General introduction. Multi-disciplinary models and trial and error sociology 11
1. Crisis and pluralist reconstruction of models 24
1.1. Social justice and its analytical crisis 26
1.1.1. Between Justice and Goodness. Anti-relativist interaction in the sociology of social justice 26
1.1.2. The degrees of social justice: micro, mezzo and macrosocial levels 36
1.1.3. Methodological approaches to social justice: results and challenges for a socio-historical perspective 45
1.2. Pluralization or dilution of the egalitarian offer? 54
1.2.1. The middle class and the welfare state. A conditional loyalty? 54
1.2.2. “French-style” parity and diversity: the temptation of inclusion conditioned by performance for “non-brothers” 65
1.2.3. Attitudes to justice and injustice in the company: recruiters faced with the theme of non-discrimination and diversity 75
1.2.4. Performance evaluation: a key element of recognition at work 87
2. The tinkering of justice in action 98
2.1. Justice put into context 100
2.1.1. Constructing an Environmental Justice framework for the analysis of environmental inequalities 100
2.1.2. Spatial and Environnemental Justice 110
2.1.3. Questioning social justice in the light of cosmopolitanism 120
2.2. Pragmatic activism 130
2.2.1. Undocumented, unschooled? Trial and error in the Migrant Justice Movement in Quebec 130
2.2.2. Hacking: a compartmentalised social justice project 141
3. In situ reinvention of political or religious transcendence 151
3.1. The turn to religion 154
3.1.1. Militancy and religious feeling in the younger generations of the Landless Workers’ Movement in Brazil 154
3.1.2. Religious Congregations as Safe Spaces: Dolores Mission Church and the Struggle for Social Justice in Los Angeles 164
3.1.3. The social history of three configurations of social justice in Turkey 176
3.2. The protest mosaic 196
3.2.1. ‘México en llamas’: Political utopia and ‘taking justice into one’s own hands’ in times of war 196
3.2.2. Educational controversies and social justice issues 207
3.2.3. The resistance economy: a holistic engagement against the occupation in Palestine? 218
Postscript. Social justice is relatively useful 230
Postface. Sociology, social justice and emancipation: Towards an epistemological compass, between fog, dispersion and reproblematisation 233
Emmanuelle Barozet is a Sociologist at Universidad de Chile and researcher at the Center For the Study of Social Conflict and Cohesion, Chile. Her main research areas are social stratifications, middle classes and social justice.
Ivan Sainsaulieu is a Sociologist at Lille University, France and at Lausanne University, Switzerland. His main research areas working places, healthcare teams, organizations, innovation, social protests and social justice.
Régis Cortesero is an independent Sociologist, and is research fellow at PAVE laboratory, ENSAP Bordeaux, France. He works on social justice, discriminations, urban marginality and education and social work.
David Mélo is Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the Savoie Mont Blanc University, France. His main research areas are managerial changes, equality and inequalities at work.
This book uses survey data in "hot spots" around the globe, to analyse various models of social justice, particularly the principle of equality, from a pragmatic perspective. Starting with ordinary actors, social movements, and concrete contexts, the authors question foundations of social and political democracy in our times. They focus on how social actors deal with the principles of justice and judgments of justice at work and in their social lives. The book suggests that the increase in social inequalities in recent decades contrasts with the blurring of the aims of social justice. At a time when the reconsideration of politics largely depends on its relevance to and aspirations for social justice, the authors of this book question contemporary developments by illustrating its variety, according to specific historical, institutional, social and organizational contexts.The book will be useful to students and scholars in the social sciences, especially those interested in moral questions regarding social justice, from an empirical and practical point of view.