Social Justice Issues

Convocation Address at Bethel University, August 29, 2016 about recent troubles in Minnesota, particularly the shooting of Philando Castille, and our responsibility as followers of the Gospel. There is an audio link also available. After you click the link, it's the first one in the queue; fast-forward to 15:00:  https://itunes.apple.com/us/itunes-u/2016-2017-chapel-college-arts/id1148681753?mt=10

Entre el18 y el 20 de abril de 2004 en Bahía Portete (Alta Guajira) se llevó a cabo una de las agresionesde mayor impactoen tiempos recientes contra una comunidad indígena. Ese 18 de abril ingresaron a la zona más de 30 hombres de las Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia, Frente Contrainsurgencia wayuu y asesinaron, oficialmente, a 6 indígenas, 4 de ellas mujeres quienes luego de ser agredidas sexualmente fueron masacradas delante de sus familias. Esta masacre ocasionó el desplazamiento de más de 600 indígenas, siendo el mayor éxodo wayuu de que se tenga noticia.
Han sido varios los esfuerzos que se han hecho para documentar este hecho histórico. El  más importante fue el realizado por el Grupo de Memoria Histórica del CNMH donde participa como investigador y fotógrafo Jesús Abad Colorado, quizás uno de los fotógrafos del conflicto colombiano con mayor reconocimiento. Sin embargo, desde la comunidad también han sido varios los esfuerzos por no dejar en la impunidad este hecho de dolor; Wayuumunsurat Mujeres Tejiendo Paz y SutsuinJiyeyu Wayuu-Fuerza Mujeres Wayuu, son algunas de las organizaciones de mujeres que con mayor visibilidad y regularidad vienen dignificando el papel de las víctimas de la masacre y las luchas por la reparación, la garantía de no repetición, la lucha por la memoria y el regreso a sus territorios.

Santiago Harker, viajero contumaz, estuvo visitando esta región desde 1993 y así lo siguió haciendo durante más de 15 años. Recorrer el territorio, descubrir el paisaje y sus gentes, adentrarse en sus tradiciones, y dejarlo todo escrito en fotografías fue el motor que impulsó tales viajes. Como resultado de estas correrías aparecería su primer libro sobre la comunidad, Wayuu, cultura del desierto colombiano (Harker, Wayuu cultura del desierto colombiano 1998) editado por Villegas Editores. El libro compila algunas de las fotografías más importantes de Harker en el territorio y viene acompañado por el texto de Weildler Guerra Curvelo, a la sazón miembro de la comunidad y estudioso de las tradiciones de la comunidad wayuu. En 2009, Harker vuelve a publicar con Villegas Editores otra parte de sus recorridos por las tierras guajiras; en este caso su centro de atención estuvo dirigido a una de las actividades más importantes de los wayuu: la pesca. El libro lleva por títuloApalaanchi, pescadores wayuu(Harker, Apalaanchi pescadores wayuu 2009)y nuevamente cuenta con texto introductorio de Weildler Guerra Curvelo quien versa sobre el papel de los apalaanchi en la cultura y la tradición económica wayuu.

Early American Indian women’s literature stands deeply rooted in historical Native issues of oppression and genocide, yet also brings to light more subtle and personal issues that have plagued indigenous women for generations. The justified anger and inevitable grief of subjugation parallels the issues of interracial children, interethnic identity, and cultural practices as resistance tactics. 19th and early 20th century Native women authors meet such complexities with protagonists who revolt against and resign themselves to an unjust society so that their enduring presence and literary voice embodies a revolutionary act.

This article analyzes the meanings of social justice as found in three plans of study for basic education (preschool 2004, secondary school 2006, and elementary school 2009). The selection of academic material is related to two issues. First, the World Education Forum ratified the Framework for Action for the Americas, a document that considers basic education to be fundamental human right, with social justice as its mainstay. Second, and as a consequence of the Forum, the curriculum of Mexico’s basic education was renovated during the first decade of the 21st century. Due to the priorities of this article, analysis excludes the revision of the 2011 plan of study, which is still in effect in the nation’s educational system. The article’s underlying argument is that in the indicated plans of study, social justice acquires meaning in a reductionist manner with regard to social multiplicity and complexity. In organizational terms, the article begins with a conceptual genealogy of social justice, followed by an analysis of its meanings based on certain categories (of theory and argumentation), and closes with analytical statements.

In the online era, it is easy to direct vitriol, without a second thought of the consequences for the recipient, via the depersonalised screen at strangers, friends and particularly those who do not share our opinions or worldview.  Reminiscent of the two minutes hate from George Orwell(Eric Blair)'s 1984, a public pariah is easy to find and shame in the virtual world.

A recent example would be that of Walter Palmer, the Minnesota dentist who found himself at the centre of a public shaming scandal after he illegally shot 'Cecil The Lion', whom his trackers lured from a game sanctuary, on a big game hunting trip in Zimbabwe. 

This unfortunate man found himself taking the brunt of public outrage, both online via social media, and in person with equivalent angry mobs calling for his extradition and baying for his blood.

If you have a social media account, you could not have escaped this 'scandal'. After witnessing this (quite frankly) repetitive and virulent spectacle,  I found myself  deciding to read this book by Jon Ronson, as its title felt quite poignant, in the hope of understanding further the phenomenon of mob mentality and its effects on its unfortunate victims. ...

http://www.whenthenewsstops.org/2015/08/so-youve-been-publicly-shamed-by-jon.html

This is a Literature Review about characteristics of whiteness seen in contemporary films today, which are considered to be called "White Savior Films." I discuss Color-Blind racism and how its the new form of invisible racism that we use today's society. I describe aspects of whiteness and how it effects our media, popular culture and Hollywood cinema. Films discussed is the review include; Avatar, City of Joy, Dangerous Minds, Freedom Writers, The Blindside, The Soloist, Hard Ball, Gran Torino, and The Help.

This essay explores the first segment of the Lot sub-narrative of the Abraham cycle (Gen 11:27-25:10). The study adopts a narrative close reading approach and canonical theological hermeneutical framework in its reading strategies (with the canon's reception history undergirding its plausibility structures), aiming ultimately at unfolding the world of possibilities of being-in-the-world in the text, particularly from an ethical standpoint. The study shows Lot, enmeshed in his sense of marginality from YHWH's repeated covenantal promises of progeny to Abraham, ditch time-tested tradition and embark on a quest for freedom and a home of his own, consequently, assuming significance and security in Sodom (where he sat on the city council at the gate). His initial assumed marginality in Abraham's home attains reality in Sodom, where the Sodomites desirous of 'having fun' with Lot's angelic guests (who were on a search for justice) reprimands Lot, a mere immigrant-in their view-for his audacity to rebuke them. The visitation of YHWH's justice on Sodom renders the self-serving Lot homeless, driving him to ultimate marginality, as he inhabits the liminal space of an incestuous cave dweller. A theologico-ethical appropriation of the narrative draws attention, first, to the temptation often to be so caring to outsiders and yet be so unkind to those closest to us (like Lot). Second, tradition is a stabilising force in society and jettisoning it unnecessarily creates cascading disequilibria. Third, alienation from God is the grand source of all liminality. Fourth, inordinate desires lead to choices that bring about a breakdown in the social order. Fifth, like Lot, we need to catch heaven's heartbeat for the oppressed and become voices for their justice in our time.

From restorative justice literature in general. two conceptions of restorative justice processing can be discerned. The one is a
modest conception based on individual (dispositional) theories of crime and the other is an expansive view which is closer to peacebuilding and has a further distinction. One distinction is based on situational theories of crime which hold that structural factors are responsible for crime. The other distinction is based on integrative theories of crime which hold that there is an interaction between individual and structural factors that produce crime and that structural factors should be taken into account during restorative justice processing.

Les pauvres suscitent-ils aujourd’hui, chez les riches, une répulsion similaire à celle que le peuple inspirait aux bourgeois au xixe siècle ? Autrement dit, les démunis sont-ils encore considérés comme une classe dangereuse, immorale et répugnante ? En interrogeant le refus de la mixité résidentielle manifesté par les catégories supérieures, telle est la question frontale que pose cet ouvrage, issu d’une grande enquête comparative sur les perceptions de la pauvreté et des inégalités dans les beaux quartiers de trois métropoles : Paris, São Paulo et Delhi. À partir d’entretiens approfondis, il montre que la quête d’entre-soi des habitants des ghettos dorés n’est pas seulement motivée par une recherche de prestige et de qualité de vie, mais également par des représentations des pauvres qui les incitent à s’en protéger. Comment parviennent-ils à justifier leurs stratégies d’évitement et de relégation des catégories défavorisées, ainsi qu’à légitimer l’ordre local qu’ils s’efforcent de perpétuer ? Au-delà de la peur de la criminalité et de l’insalubrité apparaît la crainte des élites d’être en quelque sorte contaminées par des modes de vie jugés culturellement indésirables ou moralement nuisibles. À travers les mécanismes du séparatisme social, ce sont les conditions de possibilité de la solidarité que cet essai explore.

Using social capital theory as a framework, the authors examined data from the Educational Longitudinal Study (ELS: 2002) to examine how student contact with high school counselors about college information and other college-related variables influence students’ college application rates. In addition to some college related variables, the number of school counselors, and student contact were significant predictors of college application rates.  Implications for school counselors and counselor training are included.

The entry begins with a definition of geography and with a description of what the discipline shares with the other social sciences and what makes it distinctive among them. Terminological clarifications are provided with regard to the relationship between human geography and physical geography, and between human geography and urban geography. After a brief history and overview of human geography’s engagement with social theory, the entry offers a discussion of the politicization of contemporary human geography and of how this phenomenon is reflected in theory building and concept development.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118430873.est0464

Biofiction is literature that names its protagonist after an actual historical figure, and it has become a dominant literary form in recent years. Because the main character is named after a real person, some people wrongly assume that biofiction is a form of biography, an attempt to accurately represent the life of a person from the past. But this is not correct. Biofiction is fiction, not biography, and as such, authors find something of value in the story of their subject, and then they fictionalize that story in order to make sense of life more generally. In other words, authors frequently take fictional liberties with the historical and biographical facts in order to give readers their own visions of life and the world. What is it in the lives of Frederick and Anna Douglass, Serena Williams, Galileo, or Friedrich Nietzsche that is so relevant and meaningful for us today? That is the kind of question we will answer through fictions and films about important historical figures. In this course we will specifically examine social justice biofiction, which is literature that fictionalizes the life of an actual person in order to promote and advance justice for people and groups that have been marginalized and oppressed. There has been very little scholarship about the nature of the biographical novel, so this is a great opportunity for you, as you can be one of the first to create a system of knowledge to make sense of this aesthetic form, and that is what we will do during the course of this semester. Students will write two papers and take two exams.

In recent decades, the criminalization of immigration and the use of private prisons have increased in popularity. The criminalization of immigration and the privatization of prisons work hand in hand in shaping the American criminal justice response to immigration. Privatization creates a powerful opportunity for the social construction of the undocumented immigrant into a powerful potential source of revenue for for-profit corporations. Private prison corporations, such as Corrections Corporation of American and The GEO Group, stand to profit significantly from the private immigration detention center. Several investigative reports have focused on how these companies stand to profit, but little attention has been given to the psychosocial consequences that impact immigrant detainees and their families.

This paper sets out to develop two related ideas. First, it seeks to identify how both violence and neoliberalism can be considered as moments. From this shared conceptualisation of process and fluidity, I argue that it becomes easier to recognise how these two phenomena actually converge. Building upon this conceived coalescence of neoliberalism and violence, the second aim is to recognise how the hegemony of neoliberalism positions it as an abuser, which facilitates the abandonment of those ‘Others’ who fall outside of neoliberal normativity. I argue that the widespread banishment of ‘Others’ under neoliberalism produces a ‘state of exception’, wherein because of its inherently dialectic nature, exceptional violence is transformed into exemplary violence. This metamorphosis occurs as aversion for alterity intensifies under neoliberalism and its associated violence against ‘Others’ comes to form the rule.

The Israelites celebrated the freedom to observe the Sabbath as a benefit of their escape from Egyptian enslavement. Exodus theology and the liberation of mid-19th c. American blacks have likewise been an oft-recurring theme in the AME church’s rich collection of hymns. Before the Emancipation Proclamation, Sundays represented a time and place when enslaved blacks might gather in a community less (directly) overseen by others. After 1863, hymns reflected social constraints that still made life hard. Social Gospel hymns appeared in the 1900s.

“Tikkun olam” is a marvelous term that is used as a slogan for activism, political involvement, and social justice. The term has had numerous lives, such that its endurance and malleability over time are truly impressive. This paper is a whistle stop tour that provides an overview of the vicissitudes of the term. This journey demonstrates how tikkun olam has come to connote a disparate array of values, and has been assimilated into modern, liberal, democratic discourse. With the course of time, tikkun olam has come to serve as watchword for any value, even if a particular value – laudable as it may be – is not rooted in Jewish tradition. This trend raises a question that should be considered: What is the opportunity cost of the cultural assimilation of the term tikkun olam?

Oppression and discrimination are seen as forms of social injustice that exist in society. People are sometimes aware of it; some are misguided and misunderstood in recognizing its practices and mechanism. What is happening in the society nowadays in response to social welfare and social injustice is people tend to be apathetic and take the already existing corrupted system for granted. Not so many people are brave enough to 'sing out' the oppression that they endured and experienced for some years as a social worker. Some who gathered up and formed groups of people and community disappointed of abuses toward their human rights face bitter consequences. Only a few could manage to stand firm against the oppression. The term social justice itself contextualized primarily in relation to peace and violence. Contemporary Indonesian poets such as Taufiq Ismail are one of those people who are able to see deep into 'layers' beyond the surface on what happened to the rights of Indonesian people that are being abused, especially the social workers. They managed to be able to see how fair treatments could go along way with individual rights. Through their works and writing, contemporary Indonesian poets give us a vivid narrative description of social justice. Through ink and words, they urged us to open up our own senses on how crucial justice and individual rights of every worker matter.

Most sociological research on racial discrimination has had an “inter-racial” focus. That is, researchers have been principally concerned with the disparate treatment that people of color receive relative to Whites in different social contexts. However, recent theoretical work emerging from legal studies sug- gests that an alternative conception of “intra-racial” discrimination exists that extends beyond colorism. This theory of intra-racial discrimination stipulates that many organizations in the “post-racial” era desire some measure of racial diversity. Yet, in their efforts to achieve this racial diversity they screen people of color based on their degree of racial salience. Whether a given person of color is hired, promoted, or in the case of college admissions, accepted, is a function of whether or not Whites within the organization consider them racially palatable, or not overly concerned with race. This creates an incentive for people of color to work their identity to allay any concerns among Whites that they may be too racially salient. In this paper I critically review this work and attempt to further buttress its claims by highlighting how this process has clear historical precedent. I conclude by showing how the audit method can be used to empirically examine this practice contemporarily.

The pervasiveness of neoliberalism within the field of human geography is remarkable, especially when we consider its virtual absence from the literature less than a decade ago. While the growing attention afforded to neoliberalism among geographers is new, the phenomenon of neoliberalism is not. This paper traces the intellectual history of neoliberalism and its expansions across various institutional frameworks and geographical settings. I review the primary contributions geographers have made to the literature, and specifically their recognition for neoliberalism’s variegations within existing political economic matrixes and institutional frameworks. Contra the prevailing view of neoliberalism as a pure and static end-state, geographical inquiry illuminates neoliberalism as a dynamic and unfolding process. The concept of ‘neoliberalization’ is thus seen as more appropriate to geographical theorizations insofar as it recognizes neoliberalism’s hybridized and mutated forms as it travels around our world. I also consider some of the most salient ways that neoliberalism has been theorized among human geographers. In particular, I highlight understandings of neoliberalism as a hegemonic ideology, as a policy-based approach to state reform, and as a particular logic of governmentality, arguing that while there are significant differences between these various formations, it may also be important to work beyond methodological, epistemological, and ontological divides in the larger interest of social justice.

This chapter unpacks the imaginary of the smart city, taking the reader on a journey which, across time and space, explores the intellectual foundations of the key ideas, images and visions underpinning the theory and practice of smart urbanism. Starting from Francis Bacon's New Atlantis, the chapter examines the origins of the synergy between technological development and urban development, that today characterizes the smart-city phenomenon. The same thematic thread is then followed through the history of the city, with an emphasis on Modernism when technological innovation begun to be deeply embedded in city-making. By connecting the philosophy of Nietzsche to the work of Expressionist architects and Futurist artists, the chapter emphasizes the stark individualism permeating the spirit of modernity. The chapter then discusses the cases of Los Angeles and Singapore, as the first incarnations of the computer city and the intelligent city respectively. Finally, current smart-city initiatives are critiqued through the lens of Max Horkheimer's critical theory. More specifically, the chapter draws upon Eclipse of Reason, to argue that the recent dreams of smart urbanism are but a rerun of traditional capitalistic ambitions which, masked by the promise of technological progress, target the interests of elites, and neglect the progress of society and the preservation of the natural environment.

The quest for justice in our society has been a constant problem since inception of the society. Practically every experienced individual can identify naturally what is ―just,‖ and can instinctively distinguish ―injustice.‖ However, definitely characterizing what ―justice‖ implies, or what the idea of justice envelops is not very simple to define. The Social Contractarians had showed that in the state of nature, human had to come together to surrender some of their rights to a sovereignty who is to administer social justice when necessarily, this was because the state of nature was characterized by Social Injustice. Decays after that event, the problem of Social Justice Still evolves. In order to solve the problem, philosophers and scholars through the history of western thought have attempt to expose the problem of what social justice is and how it can be administered. Christianity one of the world foremost religions offers an insight into its problem and solution, even before most western scholars on the issue. This article attempts to take a look at Christian most profound sense of being which it is in its moral imperative ―love your neighbor as yourself‖. It takes a critical look at the biblical view of social justice while exposing the some misconception inherent.

The "Greek crisis" was officially inaugurated on May 2010 with the loan the Greek government took from the IMF-European Union-European Central Bank troika, the largest a country had ever taken (€110 bn). Since then, the social implications of this crisis have been dramatic. The form and the scale of social phenomena observed today in Greece and particularly in Athens--e.g., extreme poverty and inequality, profound police violence, organized racist violence--are unprecedented for the country. Nevertheless, a diachronic examination of some socio-spatial aspects of Athens reveals that the social character of the current crisis has been taking shape for some time. This article aims shed light on the social shape of the crisis by outlining three such socio-spatial dimensions as they materialized in the case of Athens during 1990s and 2000s: first, the emergence of new forms of social exclusion and inequality; second, the vast project of urban (re)development and the new spatialities it produced, and third the emergence of novel forms of political and xenophobic violence.

The core argument in this paper is that all research schools and theoretical frameworks carry with them – and, importantly, also within them, as their inherent dimensions – particular ethical orientations (systems of values and ethical endpoints) tailored to and derivative from socio-political and ultimately, practical projects in which research uniquely gains its concreteness and meaning. These projects can be differentiated along the axis either of supporting (explicitly or implicitly) the status quo by taking it for granted and not challenging its reigning assumptions or, alternatively, aiming at transcending it through resistance and social transformation. These systems of values and orientations, or a sociopolitical ethos, indelibly color all other elements and dimensions of inquiries such as their ontologies and epistemologies, forming a unified ethico-onto-epistemology. Cultural-historical theory, under certain expansions and upgrades, is a paradigmatic case for advancing this position, with Hedegaard's works seen as sharing Vygotsky's broadly defined sociopolitical ethos which sheds light on her approach's significance and promise. To establish the centrality of ethico-onto-epistemology, a revision of the constitutional framework that could enable it, away from assumptions of passivity, accommodation, and adaptation, is required. A Transformative Activist Stance paves the way to understand knowledge production as always embedded within activist pursuits of broad social projects beyond the narrow confines of academia while embracing transformative agency grounded in political imagination and commitment to resistance and radical social transformation.
available at:  https://www-sciencedirect-com.ezproxy.gc.cuny.edu/science/article/pii/S2210656118300953

Course Description:
Can HipHop culture help produce a more just world? If so, what theory and praxis best advance this aim? These are the questions that drive this conceptual course. Our critical interrogation of the relationship between HipHop and social justice considers the culture from its U.S. Black Power era underpinnings to its disparate contemporary “glocal” manifestations. We begin by asking what is "HipHop," what is "social justice," and what is their relationship, and proceed to consider how HipHop can be an effective force for social justice and what obstacles mitigate against this potential. These discussions will develop familiarity with important concepts in Black studies and social theory such as race and colonialism, imperialism and hegemony, structure and agency, identity and strategic essentialism. Weekly readings will typically pair writings specifically on HipHop with theory from across the humanities and social sciences including philosophy, sociology, cultural studies, and political economy. Students will participate in the selection of weekly required listening/viewing of music and videos. We will endeavor to consider the race/class/gender dimensions of our weekly topics. Students will acquire a broader familiarity with HipHop activism, and develop new conceptual tools and critical thinking skills.

Considering two major social justice issues in 2014, one dealing with police brutality and the other dealing with online gendered harassment, the need to have a faith based response to digitized shortcomings of humanity became blatant. Inspired by a womanist ethic, techno-womanism is nascently explored through the lens of the #Gamergate and #BlackLivesMatter hashtags among others.

This is a biblical study of New Testament and early church teaching on wealth, social responsibility, rich and poor, interest and profit, political involvement, taking legal action, and pacifism.

A concordance for pacifists is included as well as a chapter on radical lifestyle and community applications. A bibliography and index are provided.

For more see http://www.leeccamp.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/why_the_christian_church_ought_to_be_pacifist.pdf

In this article I examine two basic questions: first, what constitutes a gifted person, and secondly, is there justification in making special educational provision for gifted children, where special provision involves spending more on their education than on the education of ‘normal’ children? I consider a hypothetical case for allocating extra resources for the gifted, and argue that gifted children are generally denied
educational justice if they fail to receive an education that adequately challenges
them. I further argue that an adequately challenging education is essential to human
flourishing, but that most children can be adequately challenged in schools in ways
that promote flourishing without doing so at the expense of other children.

This paper explores some contemporary issues and challenges facing those working in Adult and Higher Education and possible responses:
- contexts and critiques of the ongoing neoliberalisation of both university and wider society
- possible responses rooted in critical educational theories speaking to the need for educations for eco-social justice

This paper steps into recent debates concerning the (f)utility of neoliberalism as an ‘actually existing’ concept by reminding the reader that without a Marxian political economy approach, one that specifically includes neoliberalisation as part of its theoretical edifice, we run the risk of obfuscating the reality of capitalism’s festering poverty, rising inequality, and ongoing geographies of violence as something unknowable and ‘out there’. By failing to acknowledge such nonillusory effects of neoliberalisation and refusing the explanatory power neoliberalism holds in relating similar constellations of experiences across space as a potential basis for emancipation, we precipitously ensure the prospect of a violent future.

The author explains in detail the emergence of the new Keynesian economic paradigm as a consequence of the experience of the Great War and the Great Depression and the results obtained through government intervention during the New Deal.

The goal here is to show how the post-war era, with the government in the driver's seat of the economy, provided the greatest period of progress in the welfare of both rich and poor nations, in spite of the very powerful interests that continuously moved in the opposite direction. The essay opens by stating that the war economy pulled the capitalist world out of depression.

Summary
 War Economics
 Keynesian Economics. Thirty Years of Reconstruction and Development. The United States and its World Hegemony
 The Keynesian Paradigm
 The Birth of the Bretton Woods Institutions
 The Actual Agreement of the Bretton Woods Conference
 The United Nations Umbrella
 Keynesian Economics in Practice and the Consolidation of the Welfare State
 The Collapse of Bretton Woods as Originally Chartered