Social and Economic Justice: Key Concepts

Introduction to Social and Economic Justice

• Empathy involves connections and is a vulnerable choice, whereas sympathy involves disconnections.
• A culture of empathy and compassion reduces bullying and sexism.
• Empathy helps resolve conflicts and tensions between people.
• There is an argument that empathy is a building block for a more just society.
• The empathy gap is a cognitive bias causing people to struggle to understand mental states differing from their own.

Sociological Imagination

• Sociological imagination is a perspective that goes beyond the individual and considers history and social structure.
• Key components include biography, history, and society.
• A distinction exists between personal troubles (marriage issues, health) and public issues (traffic on the highway).
• Service learning involves sociological imagination.

Charity vs. Justice

• Charity focuses on working "for" individuals, often considered a band-aid solution to larger issues.
• Justice emphasizes working "with" others, addressing inequality.

Equality vs. Equity

• Equality means equal rights/distribution of resources.
• Equity refers to the "fair" distribution of resources, acknowledging that everyone starts from different places.

Social Justice

• Social justice involves different kinds of justice: distributive, procedural, recognitional, and restorative.

Distributive Justice

• Distributive justice is fairness, the socially just distribution of goods in a society.
• An example is equal rights to liberty, as long as your liberty does not infringe on someone else's.
• Inequality of condition is allowed if equality of opportunity still exists.

Procedural Justice

• Shifts the lens from outcomes to the procedure/decisional making process.
• Focus is on determining who is included in the conversation.

Recognitional Justice

• Focus is on cultural domination and cultural injustice where marginalized groups are invisible or portrayed poorly in the culture.
• An example is media coverage of BLM in 14 countries where all were portrayed as violent, compared to a white man who killed his family.

Restorative Justice

• An approach to crime that views the act as an injury done to another, calling for healing and restoration, rather than an offense against the state.

Economic Justice

• Basic principles include:
• Equality of opportunity to engage in productive work.
• The right to be rewarded for that work in proportion to your contribution.
• Removal of barriers to establishing a fair economic order for all.

Economic Theories of Justice

• Free Market Approach (Adam Smith): Minimal to no government interference results in the most just society because free markets provide economic incentives.
• Government Interventionist Approach/Keynesian Economics (Keynes): Government should pursue economic policies that result in a managed market economy, stepping in during crises with minimum wage requirements.
• Capability Approach (Sen): Places emphasis on human beings rather than the market, saying society should develop people's individual capabilities and provide opportunities.

Sociology and Social Justice

Major faultlines influencing social justice in our time:

• To be identified and explained individually

Paths to Social and Economic Justice include:

• Social policy and welfare states.
• Social movements with SMOs (social movement organizations) and tactics/strategies.
• Collective behavior and related theories.
• Theorizing social movements, including resource mobilization theory and political process models (Aldon Morris), and indigenous perspective theory.

What Do Americans Need?

• According to the NY Times Editorial Board, there are six things the editors argue America needs to become a more just nation.

Worker-Owned Cooperatives

• A worker-owned cooperative aims to be described by the Mondragon Corporation.
• They are more just than traditional capitalist enterprises.
• An example is how they responded to COVID.

Economic Justice: Unemployment (The Great Displacement)

• Five key factors contribute to current state.
• A change in corporate culture: the 1970's saw companies only responsive to shareholder value and the bottom line (profits).
• Industries shifted to employing people as contingent (part-time) workers rather than full-time.
• Many people are contracted out with no retirement or benefits. Fewer full-time jobs and less people working for benefits.
• Financialization: Deregulation allowed banks to make huge profits with financial risks. Banks are now interested in buying and selling group mortgages, leading to the 2008 financial crisis.
• Globalization where NAFTA and WTO lowered taxes for importing goods, causing producers to move offshore to pay workers in 3rd-world-countries
• Automation and improved technology cause call centers to be transported to offshore locations
• Corporations are making more and more profit while cutting the labor source

Al and The Future of Jobs

• Automation is capable of accent erasi ng software.
• An automatic tsunami is coming to customer care (technology, healthcare etc.)
• Retail is experiencing an apocalypse with ghost malls.
• Restaurant and food prep is incorporating Kiosk systems.
• There is disappearance of white-collar jobs

A Permanent Shadow Class

• Displacement looks like increases in mortality rates for middle-aged white Americans since 1999.
• Increases in what scholars call "diseases of despair", such as alcoholism and suicide.
• Opiodism and opioid epidemic and disability

Universal Basic Income

• Addresses claims to receive benefits.
• Tax dollars would pay every American a certain amount of money every month
• $100amonthwouldbringeveryoneuptothepovertyline, it'snotenoughto makepeoplenotwork, 'senoughtohelpsurvivewithaminimumwagejob
• AlaskapermanentFund is Billions of dollars in oil revenue that is to be divided among the citizens, $1000-$2000dollars to citizens, and decreases poverty in alaska

Examples of?

• The following are examples of Cash being given to those who are poor-This doesn't say anything to corporation, whycan'ttheyjustraisewages insteadofthegovernmentsteppingin

Economic Justice: Jobs (Dirty Work)

• Defined by Nancy Watterson as"Essential Job" Sanctioned by elites, a job nobody wants
• A moraldilemma is attached
• "Goodpeople" or respectful members view dirty and morally compromised, delegate it to the population of minority, poor, and can delegated towardse hosewhoreallyneedajob, thosewhoarewillingto doanythingtokeepajob
• there are links between de institutionalization and mass incarceration

Deinstitutionalization

• The 1970s journalism went around the country, taking pics of mental hospitals, causing society to be mortified/horrified
• Incarceration has been growing in the 70's, with explosions of violence.
• This has created dilemma for people working in prison with the fear of being murdered, abused, punishment.
• There dual loyalties
  1. Listening to the guards 2 .Providing care for the prison inmates themselves
• However Common is violence in prison?
  • American prisons: A. Turns a blind eye. B. A low-income population, with little options to advance.
  • A poor society always fails to maintain a functioning mental health system.
• Dilemmas with corrections officers face are due to the rehabilitation and lack of resources.
• Racism impacts the prison system between workers and prisons

Rehabilitation

• Programs are designed to reduce the recidivism of adults
• Prisoners has led to labor forces that are racialized
• Black workers are 2x to feel embarrassed and receive more backlash
• Black guards feel pressure to show that they are not supporting inmates in prison --This shows more punishment for back

Labor Force

• Rural Ghetto
• Lead to impoverished areas and low-income housing
• The guards pull in the prisons, then it becomes useless
• The guards act like the invisible population, as they are people of color or those of very little options
• There are links between the prisoners

Dehumanizing Institutions

• They were made to show the bad prisoners
• Similar workers were greedy, or they were portrayed with honor

Prisons and Covid

• Prisons:
• Prisons had the high number of covid cases, but got little recognition even though they had to keep working
• Covid was spread among the low incomes.

Civilized Punishment

• Anything too distasteful is removed from sight, "I don't need to see" Overtown and unrespectful
• Privatization of prisons
• Military personnel typically escape poverty

Military

• Drone program: the amount of drone strikes in the middle east has increased Dronestrikes: seem like cleaning

• But those strikes can do alot of damage

• Damaged on the job They can conductbombing and launch grenade, motar etc.

• Moralinjury: They sustain from doing a unfulfilled ask

Does Moral differ from PTSD? No, it is more like moral judgement

• Antiwar,antiDronewarfareprioners
• Antiwarm
• Emergenceofallvoluntaryversesconscription
• Lackorprespectofwarriors
• UsBorderPatrolemployees
• Werespectforemployees
• Latinasdoesmuchofthiswork

More On Workers

• Employees are undocumented
• Many get arrested- Can pay little wages
• It use decent jobs but good jobs
• the labor force in people with color.
• The enviro: hard strict with harsh conditions.
• the physical enviro:
• Slaughter: Gross scenes
• Thejungle: Is where all the animal parts end up in peoples food. Creating a uproar with violence.

meat prosses

• MeatconsumptionIncreasedsincethe1960
• Hiddencost: Hidden cost to public
• Envio health
• To animal COVID in Slaugther
• There weresodeath with racial violence

Virtuous consumers

• They need to learn Ethics and animal rights Dyrtyenergy
• Deep water horizons THE BPOILSPILL

Mental/Physacll: People can’t hold a job or their lives Comcerforthelife

• More focus of people and those that complain

They were treated completely, and they are not afraid to work

• The less resistance to do all the work.

• Leastresistantpersonalities” PlacelikeLousanaareto

• I

They use words that were not able to hear or understand

Take proper safety protocols, and when do people take

• Dirtytech • Examplesofs

• Laura Nolan-Googleandthebusinessofwar-washelpingthemdronestrikes. Hada15mdollarcontractandthereforeshehadtoquitbecauseher moralswerenotlargerthanthat

Theydonotcallin: "DirtyWOrk"

• No moral is there, They use other options
• And there 15 million dollar contracts that would give people a spoiled identity.
• They feel more comply because many like them only want power.
• And face much stigma due to their ethics
• You can't take that away.
• Whatweowetheseworkers
• "TheResuittothisMoralinqualitiyandassurethatamarayofhiteninuries Stigmasthametramma.
• Moraliniurry
• "There are things they ca't talk about"
• Whatisthis

Sexualviolanveandsocaljustice • Covesrt when to agree to have Sex • Consentinsotblaiket

• affirmative" the Persoa who inilates to engage and give yes • Rape mhtgs- Women ask
• Women leal on sex
• All the bad rape and social abuse
• It creates sical harm" Women is social harm

Economic Poverty

• The imptance of empathy

• the Auther is atic" Whatisdoneandwhat

• Usandcovid

• It'shigh

• Poveltisanotcome

• Ower and don't care

1. B40 Is the

• Whatis
• It'simt
• Goldb
• And not true Isthisalife?
• ftt
• National program
• whatarw
• Peverty and ohsesity

• And no one had it, as it was not a priority ""

• Feder and pograms

Snabs- 16000

• wic : for the childeren, but need hagher
• the Theysellyourself, we don't
• 28 the
• Housingcost burden
• Gentre The amount it costs increase as the more you rent
• Thehousing
• the federal the federal.
• What do they
• Racism and how do solve it • There will always be an The utility's cause poverty with people • the povertystays poor
• Transportationdeserts""
• And always the ones that do good
• Trans as there is always a free system
• As there is always a free system

How many the have? Not enough How does it affect the poor? Can't buy the basic"

Explore the concepts of empathy, sociological imagination, and the difference between charity and justice. Learn how empathy fosters connection and justice addresses systemic issues. Understand sociological imagination as a framework for relating individual experiences to broader social and historical contexts.