What is Social Justice?

Social workers by our adherence to a code of ethics are committed to promoting social justice. Yet, I wonder how many social workers understand what it means to pursue social justice and how many of us are congruent in our understanding of what it means and how we should go about getting results. There are many ways to pursue social justice. Direct service providers often pursue social justice by empowering the people they work with to engage systems and to participate in the political process. They too promote social justice by their own participation in political processes and by advocating for issues of importance. It would be safe to say the vast majority of social workers, if not all of us, are involved in promoting social justice and social change.

But how are we doing as a collective enterprise? Are social workers making a difference? Are we exercising influence effectively in legislative arenas? How close are we to maximizing our potential? Have we reached a consensus about our goals and objectives for pursuing social justice? Are we clear on our priorities and the strategies needed to be successful? These are important questions as we move further into the 21^st century and more Americans are falling further behind. We need to be clearer about what our social justice agenda will be in 2014.

What exactly do we mean by social justice? It is one of those terms that is quite ambiguous. To some social justice may mean having basic rights. Perhaps we can agree on the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights. To others social justice may mean having “equal” opportunity. But is equal opportunity a realistic or even legitimate goal? Should not those who work harder be rewarded more and therefore be able to provide Better for their children? Of course there are many who are revulsed by the suggestion that there is such a thing as social justice but they are the real takers in society—there is no limit to their avarice.

Luigi Taparelli d’Azeglio, a Jesuit priest and scholar is generally credited with coining the term “social l justice.” John Rawls, an American scholar and Harvard professor, provided one of the most comprehensive examinations of social justice in his book, A Theory of Justice, published in 1971. Rawls believed all citizens had certain basic rights and that there existed a level of distributive fairness whereby inequalities could exist are long as they were beneficial to all. I believe that the economic inequalities that exist today are harmful to the majority.

Income and wealth inequality wealth inequality poses the greatest challenge to social justice in our times. We continue to measure the health of our economy and our nation by the change in GDP which has been growing anemically since the end of the Great Recession despite the report of 4 percent growth in the last quarter. And 93 percent of the income gains in the early years of the recovery (2009-12) went to the top one percent of earners while middle-income earners saw their earning fall by .04 percent. Inadequate employment opportunities and declining wages spell doom for the futures of far too many poor, low- and middle-income children.

There is reason to believe that economic inequality will ultimately stifle growth to the point that policymakers will be forced to redistribute tax liabilities to reduce the burden on middle lower income earners. Economists continue to ignore the impact of the supply-side tax cuts passed at the beginning of both the Reagan and Bush Administrations. They look for every policy device to engender greater growth and slow growing inequality when the obvious answer is staring everyone in the face. It’s those damn tax cuts. They need to be amended. Economic policy doesn’t seem to be on the radar screens of many social workers but it is an arena we cannot ignore. Trying to achieve social justice without addressing economic inequality is like trying to drive a car without an engine. You can push it but it’s not going very far.

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Written By Charles E. Lewis Jr., Ph.D

What is Social Justice? was originally published @ Congressional Research Institute for Social Work and Policy » Charles Lewis and has been syndicated with permission.