Social justice in a turbulent era
Call for contributions for an edited book collection
To be edited by Professor Gary Craig, Visiting Professor, School of Law, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, Editor of
Global Social Justice (Edward Elgar)
The exhortation ‘may you live in interesting times’ has often been taken as a warning that interesting times may in reality turn out to be challenging, if not exceedingly
turbulent. In the past few years, it would be difficult to deny the claim that we – and this applies more or less equally across the world - are living in times which are more turbulent than at any point in living memory with the possible exception of the
periods of the two World Wars. In terms of social and political change, the present era of turbulence has at least five major dimensions. First, there has been the neoliberal economic crisis of the early twenty-first century followed downstream by a number
of consequences, perhaps most of all by a prolonged period of fiscal austerity which has impacted financially on the most disadvantaged and accentuated the gap between rich and poor both at individual, regional, national and international levels.
Secondly, after a period in which it felt as if relationships between minority and majority populations within nation states had been the focus of some ameliorative policy
change and challenges to both individual and institutional racism, we have witnessed a rapid growth - and despite the international and national organising under the banner of Black Lives Matter - in racism, xenophobia and nationalism with increased conflict
between racialised minorities and majority populations, and a growth in state-sponsored racism, particularly in the hostile and exclusionary treatment of migrants. This has grown in disturbing ways even in countries such as South Africa, hitherto seen from
outside as a global beacon for many years of anti-racist struggle.
Linked to this, thirdly, we have seen a repositioning of ruling parties at a national level with a perceptible shift to the political right and in some cases, to what might
be termed a protofascist position. Although this has been done in some cases deliberately to counter the electoral threat of openly fascist far right parties, it has had the impact of dragging centrist or left of centre parties more to the right so that there
are very few serious left of centre political challenges at national levels to the political hegemony of the right whose parties, in the USA (pace Biden’s victory which may be seen as a unique phenomenon or possibly a pause in a rightward drift – note the
increasingly racist and fascist nature of organised political responses of those opposed to Biden) , UK, Brazil, Hungary, India, China and so on, have felt mandated through the use of lies and manipulation of facts - to pursue divisive, exclusionary and at
times, murderous policies against political dissent.
Fourthly, there has been worldwide demonstrations of the impact of climate change with widespread flooding, rising sea levels threatening the existence of whole communities
and even nation states, extremes of heat leading to wide-ranging and destructive wild fires and loss of life (including untold millions of animals, birds, insects and natural habitats).
Finally, of course there has been the emergence of the covid-19 pandemic. There is growing evidence that this has been manipulated by right-wing politicians to pursue policies
which strengthen the power of the state over its peoples – policies, for example, to do with exclusion, surveillance, privatisation, coercion and control – whilst claiming these changes are for the benefit of local populations. Whilst it appears now that covid-19
is an ailment to which we all must now become accustomed to living with, just like – depending on local circumstances - measles, influenza, bilharzia, dysentery – the urgent nature of the pandemic has facilitated processes which may, in the long run – weaken
the opportunities for organisation and protest against the behaviour of increasingly authoritarian states.
Comprehensive evidence (still emerging in the case of the last two dimensions) demonstrates that each of these aspects of turbulence has borne down and is bearing down most
heavily on those who are already disadvantaged, dispossessed, excluded and discriminated against – the poor, minorities, women, people with disabilities, children and so on, whilst globally and nationally, the gap between the incomes and wealth of the richest
and the poorest has grown substantially. Of course, these changes have not been without tensions and contradictions: for example the responses of some right-wing political leaders has been weak and ill-informed and generated considerable political opposition
in some countries, and the spending of substantial sums of public money to support local economies has undermined the arguments of those who hitherto have argued most strongly for the need tor public expenditure to be kept under strict control and against
state intervention. On the other hand, covid initially seemed to open up debates about the possibilities for fundamental shifts in the ways people work but these arguments seem to have vanished from public debate amidst calls for ‘a return to normality’.
In the last twenty years of the twentieth century and into the twentyfirst century, there had been much debate at political level of responses
to disadvantage and inequality being shaped potentially by a political framework of social justice. These responses have been captured in the recent
Global Social Juistice handbook edited by myself (https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/gbp/handbook-on-global-social-justice-9781786431417.html
in which I outline my own understanding of the meaning of social justice) , a collection of essays which gave some credence to the view that there was an alternative, left of centre, political strategy which could challenge economic neo-liberalism and right-wing
political ideologies. This was, I argued, still the case despite the attempts by some rightwing parties to hijack the concept of social justice itself, using it to justify policies which further damaged the life chances of already poor and disadvantaged populations.
Even since the publication of that volume three years ago, however, the world has changed substantially in social, political and economic terms and those on the left of political thought and action face enormous challenges in resisting the shift to the right,
outlined above, and struggling for a form of society shaped by the values of fairness, equality, respect and inclusion.
Commissioned by an internationally renowned publisher, I am developing a collection of essays which address the challenges posed by one or more of the dimensions of ‘turbulence’
outlined above (recognising that in many instances these factors may be linked or are operating to reinforce one another). I am looking for contributions of about 6-8,000 words which can be theoretical or practice-based in their orientation, which draw on
experience from one or more countries or cultures, of the social and political impact of these changes, (and cross-national and cross-dimensional connections would be particularly welcome) and which provide models situated within the framework of social justice
to help shape political and social action to resist these trends. I am aiming at present for between 10-16 chapters which offer both theoretical and practice-based case studies, written in English and accessible to the widest possible audience. I would hope
to commission chapters before the end of this year and submit a manuscript to the publisher by autumn next year.
Please send brief summaries (about 100-150 words) of the scope of a proposed chapter to me at
[log in to unmask] by November 15 with the proposed authors’
contact details. All correspondence will of course be acknowledged by return. Thank you
Gary Craig
Please circulate this call to your own relevant national and international networks to ensure the maximum possible coverage for this call and for the content of the book.
Professor Gary Craig BSc Dip Ed Dip CW PhD FRSA FASS
Professor of Social Justice
Visiting Professor, University of Newcastle upon Tyne