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Summary Solidarity & Social Justice
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Summary chapter 1,2,3 4 and 6. Includes summary of papers by Rawls and van Hootegem.
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Samenvatting Literatuur Solidarity & Social JusticeChapter 1: Why Solidarity and Social Justice still matter today
Solidarity and social justice are elements in social policies aimed at combatting social
inequalities in contemporary societies. They often play a central role in public debates on
these issues.
Key concepts in the book
Social inequality: the uneven allocation of burdens and valued resources across members of
a society based on their group membership, in combination with the undervaluation of these
members of society based on this same group membership.
In recent years the class divide has become even stronger, with rising inequality between the
rich and the poor. Part of the undervaluation of specific groups is exemplified by negative
stereotypes and the degree to which these social groups are perceived as more or less
deserving of welfare state support. Deservingness, in turn, reflects individual attitudes
towards citizens’ social rights and civil rights.
The articulation and protection of these rights are the foundation of modern welfare
states, which traditionally provide government-protected minimum standards of
income/nutrition/health/housing/education.
Social policies: crucial part of the ways in which welfare states attempt to identity and
address social inequalities as well as social risks that have societal consequences mass
unemployment. They take form of services, facilities, and broader support of social groups.
Social policy support can be provided by the welfare state as well as other actors as NGOs of
trade unions.
Social dilemmas: situations in which short-term self-interests conflict with longer-term
societal interests. In these dilemmas, individuals are better off if they do not act
cooperatively, but everybody is better off if everyone cooperates. If no one cooperates,
everyone will be worse off in the end. Some groups may have to give up certain privileges
now, to end up with a fairer society in the end.
Self-transcending motives: motives that extend beyond the self. Helps people move past
their self-interested behavior. Both social justice and solidarity can be considered self-
transcending motives.
Solidarity: about common identity, suggesting a mutual attachment between individuals in
society, both practically and normatively depending on each other and expecting of each
other.
Social justice: concerned with different types of questions about allocation: Who is deserving
of what, and how is this to be achieved? In classic social science theories and research, most
attention was given to questions regarding the distribution of burdens and benefits across
members of a society. In the late 1980/90s questions about just procedures leading up to
these distributive outcomes became increasingly important.
Distributive justice = what is to be distributed
Procedural justice = how this is to be done
Justice as recognition/ scope of justice = by whom and for whom is this done
, Chapter 2: Who we are and who we choose to help: an introduction to Social Identity
Theory
A key task in social change is inspiring people to champion the interests of disadvantaged
groups to which they do not belong. This challenge is often met with indifference, resistance,
and even overt hostility toward these groups. attribute reactions to individual level factors
(personality differences such as selfishness) or ideological beliefs (prejudiced). This fails to
consider the influence of broader identity and group factors that affect people’s reactions to
and willingness to engage in social change (‘we’ and ‘I’ identity). They are also inclined to
distinguish between ingroups and outgroups, which influences the types of people they are
willing to help or not help. Social Identity Theory to explain how social identities influence
people’s orientations toward certain groups.
Social Identity Theory proposes that a person’s self-concept ranges from being purely
interpersonal to purely intergroup. One the one hand, a person’s self-concept is comprised of
attitudes, memories, behaviors and emotions that define them as idiosyncratic individuals
distinct from other people (personal identity). On the other hand, self-concept is also defined
the social categories to which a person belongs as well as the emotional and evaluative
consequences of this group membership (social identity).
The salience of social identities (extent to which people think of themselves as members of a
group) influences how people interact with others. When group memberships are salient,
people are more likely to define themselves in terms of these social identities and make
evaluative distinctions between ingroup/outgroup.
They are motivated ro maintain a positive image of their own social group. This is achieved
by:
- Representing the ingroup more favorably than an outgroup (ingroup favoritism)
- Devaluing or discriminating against relevant outgroups (outgroup derogation)
Social identity threat
When the value or image of a salient social identity is threatened, people are motivated to
restore their positive identity.
4 distinctive types of social identity threat:
- Distinctiveness threat
Outgroup derogation is more likely to occur when group members perceive that the
ingroup identity is no longer positively distinct from relevant outgroups react
aggressively
- Group value threat
Exposure to a negative social comparison between ingroup/ outgroup compromises
the perceived value of the ingroup and can evoke ingroup favoritism or outgroup
derogation.
- Socio-structural differences between groups
Experience of threat is determined by the socio-structural context in which groups
are embedded. whether status differences are stable and/or permeable. When
there are potential or actual changes, group members may endorse discriminatory
attitudes.
- Internalization of group norms
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