Dse212 Tma03
Social justice is a notion that shapes norms, values and practices of individuals and groups within societies, by highlighting social harms, injustices, inequalities and discrimination experienced by individuals and groups a mobilising force is created which challenges and contests pre-existing ideas of what is considered to be just. Through mobilising new ideas of social justice new social welfare and crime control policies are created to regulated and enforced, and resources can be redistributed. There are often ambiguities and entanglements between social welfare, to improve capabilities and well being, and crime control policies and issues, to regulate and enforce. I will be drawing upon examples of social ham and creating social justice from the UK and America, past and present, to illustrate the connections between social harms and social justice.
The idea of what is socially just is based on what is considered to be morally right, political legitimacy and economics. These ideas are seen as generally socially acceptable ways to behave individually and the treatment and behaviour towards other members/groups within society, which are regulated and enforced by laws policies, institutions and organisations. Ideas of what are considered to be acceptable, morally right or the ‘natural order’ of things is changeable over time through personal experiences and beliefs. The ideas of what is (un)just can act as a mobilising force, to make social harms visible, which can lead to creating changes to widely held beliefs and force changes to social policies and laws and become the normative view held within the society. One example of how beliefs of the ‘natural order’ has changed is by the civil rights movement, ‘coloureds’ used to be treated as second class citizens, were not allowed or refused entry into certain places, these, now racist and discriminatory, beliefs where upheld and enforced by laws, such as the ‘Jim Crow’ law, this, at the time, legal
The idea of what is socially just is based on what is considered to be morally right, political legitimacy and economics. These ideas are seen as generally socially acceptable ways to behave individually and the treatment and behaviour towards other members/groups within society, which are regulated and enforced by laws policies, institutions and organisations. Ideas of what are considered to be acceptable, morally right or the ‘natural order’ of things is changeable over time through personal experiences and beliefs. The ideas of what is (un)just can act as a mobilising force, to make social harms visible, which can lead to creating changes to widely held beliefs and force changes to social policies and laws and become the normative view held within the society. One example of how beliefs of the ‘natural order’ has changed is by the civil rights movement, ‘coloureds’ used to be treated as second class citizens, were not allowed or refused entry into certain places, these, now racist and discriminatory, beliefs where upheld and enforced by laws, such as the ‘Jim Crow’ law, this, at the time, legal
References: Newman, J. and Yeates, N. (2008) ‘Making social justice: ideas, struggles and responses’, pp1-28, in Newman J. and Yeates, N. (eds) Social Justice: Welfare, Crime and Society, Maidenhead, Open University Press. Newman, J. and Yeates, N. (2008) ‘Well-being, harm and work’, pp64-94, in Newman J. and Yeates, N. (eds) Social Justice: Welfare, Crime and Society, Maidenhead, Open University Press. Newman, J. and Yeates, N. (2008) ‘’Problem’ populations, ‘problem’ places, pp98-125, in Newman J. and Yeates, N. (eds) Social Justice: Welfare, Crime and Society, Maidenhead, Open University Press. The Open University (2008) ‘Safeguarding Children’, DVD 1, Chapter 2, 2008, Welfare, Crime and Society, Milton Keynes, The Open University. SELF-REFLECTON There is lots of information, found tricky not to keep repeating myself. I am starting to recognise the process of social justice in everyday life, and identifying how resources are redistributed and the maximising capabilities. I did find some of it difficult due to personal situations and experience.