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RETHINKING SOCIAL JUSTICE

RETHINKING SOCIAL JUSTICE. Göteborgs Universitet Rektors chefs- och prefektmöte Varberg, 2 april 2014 Jan Scholte Institutionen för globala studier. VISION 2020. ‘ strong social responsibility and global engagement’ ?? But what could this mean??. OUTLINE. Reconfiguring society

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RETHINKING SOCIAL JUSTICE

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  1. RETHINKINGSOCIAL JUSTICE Göteborgs Universitet Rektors chefs- och prefektmöte Varberg, 2 april 2014 Jan Scholte Institutionen för globala studier

  2. VISION 2020 ‘strong social responsibility and global engagement’ ?? But what could this mean??

  3. OUTLINE • Reconfiguring society • Distributive justice • Cognitive justice • Ecological justice • A new democracy? • Implementation in the University

  4. RECONFIGURING SOCIETY • Society as Country-State-Nation • Methodological territorialism, statism, nationalism • Globalization • Regionalization (substate and suprastate) • Re-nationalization • Localization

  5. RECONFIGURING SOCIETY • We live transscalar lives • shift from social geography in terms of countries and ‘international relations’ to social geography as an interplay of scales • ‘global engagement’ is also (interlinked) regional, national, local and proximate engagement

  6. RECONFIGURING SOCIETY

  7. RECONFIGURING SOCIETYETHICAL IMPLICATIONS • To what ’society’ areweresponsible and how? • domainsof distributive justice • life-worldsneedingcognitivejustice • need for ecologicaljustice • Whatdoesdemocracymeanwhensocietydoes not relate (only) to the nation-state-country?

  8. RECONFIGURING SOCIETYETHICAL IMPLICATIONS ‘social responsibility’ with simultaneous and interrelated economic, cultural, ecological and political dimensions …. in a transscalarsociety

  9. DISTRIBUTIVE JUSTICEBEYOND THE WELFARE STATE social responsibilityof distributive justice ˃ narrowingof material inequalitiesofclass and gender within a national space

  10. GLOBAL MALDISTRIBUTION 245 : 1 Top 5% : Bottom 25% Global HouseholdIncomes (NB not assets) (2008)

  11. GLOBAL MALDISTRIBUTION 61 – 70 Global GiniCoefficient Cf. Sweden 23 (2005) EU 31 (2011), USA 45 (2007)

  12. GLOBAL MALDISTRIBUTIONnot onlybetweencountries and classes • genders • ages • castes • (dis) abilities • faiths • indigeneity • languages • nationalities • races • sexual orientations

  13. DISTRIBUTIVE JUSTICE • increase international aid or change global rules – for example … • global progressive taxation • alternative currencies • revised intellectual property • digital access

  14. DISTRIBUTIVE JUSTICE • fair trade schemes • equitable migration • universal basic income • coupledwith progressive redistributionregionally, nationally and locally, i.e., on transscalar basis

  15. COGNITIVE JUSTICE • justice is ideational as well as material • howtoextendduerecognition, respect, voice and influencetodiversitiesoflife-worlds, life-ways, life-styles in transscalarspaces? • therebyobtainingmorecreative and moreeffective global engagement and cooperation

  16. COGNITIVE JUSTICE • beyond assimilationist modernism – ‘make the world like Sweden’ – erase the Other • beyond multiculturalist traditionalism – ‘to each their own’ – refuse the Other • beyond interculturalist romanticism – ‘let’s communicate’ – embrace the Other • transculturalist learning for change – de-other the other and other the self

  17. COGNITIVE JUSTICE • insistence on reflexivity – awareness of context and historicity • acknowledgement of culture/power relations – the arbitrary nature of knowledge hierarchies • recognition of cultural complexity – not fixed, neatly bounded and separate nations or civilisations, but fluid intersections of multiple facets of being, becoming and belonging

  18. COGNITIVE JUSTICE • celebration of diversity as opportunity and creative resource rather than ‘problem’; pursuit of divergence rather than consensus • cultivation of humility in the face of unpalatable difference for maximal accommodation • promotion of deep listening – concentrated, careful, patient, receptive, empathetic • reciprocal learning for mutual positive change

  19. ECOLOGICAL JUSTICE • Homo sapiens are able to make deliberate interventions that purposively alter ecology • right action and right organisation in humanity’s relation to the web oflife • social responsibility as ecologicalresponsibility

  20. ECOLOGICAL JUSTICE • a largelyforgottenaspectofjustice in modern society • enormous harms and disruptions • human population growth – 3 to 9 billion • 10% of all homo sapienswhohaveeverlived

  21. ECOLOGICAL JUSTICE • pollutions and toxicities • naturalresourcedepletion – 3x 2000 to 2050 • biodiversitylosses – 6 to 17,000 • climatechange

  22. ECOLOGICAL JUSTICE • anthropocentrism and extractivism • separating humanity and its society from ‘nature’ • affirming the superiority and greater importance of humanity relative to other life • assuming humanity’s prerogative to use the rest of the biosphere solely for its benefit • viewing the ability to control and alter ‘nature’ as the chief mark of human progress.

  23. ECOLOGICAL JUSTICE • from anthropocentrism to ecocentrism? • from a society-nature divide to humanity within a web-of-life • from environmentalism to ecological integrity • economy beyond growth and ‘sustainability’ • beyond human rights to ecological justice • from citizenship to eco-ship (florestania)

  24. SUMMARY: A NEW DEMOCRACY? • plural demoi (peoples) • transculturalpoliticsofdiversity • structuralredistribution • from citizenshiptoeco-ship • transscalar action toengagepolycentricgovernance

  25. IMPLEMENTATION • certainlythese new ethicsare not achievedautomatically, straightforwardly or quickly • however, contemporary social changemovesswiftly; whowouldhavethought …? • it is vital tohavecreative visions tomeet and guide the transformations

  26. IMPLEMENTATION THROUGH GU • be a ’transscalar’ university • infusestaff and students withadjustedconceptionsofjustice – material, cognitive, ecological – for a new world • lead in the developmentof new democraticpractices

  27. VISION 2020 ‘strong social responsibility and global engagement’

  28. Tack så mycket

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