Social justice and public policy

Social justice is a contested term, incorporated into the language of widely differing political positions. Those on the left argue that it requires intervention from the state to ensure equality, at least of opportunity; those on the right believe that it can be underpinned by the economics of the market place with little or no state intervention. To date, political philosophers have made relatively few serious attempts to explain how a theory of social justice translates into public policy.

This important book, drawing on international experience and a distinguished panel of political philosophers and social scientists, addresses what the meaning of social justice is, and how it translates into the everyday concerns of public and social policy, in the context of both multiculturalism and globalisation.

Author Biography

Gary Craig is Professor of Social Justice at the University of Hull and Associate Director of the Wilberforce Institute for the study of Slavery and Emancipation. His research focuses on ‘race’ and ethnicity, poverty and local governance. He is President of the International Association for Community Development.David Gordon is Professor of Social Justice at the University of Bristol and Director of the Townsend Centre for International Poverty Research. His research interests include social and distributional justice, social harm, scientific measurement of poverty, child poverty and human rights, childhood disability, crime and poverty, area-based anti-poverty measures, the causal effects of poverty on ill health, and rural poverty. Dr Tania Burchardt is Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for the Analysis of Social Exclusion at the London School of Economics. Her research interests include theories of social justice, measurement of equality, and welfare and employment policy.