Nurses Association
CNA	Canadian Nurses Association

Authors’ contributions

The study was designed by HH,MJ and FH. FH participated as the main interviewer. The initial deductive data analysis was done by FH and used as validation of the analysis carried out by HH and MJ. The final data analysis of the interviews was discussed and consented to by all authors. A first draft of the article was developed by FH and MJ. All authors then contributed to this, and finalized it together. FH was responsible for the final draft of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

This study was funded by Department of Research, Urmia University of Medical Sciences, which had no role in the design of the study, data collection, analysis, interpretation of data, or writing the manuscript.

Availability of data and materials

Ethics approval and consent to participate.

The participants were selected after the approval of Ethics Committee of Urmia University of Medical Sciences and necessary permissions (Code: IR.UMSU.REC.1397.223) were granted. Prior to the interviews, the participants were informed about their anonymity, confidentiality of their information, the research method and objectives, and their right to leave the study at will. The participants also signed informed consent forms.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

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DOI: 10.1080/0305764x.2024.2369576
Corpus ID: 271003691

Funds of courage: advancing social justice in children’s reading for pleasure

N. Kucirkova , Teresa Cremin
Published in Cambridge Journal of… 5 July 2024

62 References

Towards social generative ai for education: theory, practices and ethics, a child's work, as russian troops cross into ukraine, we need to remind ourselves of the impact of war on health, learning disruption or learning loss: using evidence from unplanned closures to inform returning to school after covid-19, what matters most toward a robust and socially just science of reading, realigning funds of identity with struggle against capital: the contradictory unity of use and exchange value in cultural fields, advancing the funds of identity theory: a critical and unfinished dialogue, a synthesis of funds of identity research: purposes, tools, pedagogical approaches, and outcomes, translanguaging and literacies, decolonizing beginning literacy instruction: views from ugandan teachers, related papers.

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“We Need Tool Kits For Social Justice Practice”: Nursing Students and Nurse Educators’ Ideas for Advancing Social Justice Awareness and Action

22 Pages Posted: 8 Jul 2024

Dr Victor Kpandemoi Abu

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Background: Nursing programmes do not often prepare students to accomplish social justice responsibilities. Purpose: To explore ideas for promoting social justice practice. Methods: Sampling of nursing students (n = 11) and nurse educators (n = 11), at a Nursing University, to participate in interviews and focus groups, and for coding data analysis. Findings: Study participants suggested that explicit models of social justice promote nursing awareness and action for social justice, contribute to the visibility of social justice practice in nursing, and influence nurse-educators and nurse-leaders support of social justice education programme. Discussion: This study proposes that social justice practices can be promoted in nursing through learning that focus on critical thinking, teaching based on critical pedagogy, and leadership grounded in moral authority and service to others.Conclusion: This research demonstrates that clear models of learning, teaching and leadership provide opportunities for actualising ever-present, albeit equivocal nursing interest in social justice.

Note: Funding Information: This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. Declaration of Interests: The author declares that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper. Ethics Approval Statement: An application for ethics approval was submitted at the London South Bank University where this research was conducted. The application was approved in May 2020 – ID ETH1920-0025, as part of a doctoral programme.

Keywords: Social justice, nursing practice and education, social justice awareness and action, critical thinking, critical pedagogy, servant leadership

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Perspectives on Social Justice among Hospice and Palliative Care Social Workers: Voices from the Field

Affiliations.

1 School of Social Work, University of Maryland, Baltimore, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
2 Inova Life with Cancer, Fairfax, Virginia, USA.
PMID: 37292013
DOI: 10.1080/15524256.2023.2219408

Hospice and palliative care are burgeoning fields of social work practice. Within the social work profession, the pursuit of social justice is a defining ethical value. While some research exists on social justice within palliative and hospice care, no studies have examined its meaning within the context of this highly specialized field. To date, there is an absence of empirical research examining the meaning of social justice within a sample of hospice and palliative social workers. This study attempts to fill this gap. We used qualitative and quantitative survey items to ask hospice and palliative care social workers about the meaning of social justice within their unique practice setting, as well as to identify prominent social injustices and opportunities for action. Using responses from 51 seasoned practitioners, we found that social workers generally defined social justice as equitable access to three core areas-basic needs, high quality care, and education (for both patients, families, and providers)-regardless of a person's group membership (e.g., race, class, sexual orientation). Participants also made recommendations for improving social justice in clinical practice through advocacy and other initiatives.

Keywords: Disparities; end-of-life; equity; serious illness; social justice.

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Can geosciences help inserting social justice notions into Blue Economy narratives?

Nauen, Cornelia E.

The ocean has started to attract more attention in the recent past with the notions of Blue Economy and Blue Growth becoming rallying points for a new frontier for investments [1]. Many countries and institutions prepare policy papers promising to end poverty, a push for new technologies and profits to fund the development. A recent systematic review of the literature [2], however, found no trace of articulated ethics and justice notions in midst of all the lofty hope and hype surrounding the often blurred concepts. The increasing financialisation of technological developments accelerated through digitalisation and the internet are creating increasing injustices to humans and harm to nature. But, as Rushkoff argues [3], the possibilities for feedback and more circular reasoning have potential to teach everybody that there is no escape from the natural world, thus weaning us from the hyperbole of permanent exponential growth. Here it is argued that critically engaged ocean and geo-sciences with their inherent message of a changing planet through deep time can contribute to debunking the ahistorical promise of fixing self-created problems by starting on a presumed 'clean slate'. We frequently observe a pattern of wanting to solve the damage provoked by one technology with more technology, e.g. deep sea mining [4] or further technology development in fisheries and aquaculture [5]. At country level, these deliberately disruptive industrial approaches often pay little attention to working with the affected small-scale wild food producers who account for a quarter of global production. Instead, harnessing a combination of traditional and indigenous knowledges and providing intelligible access to the sciences holds significant potential for less destructive pathways. That would also be consonant with the promotion of knowledge co-creation during the UN Ocean Decade in pursuit of a vision of 'the science we need for the ocean we want'. Practice of co-creation will require some rethinking of the self-image of many sciences and adaptations to typical project formulation and flows. In return, this is expected to produce valuable new insights in addition to opportunities for cooperation and blue justice as steps towards transformations based on ethical principles. [1] World Bank. (2016). Oceans 2030: Financing the blue economy for sustainable development. Blue Economy Development Framework, Growing the Blue Economy to Combat Poverty and Accelerate Prosperity. World Bank Group, Washington DC.[2] Das, J. (2023). Blue Economy, Blue Growth, Social Equity and Small-scale Fisheries: A Global and National Level Review. Studies in Social Science Research, 4(1):45 p. DOI: https://doi.org/10.22158/sssr.v4n1p38[3] Rushkoff, D. (2022). Survival of the richest. Escape fantasies of the tech billionaires. Scribepublications, UK, ISBN 978-1-915590-24-4, 212 p.[4] Zenghui Liu, Kai Liu, Xuguang Chen, Zhengkuo Ma, Rui Lv, Changyun Wei, Ke Ma. (2023). Deep-sea rock mechanics and mining technology: State of the art and perspectives. International Journal of Mining Science and Technology, 33(9):1083-1115. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijmst.2023.07.007.[5] FAO. (2022). The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2022: Towards Blue Transformation. Rome, FAO. doi:10.4060/cc0461en

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Call for Contributors - Forgotten Spaces: Ecocriticism, Social Justice, and the U.S. South

The U.S. South is often a forgotten space within ecocritical discussions, yet it provides fruitful ground for thinking about environmental issues. In 2019, in the first edited collection of essays on the topic, Zachary Vernon notes that focusing attention on this bioregion might help “provide a way out of the limitations of thinking too locally or too globally,” and it might inspire a group of stakeholders to come to the table as well (7). One problem with ecocritical approaches is the long history of representing the U.S. South as an “internal other in the national imagination: colonized, subordinate, primitive, developmentally arrested, or even regressive” (Watson 254). Another issue is that both the environmental humanities and Southern studies have frequently been white spaces. This proposed anthology convenes a conversation about the U.S. South and environmental issues with an eye towards social justice. We seek theoretically-sophisticated essays attentive to intersections between race, class, gender, and sexuality within the U.S. South to round out our proposed collection. Interdisciplinary environmental research from a variety of frameworks and disciplines is welcome, including literature, film, art, history, popular culture, public memory, sociology, political science, and geography.

Questions to consider: • Why does the U.S. South seem like a forgotten space within ecocritical discussions? • How do we reach across entrenched divides and academic silos to engage in cross-disciplinary engagement with ecocritical concerns about the South? • What entanglements might we find between race, environment, gender, sexuality, class, and social justice? • How have artists, writers, activists, and cultural workers of color engaged with representing the environment, and what might their creative labor contribute to wider discussions beyond the academy? • How are rural and urban environments represented in the U.S. South? How are they represented from outside? • What constitutes the commons in the South? Was there ever really a southern commons? • How are public parks, museums, and recreation areas curated in the South, and what might we learn about entanglements between race and the environment through attending to these spaces? • What is the history of traveling southward or leaving the South? What kinds of cultural constructions represent the region as a place to return to or escape from? • How might we interrogate Donna Haraway’s phrase “the plantationocene” to consider the vexed history of work, nature, and captivity in Southern spaces? • How might we consider Settler colonialism, genocide, and Indian Removal within an ecocritical framework? How has a legacy of Settler colonialist violence in the South impacted the environment? • Can indigenous practices, beliefs, and cultural production be mobilized towards a Southern ecocriticism? • What are the many varieties of experience within different souths?

Other possible topics: • Climate change and its impact on southern spaces. Southern climate diaspora. • Hurricanes, floods, tornados. Natural disasters and social justice. • Disaster capitalism and southern spaces. • Sacrifice zones. Industrial pollution. • Carceral, military, and/or institutional Southern spaces. • Queer ecology and queer ecological souths. • Global approaches to environment and the U.S. South. • Animals and animality in southern cultural productions. Domestic/wild/wilding. • Southern megacities and the built environment in the U.S. South. • Race and nature in the South. • White supremacy and public spaces.

We seek MLA-formatted essays from 4,000-7,000 words. Please submit abstracts of 250-500 words by July 15, 2024 . Notification of acceptance will be made by Aug. 1, 2024. And final essays will be due October 15, 2024. We will be submitting the proposal, table of contents, and sample essays to academic presses by Aug. 1, 2024.

Send abstracts and questions to: Katie Simon, Georgia College and State University, [email protected] and Catherine Bowlin, Elon University, [email protected] .

Social Science
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Social Justice

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January 2021

Ajeenkya DY Patil University Pune

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Social Justice: History, Purpose and Meaning

Social Science and Public Policy
Published: 27 October 2017
Volume 54 , pages 541–548, ( 2017 )

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Allan C. Ornstein 1

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Social scientists study social mobility in order to ascertain the relative openness or fluidity of a social structure. They are interested in the difficulties different persons or groups experience in acquiring the goods and services that are valued in the culture and may be acquired through unequal contributions.

In ascription societies, the stratification system is closed to individual mobility because prestige (or status) is determined at birth. The amount of education one will receive, the occupational status one will enter, one’s income and one’s whole lifestyle cannot be changed. In an open-class society, although people start with different advantages, opportunities are available for them to change their initial positions. The life chances of a welfare recipient’s son born in the slums differ considerably from those of a banker’s son born in the suburbs. Although the playing field is tilted and stacked against the slum child, in an achievement-oriented society, the former can achieve as much or more than the latter.

The emphasis on vertical social mobility in the American social structure is one of the most striking features of our class system—and the basis for what we often call the “American dream.” Kurt Mayer, in Class and Society , puts it this way: “The United States has placed greater emphasis on social mobility than any other large nation in modern times. Americans have firmly proclaimed the idea of equality and freedom of achievement and have acclaimed the large numbers of individuals who have risen from humble origins to positions of prominence and affluence.” The believe in opportunity is strongly embedded in the American culture, a view promulgated in the stories of Horatio Alger and songs like “Rags to Riches.”

Most Americans would accept the above analysis of mobility and opportunity. But that’s not how the world works: For some 5000 years of recorded history, until the late eighteenth century, the ordinary person (nearly 99% of the populace) has lived on the edge of starvation, slightly above subsistence level, with no rights and no justice.

The Ancient World

From the beginning of civilization to the American Revolution, the monarchs, priests, and warlords (later the nobility class) ruled the world. Economic growth would enhance the wealth of those who were already rich or powerful; the masses were little more than slaves, serfs, peasants, or chattel—who worked until death or disablement and whose life expectancy was 30 to 35 years—depending on the century and society. Behavior was grounded in appetite, or desire and self-interest. Those with power and wealth sought to retain their position, and there was minimal or no opposition by working and subordinate people who lacked the ability to oppose what was perceived as the natural order. Nothing could be done to change it, and that is how the world existed for centuries. The idea that humans have rights is a relatively new concept—not more than 350 years old.

Heredity privilege governed society and those fortune by birth were expected to benefit at the expense of the working masses who were limited by their unprivileged birth. Intelligence or any other human strength had to be extraordinary before it could count for much in comparison to heredity privilege. Each person, relying on traditions of birthright and background and his own resources, labored within a fixed, stratified society. The rewards went to the rich and powerful, while the ordinary person worked from dawn to dusk and lived in poverty and squalor. The superiority of civilization over barbarianism did very little to change the miserable conditions of working people. In short, life for the common person was brutal and short. The masses were controlled by those who ruled. Might made right; there was no rule of law. Human rights or social justice were nonexistent. Plunder and rape, starvation and war, characterized the flow of events.

With the exception of the Greeks and Romans, all the great civilizations of the ancient world would fall under the aristocratic rule of monarchs and emperors, supported with an entrenched and corrupt nobility or property class, where the mass were either slaves, manual laborers or peasant farmers who toiled until their death. The vast majority of people were nothing more than disposable units of production kept alive at the subsistence level. Their function was to keep the system running. Their wages or economic rewards would mainly cover the cost of their daily existence so they could produce the next generation of children who would be laborers or till the land. People lived by war and conquest and developed first from warlike families which grew into clans and tribes, cemented by blood, which then grew into small villages and settlements and then city-states and monarchies and kingdoms.

The warlords who commanded armies were paid by monarchs in gold, property and for titles in exchange for their loyalty. These warring leaders obtained heredity titles and land, and thus transformed into the “gentry” or nobility class. They gained recognition for possession of goods and people, as well as military valor. The masses—whether they were slaves or serfs, peasant farmers or laborers—surrendered their rights and freedom to those who could provide security and protect them from plunder and facilitate their survival needs. People were willing to live in a society where government had a heavy hand, even in an authoritarian order, so long as they knew they could live in relative safety; their goal was not to be raped or brutalized by stronger people and roaming armies—and to have food on the table.

What we are describing here is a gloomy and brutal world—and why people are often willing to give up their freedom, including their rights and opportunities. Civilization brought a degree of peace and security for the masses, compared to the age of barbarianism. In a nut shell, a social order accompanied by a freedom of fear, plunder and rape takes precedence over economic possessions and prizes and even human rights. In a Hobbesian world, there is no moral high ground. People of power and property seek their own self-preservation and combine by marriage and alliance to obtain more power and property. They act as a force for change at the expense of less powerful people who are just trying to live day-to-day and feed themselves.

Our Western Heritage: The Greeks and Romans

Now ancient Greece and Rome were a slightly different story. Their development was a variation of this theme, from barbarianism to civilization. But their political system was cemented by human agreement. Citizens had a political voice among ruling elites, rather than the simple bloodline and hereditary succession and the complete domination of the masses in the ancient civilizations that preceded them.

In the Greek era, a distant mirror of the politics of our own age, it was believed that the citizens had certain rights and civic duties—and could argue for or against any proposition in the marketplace of ideas—the courts, the public arena, etc.

Plato’s Republic fashioned a plan for a perfect state ruled by an intellectual elite of philosopher-kings—not a money elite or hereditary aristocracy. Society existed to cultivate truth and virtue in its inhabitants, based on assumptions that only knowledgeable men should rule and that all inhabitants who had basic rights should contribute to the general welfare according to their intellectual capacity and particular aptitude. Education, not privileged birth, was the major vehicle for defining the social and economic relations of the residents in Plato’s Republic . The educational system played a selective role as it rated intellectual aptitude and sorted children into future categories: philosopher-kings, auxiliaries and soldiers, and workers. Once assigned to a class, individuals received the appropriate education assigned to their social-economic position—and mobility was frozen. Plato believed that each class would fulfill a necessary function and contribute to the common good. Such a society, he believed, would be harmonious.

Even now, both liberal and conservative thinkers, love to make comparisons between the ancient Greeks and our Western heritage. To some extent, we are all Greeks—at least in terms of our culture and political beliefs. Americans, I believe, are more likely to agree with a dead Greek poet or philosopher than the best known lawyers or social scientists of the modern world to bolster an argument or advocate a point of view. We think the ancient scholars from the Greek islands spoke with less spin (and more virtue) than modern politicians and policymakers. This view is especially seen in the writings of traditional educators and philosophers who advocate the classics and great books approach to education.

It would be nice to envision America as the sole heir of Athens—where democracy first flourished—and to be a champion of moral virtue and humanitarianism. But we are also Romans. The same land that gave us Cierco and Virgil, and forged the foundations of our Republic, forced humans (gladiators) to square off against each other and against wild animals. It is true that Cierco had climbed from relatively humble surroundings to the highest offices of the Roman Empire. With Cierco’s death, however, more precisely his assassination, the Empire lost its most staunchest legal advocate and political conscience—and soon fell under the autocratic rule of a series of notorious and corrupt emperors who brought ruin and decay to Roman society.

In his last years of life, Cierco warned the Senate about patrician greed and class warfare, and to shame his colleagues in the Senate about growing inequality between the patrician and plebian classes. The orator’s words ring loud today: “A belief has become established—and harmful to the Republic…that these courts, with you senators as the jury, will never convict any man, however guilty if he has sufficient money.” We must also read Tacitus in terms of “diminutive rivalries.” Strong men will trample weak men in war, politics or business affairs “as long as there are prizes to contend for which move their avarice or their ambition.”

We overlook the fact that Greek and Roman society, like all the previous ancient societies, were built on the backs of slaves, and only a minority of Greeks and Romans had the rights and privileges described by the great Greek and Roman philosophers. We love to trace our philosophical thoughts to Greece and Rome, but we ignore that both civilizations believed in a government run by the well educated and property class—nothing more, if I may add, than an oligarchy—and what later would be called the European nobility.

The expectation remained in Europe, and the rest of the world (except America), that the masses were destined to live at the brink of starvation, famine and disease. This was the way it had been since the dawn of civilization. The human condition was characterized first by chaos and then misery—as the strong plundered the weak. Economic life was a struggle, pure and simple. Life was brutal and short, void of human rights or justice.

The idea of a social contract between government and the people or that people had natural rights and could live a descent life, with opportunities for improving their condition, was considered illogical and contrary to the norms of society. It violated the customs and traditions of the relations that bounded the Church and the faithful, Prince and subject people, property owner and peasant, master and servant. Equally disturbing was that in the normal course of events ordinary people did not expect anything but misfortune and privation, nor did they expect significant improvement in their social status or standard of living. From the beginning of recorded history, the workers and weaker members of society expected to be pressed down and exploited. The majority opinion was that the passions of men did not conform to the ideas of reason, fairness or justice; hence, there was the uncritical acceptance of the selfish nature of man—and that the strong would prey over the weak.

A slightly more optimistic current took hold in America, spearheaded by political leaders who were influenced by the humanitarian ideas of the Age of Enlightenment. Still, the concepts of slavery and indentured servants existed and were woven into the social order during the colonial and post-colonial era. The platitudes of moral behavior, the common good, and helping the less fortunate (Kant’s doctrines), the natural rights of men (Voltaire’s idea), a social contract between government and the people (Rousseau’s dictum), the notion of “life, liberty and property” (Locke’s statement) and the substitution of property for “pursuit of happiness” (Jefferson’s modification) were all abstract ideas that went against the tide of opinion and the dictates of reason prior to the American Revolution.

In Europe Locke, Voltaire, and Rousseau were considered extremely radical among their contemporaries, promoting ideas based on a false and untenable conception of human nature. In some ways they were the mouse that roared. Few people of power and property took them seriously, but eventually their writings began to seep into discussions at the taverns and coffee shops of Geneva, London and Paris. Despite the American and French Revolution, the upper classes in both the Old and New World did not subscribe to these doctrines, nor did they have faith and/or respect in the common people or the rights of the people. In fact, Thomas Jefferson was considered a traitor to the class interests of Southern plantation owners and northern bankers, similar to the way Franklin Roosevelt more than 150 years later was viewed by the Brahmins and business class when he implemented civilian work programs, unemployment insurance and Social Security for Americans during the Great Depression.

During the Industrial Revolution which started in merry-old England around the time of the American Revolution, special skills and special abilities of people resulted in slightly higher wages than the norm. But the fixed economic system and social traditions of prior societies directed toward the past remained intact, rather than toward a future which men themselves might shape. The amount of people who rose from pittance to what might be called middle class was miniscule in numbers compared to the masses who remained poor and destitute.

Actually, the Industrial Revolution increased inequality between the mercantile and manufacturing class with the labor and working class because the vast portion of wealth attributed to economic growth went to the economic elite, not the masses. To be sure, a rising tide does not always lift all boats in the water, not when the surrounding environment or custom is fixed and not when a person’s position in society is considered from a static position as it was viewed for centuries. We are not all in the same boat, as Jack found out the hard way in the movie Titanic . No doubt the new industries allowed a tiny number of entrepreneurial people to accumulate capital and equipment. Thus a few people endowed by nature, that is by strength and cunning, were able to take advantage of the fruits of their power and abilities.

This new concept of competition and productivity led to nineteenth century Darwinist thinking, that is “survival of the fittest” and Herbert Spencer’s dictum, the “law of the jungle.” Such ideas could be viewed as an outgrowth of the ancient world which set man against man in the pursuit of power, prestige and wealth—and left the masses to fend for themselves relative to their state of nature. This idea was modified in the New World, whereby common people could successfully compete and fit well into the American landscape, largely because of the frontier experience, the abundance of free land and natural resources, the constant flow of immigrants, and the long-favored notion of progress and change. Moreover, there was no history of warlords, family lineage or bloodlines; the land had not been carved up by centuries of war and strife, by warlords who later became known as Dukes, Earls, and Barons.

The point is that in the U.S., there was so much land and resources for the taking that it did not create a zero-sum game between the power elite and the common person; the people with new powers and property allowed the masses to accumulate their own riches because there was so much land available for anyone who was willing to risk the unknown and work hard. “Survival of the fittest” eventually blended into the folklore of the West and later the customs of the Gilded Age. The picture of the self-made man of the nineteenth century, epitomized by the robber baron, warped into Ayn Rand’s book, Atlas-Shrugged, published in 1957. In the twentieth century, Rand’s image of the self-reliant, egotistical person rejected the idea of the common good, altruism and helping less fortunate people. In both centuries, however, the capitalist system evolved from the brutal conditions of the ancient world: The strong survived and the weak barely existed or perished. Life was a struggle, a part of nature—where every group, every animal or human was always in a ceaseless struggle with its environment and its species.

Material wealth at the expense of “the herd” or ordinary people was common. Greed was and still is considered good; it’s the fuel or engine that supposedly drives the economy. There is little concern for the working person—as well as for the weak, the old, the disabled, etc.

The Promised Land

But America is the land of opportunity, where peoples’ aspirations and dreams come true, where ordinary citizens have rights guaranteed by law. Immigrants fleeing from oppressive governments or economic hardship can start a new life and have multiple chances to succeed.

Keep in mind our history: The ideas of the Enlightenment, when transported across the ocean, prevailed over authoritarianism and theocracy. Thank the heavens that a group of middle-aged rebels were willing to put their lives on the line, and thank Thomas Jefferson who wrote the Declaration of Independence and said the right words at the right time and provided the framework that gave us the natural right to establish the rights of people and separate the church and state. Of course, the English aristocrats and conservatives did not see it the same way. Harping on the vulgarity and clumsiness of their former colonialists, one English novelist some 50 years ago summed up the American revolutionists as “malcontented” children and Americans in general as “cowards” who were “almost all the descendants of wretches who deserted their legitimate monarchs for fear of military service.”

The doctrine of natural rights of man, “the right of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” the idea that “all men are created equal,” a belief in “a government of the people and by the people,” the rights to own land, the rights to assemble, to protest and express opinions, the devotion to education and self-improvement for plain people—all these principles that we take for granted today did not come easily and required an uphill battle of ideas and for the minds of people. Liberty and freedom are not given to a country, but it is a result of hard-won struggles, a belief in the rights of all people and the protection of minority rights. It is not easy to transcend religion in a deeply religious country as ours, and to allow secular laws to prevail. It is not easy to overcome the power of the rich and allow the people to govern, whereby the rich ultimately have to answer to the people and where the rule of law prevails.

In the U.S. capitalism would be encouraged to expand, but there would be no feudal class, no peasant class, no serfs perpetually indentured to the monarch or nobility class. There would be genuine reform in which people of different classes and occupations would come nearer in speaking the same language and have similar opportunities than anywhere else in the world. The reward system based on inherited privilege and power would be curtailed so that the nation would not have the same “winners” and “losers” from one generation to the other. The ultimate question comes down to what we should do so all Americans could thrive. The answer was to use government to bring about reform so everyone had the potential to prosper. The country would have to work for everyone! A government of the people and for the people was the only counter force powerful enough to curtail corporate power and abuse.

So we are the lucky ones. Over the course of nearly 250 years, this nation has grown from a small cluster of colonies with a ragtag collection of people and a makeshift army, to a free, mighty, and wealthy nation—the most influential one in the history of humankind and on the present world stage. How was this possible? Does it boil down to accident, luck, or design?

I cannot give you a precise answer—why we are the chosen ones, or the lucky ones. The answer, to some extent, comes from the heart, from the feelings and emotions of plain people, immigrant people, and working people who inhabit our landscape and who know they are free: Free from the yoke of oppression, free from the sword, whip and boot—and therefore strive, innovate, and invent. Despite that we are a nation of many nations, with different customs and folklore, we all speak the same language as free men and women and breathe the same free air. The answer also comes from all the people around the world who clamor to come to our shores to escape their nations’ rulers, tyrants, and oligarchies, to find that pot of gold that can only be found in the New World. Here common people can fulfill their dreams. Here justice has a chance to prevail.

James Weaver, a Populist philosopher at the turn of the twentieth century, identified with the Founding Fathers of 1776 and put it this way: “Throughout all history we have had ample evidence that the new world is the theater upon which the great struggle for the rights of man is to be made,” Or, could the answer simply be what Otto von Bismarck, the Prussian chancellor, once muttered? “God has special providence for fools, drunks, and the United States of America.”

Alex de Tocqueville, perhaps the most influential visitor and profound observer of America, put it in more realistic terms in 1835: Whereas a “permanent inequality of condition prevailed” in the Old World, where the social conditions tended “to promote the despotism of the monarchs and ruling class on the masses,” the principle of democracy prevailed in the United States. Some 175 years later, another foreign gentleman, this time an immigrant from the far-off land of India, Dinesh D’Souza (someone much more conservative but just as idealistic as Weaver and de Tocqueville) commented: “America is a new kind of society that produces a new kind of human being. The human being—confident, self-reliant, tolerant, generous, future oriented—is a vast improvement over the wretched, fatalistic, and intolerant human being that traditional societies have always produced and…produce now.”

Then there is David Reynolds, a Cambridge historian, who recently wrote a lengthy history of the U.S., entitled America: Empire of Liberty . American contradictions are described between our lofty ideals and practice. He sees the nation as an empire pieced together by war and conquest, much like other empires of the past. But he also sees America as the successful integration of different people from around the world with diverse and innovative thoughts. Faceless and unknown, lacking hereditary privilege and wealth, people come to America seeking a new beginning, a fair chance, and a future that is offered no where else on earth.

The pictures at Ellis Island tell a story: A tale of people clamoring to come to America, some weeping for joy as they passed into the New York Harbor and saw the Statue of Liberty beckoning them—the huddled masses yearning to be free. The American dream is built on the aspirations and achievements of these immigrants risking life and limb to come to our shores, some seeking political asylum, others seeking economic opportunity and/or a new life. Indeed, there is no better way to judge this country, or any country, than by the numbers of people trying to get into it, as opposed to other parts of the world where people are desperately trying to get out of their country.

The Roots of Social Justice

The notion of social justice is based on the Christian doctrine of helping less fortunate people—the weak, sickly, and oppressed. To be sure, Jesus cared deeply about people. He went out of his way to help people facing injustices. The Bible is full of passages that advocate helping and caring for people. Instead of being motivated by power, pride, or material wealth, those clergy that follow the scriptures find purpose through acts of justice.

Since the 1920s, social democratic governments in Western Europe have reinforced the view that all citizens should be treated equally. Society cannot be fair or just if it has different categories or types of citizenship, such as nobility and the rest of the population, whites as first class citizens and blacks as second class, dominant and subordinate (or oppressed) groups, etc. Inequality must be reduced or eliminated; opportunities for poor and working people need to be expanded; government is obligated to provide free health and education (including college) services; the free market system needs to be regulated by government; labor has the right to organize into unions; resources need to be allocated more equally; and the rich have to pay higher taxes. In short, income and wealth should be redistributed so there is greater opportunity and equality among the populace, and therefore more justice.

Across the Atlantic Ocean, it was and still is considered unwise to associate with Europe’s “social democracy” to avoid being labeled as socialists. The word “liberalism” was used in lieu of socialism. When liberal became a derogatory word, the same ideas were expressed as “progressive.” Nonetheless, similar ideas were being promogated as part of Theodore Roosevelt’s “Square Deal,” Franklin Roosevelt’s “New Deal,” Harry Truman’s “Fair Deal,” Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty and “Great Society” and Bill “Clintonomics.” The rational behind these policies were discussed in terms of human rights, rooted in the Age of Enlightenment and the U.S. Bill of Rights. Ideally government would be used to bring about reform so that every American could participate in the American dream; government legislation would right the wrongs of history.

Starting in the early 1960s social scientists began to touch on topics of justice without using or identifying the name. The conversation focused on equality—and issues related to class and caste. Indeed, the 1960s ushered in a period in which the social conscious of Americans burst forth—coinciding with our concern over racial discrimination, poverty, and equal opportunity. Three authors/books stand out during this period.

James Conant, the Harvard University president, was part of the Educational Establishment. In 1961 he published Slums and Suburbs. Slum schools were compared to their suburban counterparts; they lacked resources, experienced teachers, and a relevant curriculum that could meet the needs of their students. Slum schools were in grave physical condition— characterized by broken windows, broken toilets, and graffiti on the walls. Conant wrote that the students in the ghetto areas of large cities “either drop out or graduate from school [with minimal] prospects of future education or employment.” He argued that youth out of school and out of work was “a menace to the social and political health of the large cities.” He went on to coin the word “social dynamite” and warned that if the social/economic situation did not improve in these schools and cities there would be serious consequences. In short, he was predicting the social and racial upheaval that would soon grip the American landscape.

The same year (1961) John Gardner, Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare under the Johnson administration, wrote Excellence: Can We Be Equal Too? He discussed social issues that later gave rise to equal opportunity legislation and affirmative action policies. Gardner noted that extreme forms of egalitarianism in schools or jobs tended to eliminate both excellence and merit. On the other hand, extreme forms of competition and excellence could create a permanent underclass with the less abled. He tried to draw a middle position, including multiple chances for succeeding and identifying many different forms of talent—not just academic talent. “It takes more than an educated elite to run a complex, technical society.” Differences in rewards are accepted so long as people with special abilities serve the common good and do not use them against society, say in robbing a bank. There is also an expectation that society will establish appropriate institutions such as schools and colleges to nurture those differences in abilities and talents, but it must also provide opportunity for people who are not as smart and talented.

The following year (1962), Michael Harrington, who was a socialist writer published The Other America . The book focused on the forgotten, overlooked, and invisible American, that is the poor who he claimed comprised one third of the US population. Harrington’s main point was that poverty was no longer cyclical or temporary. The condition was permanent in the midst of general prosperity; it was a travesty in the richest nation of the world that so many Americans were struggling and living day-to-day. Although the book was small in size, it was a major factor in galvanizing nation-wide support for assisting the less fortunate in America. It was crucial in influencing both President Kennedy and Johnson, and led to the subsequent War on Poverty.

In 1971, John Rawls, a Harvard University professor, published A Theory of Justice . He criticized the gap between the highest and lowest paid workers, called for a floor and ceiling in earnings to close the gaps in income, and advocated that the rich pay more taxes. He also asserted that justice must be conceived in terms of fairness and basic moral principles. A social contract was needed to ensure basic rights for the people. Although Rawls’ writing was cumbersome and difficult to read, the book was instrumental in getting scholars and pundits to discuss and write about the principles and policies of justice. Eventually, the notion of justice was fused into the US civil rights movement, emphasizing the rights of all people and the moral principles of justice.

The Meaning of Social Justice

Social Justice means different things to different people. If you are going to speak or write about social justice you will need to have some understanding of what is a democracy, what rights do people have or should have, and how society should provide for less fortunate people. In the pages below, the author identifies 30 basic principles that should be considered as a framework for defining justice (social justice).

The history of Western society bends toward social justice. The fight for social justice is incremental and extends over centuries. The interpretation and judgment of social justice depends on who interprets it and who writes the laws of society.

Ordinary people can change the course of history by joining a movement. Social justice is a movement for improving the lives of people. You usually get one or two chances in life to join a movement and make a difference. The idea, to paraphrase Aretha Franklin, is to know when the train is coming, to get on board, and to hold your head up high. In short, the fight for social justice takes persistence, guts, and knowing and doing what’s right.

A fair and just society will encourage democratic principles of equality, opportunity, and mobility. It will also provide a legal framework for human rights (the concept is less than 350 years old), civil rights, and individual rights.

Every democratic society must try to reduce the gap in income and wealth among its citizenry. There must be a reasonable floor and ceiling in income and wealth.

The floor and ceiling is achieved through some form of monetary redistribution and taxation, as well as by political compromise. But just when you think you have reached some compromise or agreement, the political winds change and you have a new floor and ceiling.

In a just society, all lives have equal value, equal opportunity and equal chances for success.

A socially just society cannot forget or ignore people in need, nor leave the majority of its people behind. It must put people first—not property nor profits. It must be willing to examine and reexamine its beliefs and philosophy on a regular basis.

All groups, including those who define themselves as a political minority (blacks, Hispanics, women, gay lesbians, labor unions, etc.) recognize some bias and discrimination will always exist. But in a just society, the bias and discrimination are minimal and minority groups have the same rights as the majority and are able to fulfill their dreams.

In a fair or just society, the class structures are fluid in both directions—up and down, from lower class to upper class and from upper class to lower.

In a just society, there must be a political and legal framework that protects and enhances the rights of the people. Laws must not be based on partisan or tribal politics, or they will become temporary, but rooted in moral, social, and economic doctrines that provide opportunities and mobility for all people and groups in society.

In a just society, individual rights supersede group rights, corporate rights and property rights. Lawyers and judges have elevated status. The ordinary person can find legal protection as well as redress in the courts. The police must follow and obey the laws.

For social justice to flourish, the government must be prepared to intervene. A free-market system, without government restraints, leads to greater inequality whereby talented people make large sums of money and average and less than average workers (the common people or silent majority) are paid at best a living wage.

A society characterized by a wide income/wealth gap rewards special talent and entrepreneurship. A society characterized by a narrow gap pays descent wages to ordinary people and rewards the working and middle class.

Those who believe that a social contract exists between government and its people reject large gaps in income and wealth; such differences reflect the excesses of capitalism. Those who believe in limited government see large differences in income and wealth as a reflection of the success of capitalism.

Given a social contract, the government not only protects the people, but also provides revenue for building schools, roads, and bridges; it also provides safety nets and social programs for its disadvantaged populace, including the poor, sick, disabled, and elderly.

An innovative and entrepreneurial society will accept large amounts of inequality; a fair or just society will reduce these differences.

The people who believe that getting ahead is a matter of perspiration, talent, or enterprise tend to oppose government intervention and redistributive policies, as well as social programs, safety nets, or entitlements. On the other hand, those who believe that “success” is related to inherited advantages, socioeconomic advantages, or worse, being a member of a dominant group (i.e. born white and born in an upper-class family) support redistributive policies and/or reverse discrimination.

Those who believe in the Horacio Alger stories of hard work, self-denial, and honor contend that those who are “successful” have earned their money and deserve it. Those who believe that many wealthy people have acquired their money or assets by inheritance or by exploiting the system (Rockerfellers, Goulds, Kennedys, Trump) believe that ordinary people have little chance for “success.” That said, social justice has a long road ahead.

Those who control capital, property and/or equipment represent the dominant class—and how wealth is created. Mobility and opportunity must exist to the extent that the subordinate class, or more precisely the common people who work for a living, can improve their social-economic status.

In a just society, those who have the least benefit from those who have the most via charity works, philanthropy, and in fair tax code.

Although a dominant and subordinate group may exist in all societies, in a just society, the differences do not lead to institutional racism, class consciousness, or economic warfare.

If the assignment of personal responsibility is used to justify inequality of income and wealth, then there is little chance for social justice. Of course, there could be other reasons for the difference in outcomes such as personal characteristics, luck, or making the right choice at the right time. It is fair if people have more money or assets than others if there is equal opportunity for all citizens.

Power corrupts; power must be held accountable. In a just society, the people have the ability to peacefully remove their political leaders and elected officials whenever they deem it necessary.

For social justice to be part of the fabric of society, the people must be afforded the right and legal mechanism to investigate, impeach, convict and/or jail their political leaders for incompetence, corruption and/or unlawful behavior.

Government laws or executive orders that discriminate against specific groups (racial, ethnic or religious), under the guise of protecting the majority of people or preserving a way of life, are morally wrong and usually illegal. In democratic societies, such laws and orders must be challenged and rejected by the people in the courts or legislated bodies of that country.

In a fair and just society, people are paid on the basis of the goods and services they produce for the common good. In a society that stresses excellence, people are paid on the basis of supply/demand, the profit they generate or the cost occurred by hiring them. Those who generate profits are paid the most, sometimes hundreds or thousands of times more than those who are considered cost factors. Teachers are cost factors. The idea is for school boards to control the budget and limit salaries.

So long as Americans have the view that the Sam Waltons, Mark Zuckerbergs Michael Jordans and Madonnas of the world, and all their descendants are entitled to all their wealth, because they worked hard, founded highly successful companies, or could shoot a ball through a hoop or entertain large crowds, then the millions and billions they make will continue to create social injustices and economic imbalance—and doom the rest of us to a bleak future characterized by vast inequality.

Globalization affects social justice. The market is seven billion people, not just the size of our country. This means a bigger pie for millionaires and billionaires to build their wealth, thus increasing inequality and reducing social justice around the world. In a just society, the majority of people must be committed to a level playing field, and some legitimate form of equality, even if it means that income and wealth will be redistributed to less fortunate people.

When two and two is considered to be five (or up is down and down is up), by a majority populace or by those in power, social justice is at risk and/or significantly diminished.

Words count. They are the instrument for both reflection and revolution. A just society permits and defends free speech, a free press and the right to protest peacefully. It recognizes and supports poetry, plays, songs, speeches and film, as well as the publication of newspapers, magazines and books as essential for the health and vitality of society. Words can be used for waging war or for healing.

Consider that the rich and powerful have always kept the masses in a subordinate position, thus curtailing the opportunity for the majority populace. Only in recent times, with the rise of democratic governments in Western society do the common people have a chance to curtail the dominant class (the rich and powerful) by voting at the ballot box, as well as a chance to reach for the stars and fulfill their own dreams. With the twenty-first century unfolding in the U.S., there should be continuous pressure to increase equality and redistribute income and wealth.

The commitment to provide a fair chance for everyone to succeed and develop their abilities and talents remains central to the national creed for the vast majority of Americans; this is what distinguishes us from the rest of the world. Virtually no one in the U.S. favors equal distribution of income for it would discourage hard work, risk taking and innovation. Some form of inequality, based on abilities and talent, is the price we pay for a dynamic economy and the right for each person to retain the benefits of his or her labor, capital investment or property. The idea is not to focus on the outcomes of inequality, but to address the reasons for inequality—and what can be done to improve the human condition.

It is doubtful if inequality of income and wealth can be reduced simply by education, because the gap between the rich and the rest of us is so great and continues to grow wider. A moral society needs to redistribute income and wealth in order to make its nation more democratic, fair and just. Finding the right mechanism, reaching some compromise, setting limits on income and wealth (a floor and ceiling) is no easy task. Nonetheless, it is essential that we begin to make such changes if most of us in this country are to share in the American dream.

Every generation going forward is obligated to interpret and reinterpret the principles of human rights and justice. Every person in a free society must learn the government’s obligations to its people and the peoples’ obligation to their fellow citizens and humanity in general. That said, the meaning you find in the above 30 principles of justice depends on your own sense of history and life experiences. The list is not permanent, and should evolve as society changes. The handwriting is on the wall. You only have to see six inches in front of your eyeballs. As the population changes and we become more diverse, educated and tolerant as a nation, we can expect a more liberal or progressive interpretation of justice.

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Ornstein, A.C. Social Justice: History, Purpose and Meaning. Soc 54 , 541–548 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12115-017-0188-8

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