JUSTICE IN AN UNJUST WORLD. A workshop on structural injustice. CALL FOR PARTICIPANTS

JUSTICE IN AN UNJUST WORLD

How theories of justice fail to address structural injustice

September 19-20, 2022

supported by FRINGE Small Research Grants Programme

with additional support from the Institute for Advanced Studies, University College London and the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford

Organizer: Mary C. Rawlinson, Senior Research Fellow, Institute for Advanced Studies, University College London

Contemporary theories of justice, whether based in Rawls or Habermas, rely on fictions of equality among generic rational subjects that fail to engage both the reality of structural injustice and the necessity to justice of a robust analysis of power. These theories assume that the problem of justice can be adequately addressed through a rational proceduralism, which does not take into account the real conditions wherein problems of justice arise. Moreover, they falsely oppose universality and particularity, as if real universals are not generated in specific life circumstances. For example, the claims of differently abled people have led not only to restructurings of the physical environment, but also to the demonstration of the universal truth that the built environment ought to be organized to promote human agency, not subordinated to the flow of capital.

This workshop will provide a collaborative space for faculty and students from UCL and the Blavatnik School of Government at Oxford to engage in questions about the possibility of justice in an unjust world. (This is the first step in a collaboration between IAS and the Blavatnik leading to a research group on justice.) How is justice possible in a world where the very institutions that are meant to serve justice and protect the vulnerable often prove exploitative? How is justice possible in a world where the individual is subjected to institutionalized forces that serve security and wealth, while constraining agency? How is justice possible in a world that depends in its economy and social systems on structural injustices deeply ingrained over many generations? How is justice possible in a world where men, women, and children regularly go hungry and lack shelter or clean water? How is justice possible in a world where all these conditions persist and have become so familiar that they are no longer scandalous and do not prompt urgent action?

CONFIRMED SPEAKERS

Why Accounts of Justice Need to Begin with the Reality of Structural Injustice

• Jonathan Wolff, Alfred Landecker Professor of Values and Public Policy, Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford

Structural Injustice and Health

• James Wilson, Professor of Philosophy, UCL

Climate Justice in a Global Perspective

• Megan Blomfield, Senior Lecturer, Department of Philosophy, University of Sheffield

Gender and Decolonizing Justice

• Yvette Russell, Associate Professor in Law and Feminist Theory, University of Bristol School of Law
• Stephen Seely, NUAcT Fellow, School of Geography, Politics, and Sociology, Newcastle University

Justice and Knowledge Equity

• Boaventura de Sousa Santos, Emeritus Professor of Sociology, University of Coimbra

Discussants

• Megan Vaughan, Professor of African History and Health, Deputy Director IAS, UCL
• Peg Rawes, Professor of Architecture and Philosophy, Bartlett School of the Built Environment, UCL
• Sridhar Venkatapuram, Professor of Global Health Ethics, Kings College London

TENTATIVE PROGRAM

September 19, 2022

9:30-10:00 Coffee

10:00-11:30 Chair: Sir Michael Marmot, Director, UCL Institute of Health equity

Why Accounts of Justice Need to Begin with the Reality of Structural Injustice

• Jonathan Wolff, Alfred Landecker Professor of Values and Public Policy, Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford

Structural Injustice and Health

• James Wilson, Professor of Philosophy, UCL

11:30-11:45 Break

11:45-13:00

Climate Justice

• Megan Blomfield, Senior Lecturer in Political Philosophy, University of Sheffield

13:00-14:00 Lunch

14:15-15:45

Gender and Decolonizing Justice

• Yvette Russell, Associate Professor in Law and Feminist Theory, University of Bristol School of Law
• Stephen Seely, NUAcT Fellow, School of Geography, Politics, and Sociology, Newcastle University

15:45-16:00 Break

16:00-17:15. Chair: Nicola Miller, Director, IAS

Justice and Knowledge Equity

• Boaventura de Sousa Santos, Emeritus Professor of Sociology, University of Coimbra

17:15-18:00 General Discussion

18:00 Reception

18:30 Dinner

September 20, 2022

9:30-10:00 Coffee

10:00-11:30 Discussion Panel: Vaughn, Rawes, Venkatapuram

11:30- 12:30 Planning for the Futur