Social Justice
Marcella Milana
University of Verona

Developed in the field of political philosophy, the concept of social justice has also been employed in various human and social sciences, including educational sciences. At the same time, it has become common usage in wider public discourse. Therefore, there is no single interpretation of the concept.
Despite general agreement that the concept is rooted in classical Western philosophy and in particular Aristotelian thought evoking the idea of redistributive or corrective justice, several authors have argued that the purely ‘social’ facet of the concept is a product of modern thought (see Atkins & Duckworth, 2019).
Most thinkers thus converge in noting that, over the last two centuries, the notion of ‘justice’ was progressively replaced by the notion of ‘equality’. In its substantive interpretation, equality was increasingly used to refer to the material means people possess and the redistribution of wealth, thus acquiring a ‘social’ quality. This led to one of the possible interpretations of the concept of ‘social justice’ as equality, and the resulting tendency to question how the form of social institutions, and in particular the national state, serves to ensure or impede equality between individuals and groups (See Cotroneo, 2014).
It was as part of this line of thinking that John Rawls (1982/1971) developed a political understanding of ‘social justice’ from a liberal point of view. In this perspective, the concept of justice is equated with that of ‘equality as equity’, which is in turn based on two fundamental principles: the equality of individual rights in terms of equal basic freedoms, and the simultaneous inequality of social and economic treatment as a means for guaranteeing equal opportunities in the socio-economic positioning of citizens. In other words, this perspective holds that unequal social and economic treatment is fair if it leads to greater benefits for less privileged members of society.
The application of this concept in the educational sphere is rooted in the idea of a free and universal school system and the school as driver of change and social equalizer. Much of the current educational debate surrounding the concept of social justice, therefore, rests on the theoretical foundations of the concept of ‘equality as equity’. Nevertheless, it seems to give rise to at least two different lines of development, each of which is a main axes for the formulation of educational policies and practices in support of a more equitable society (see Tarozzi, 2014). On one hand, the concept of social justice (and the educational debate surrounding it) allows us to focus on the problems inherent in redistributing material and intellectual resources, etc. (social justice strictly speaking) while on the other hand, it brings our attention to bear on the issue of acknowledging cultural diversity. Nancy Fraser (1998) has argued, however, that these two apparently alternative meanings of social justice, as redistributive equity vs. the equity of cultural recognition, represent a false antithesis in that applying the concept of social justice, including in the educational field, involves both alternatives as necessary conditions for ensuring equal participation. In other words, in order for all members of a society to interact “as equals”, it is necessary both to ensure individuals’ autonomy in participation ̶ by redistributing resources ̶ and to institutionalize cultural models that “express equal respect for all participants and ensure equal opportunities in achieving social esteem” (Ibid., p.5).
In the RE-SERVES project, therefore, the concept of social justice is understood in this dual sense.

Selected references

Atkins, L., and Duckworth, V. (2019). Research Methods for Social Justice and Equity in Education. Bloomsbury Research Methods for Education. Bloomsbury.

Cotroneo, G. (2014). Tra giustiza e uguaglianza. Il pensiero filosofico-politico del Novecento. Civitas Educationis, 3(2), 73-88.

Fraser, N. (1998). Social justice in the age of identity politics: redistribution, recognition, participation. (Discussion Papers / Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung, Forschungsschwerpunkt Arbeitsmarkt und Beschäftigung, Abteilung Organisation und Beschäftigung, 98-108). Berlin: Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung gGmbH. https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-126247

Rawls, J. (1982), Teoria della giustizia (a cura di Sebastiano Maffettone; Trad. it. Ugo Santini). Feltrinelli. (Originariamente pubblicato nel 1971)

Tarozzi, M. (2014). Educare alla giustizia sociale. Differenze culturali e diseguaglianze sociali. Civitas Educationis, 3(2), pp.73-88.