Education, Justice & Democracy
Education, Justice & Democracy

Author: Danielle Allen

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2013-03-04

Total Pages: 366

ISBN-13: 022601293X

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Education is a contested topic, and not just politically. For years scholars have approached it from two different points of view: one empirical, focused on explanations for student and school success and failure, and the other philosophical, focused on education’s value and purpose within the larger society. Rarely have these separate approaches been brought into the same conversation. Education, Justice, and Democracy does just that, offering an intensive discussion by highly respected scholars across empirical and philosophical disciplines. The contributors explore how the institutions and practices of education can support democracy, by creating the conditions for equal citizenship and egalitarian empowerment, and how they can advance justice, by securing social mobility and cultivating the talents and interests of every individual. Then the authors evaluate constraints on achieving the goals of democracy and justice in the educational arena and identify strategies that we can employ to work through or around those constraints. More than a thorough compendium on a timely and contested topic, Education, Justice, and Democracy exhibits an entirely new, more deeply composed way of thinking about education as a whole and its importance to a good society.

Justice by Means of Democracy
Justice by Means of Democracy

Author: Danielle Allen

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2023-04-28

Total Pages: 291

ISBN-13: 022677709X

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"Danielle Allen revisits Rawls' landmark A Theory of Justice to make the case that justice, which she defines as the necessary conditions for human flourishing, requires the protection of political equality or the ability of all people who wish to participate in the political process, to do so on an equal footing. She argues that Rawls, and other thinkers in his wake who focused on protection of individuals from intrusion of the state, as well as many economists with their focus on utilitarian approaches to public policy, have neglected political equality which has led to the denial of justice to many in our society. At a time when economic and political inequality have increased dramatically, and political inequality is threatened by efforts to limit the ability of many to engage in the most basic political right, voting, this book could not be timelier. This book builds on Allen's Berlin Lectures on COVID that we just published in arguing that policymaking fails when it excludes whole communities from participation in the political process. This manuscript is based on the Berlin Lectures that Allen originally intended to deliver in 2020. Allen substituted the lectures on policymaking for COVID given the urgency of the pandemic"--

Justice Is an Option
Justice Is an Option

Author: Robert Meister

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2021-04-19

Total Pages: 305

ISBN-13: 022673451X

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More than ten years after the worst crisis since the Great Depression, the financial sector is thriving. But something is deeply wrong. Taxpayers bore the burden of bailing out “too big to fail” banks, but got nothing in return. Inequality has soared, and a populist backlash against elites has shaken the foundations of our political order. Meanwhile, financial capitalism seems more entrenched than ever. What is the left to do? Justice Is an Option uses those problems—and the framework of finance that created them—to reimagine historical justice. Robert Meister returns to the spirit of Marx to diagnose our current age of finance. Instead of closing our eyes to the political and economic realities of our era, we need to grapple with them head-on. Meister does just that, asking whether the very tools of finance that have created our vastly unequal world could instead be made to serve justice and equality. Meister here formulates nothing less than a democratic financial theory for the twenty-first century—one that is equally conversant in political philosophy, Marxism, and contemporary politics. Justice Is an Option is a radical, invigorating first page of a new—and sorely needed—leftist playbook.

Talking to Strangers
Talking to Strangers

Author: Danielle Allen

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2009-08-01

Total Pages: 255

ISBN-13: 0226014681

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"Don't talk to strangers" is the advice long given to children by parents of all classes and races. Today it has blossomed into a fundamental precept of civic education, reflecting interracial distrust, personal and political alienation, and a profound suspicion of others. In this powerful and eloquent essay, Danielle Allen, a 2002 MacArthur Fellow, takes this maxim back to Little Rock, rooting out the seeds of distrust to replace them with "a citizenship of political friendship." Returning to the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision of 1954 and to the famous photograph of Elizabeth Eckford, one of the Little Rock Nine, being cursed by fellow "citizen" Hazel Bryan, Allen argues that we have yet to complete the transition to political friendship that this moment offered. By combining brief readings of philosophers and political theorists with personal reflections on race politics in Chicago, Allen proposes strikingly practical techniques of citizenship. These tools of political friendship, Allen contends, can help us become more trustworthy to others and overcome the fossilized distrust among us. Sacrifice is the key concept that bridges citizenship and trust, according to Allen. She uncovers the ordinary, daily sacrifices citizens make to keep democracy working—and offers methods for recognizing and reciprocating those sacrifices. Trenchant, incisive, and ultimately hopeful, Talking to Strangers is nothing less than a manifesto for a revitalized democratic citizenry.

Difference without Domination
Difference without Domination

Author: Danielle Allen

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2020-11-30

Total Pages: 366

ISBN-13: 022668122X

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Around the globe, democracy appears broken. With political and socioeconomic inequality on the rise, we are faced with the urgent question of how to better distribute power, opportunity, and wealth in diverse modern societies. This volume confronts the dilemma head-on, exploring new ways to combat current social hierarchies of domination. Using examples from the United States, India, Germany, and Cameroon, the contributors offer paradigm-changing approaches to the concepts of justice, identity, and social groups while also taking a fresh look at the idea that the demographic make-up of institutions should mirror the make-up of a populace as a whole. After laying out the conceptual framework, the volume turns to a number of provocative topics, among them the pernicious tenacity of implicit bias, the logical contradictions inherent to the idea of universal human dignity, and the paradoxes and problems surrounding affirmative action. A stimulating blend of empirical and interpretive analyses, Difference without Domination urges us to reconsider the idea of representation and to challenge what it means to measure equality and inequality.

Design Justice
Design Justice

Author: Sasha Costanza-Chock

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2020-03-03

Total Pages: 358

ISBN-13: 0262043459

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An exploration of how design might be led by marginalized communities, dismantle structural inequality, and advance collective liberation and ecological survival. What is the relationship between design, power, and social justice? “Design justice” is an approach to design that is led by marginalized communities and that aims expilcitly to challenge, rather than reproduce, structural inequalities. It has emerged from a growing community of designers in various fields who work closely with social movements and community-based organizations around the world. This book explores the theory and practice of design justice, demonstrates how universalist design principles and practices erase certain groups of people—specifically, those who are intersectionally disadvantaged or multiply burdened under the matrix of domination (white supremacist heteropatriarchy, ableism, capitalism, and settler colonialism)—and invites readers to “build a better world, a world where many worlds fit; linked worlds of collective liberation and ecological sustainability.” Along the way, the book documents a multitude of real-world community-led design practices, each grounded in a particular social movement. Design Justice goes beyond recent calls for design for good, user-centered design, and employment diversity in the technology and design professions; it connects design to larger struggles for collective liberation and ecological survival.

Democracy in the Time of Coronavirus
Democracy in the Time of Coronavirus

Author: Danielle Allen

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2022-02-16

Total Pages: 134

ISBN-13: 0226815625

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Democracy in crisis -- Pandemic resilience -- Federalism is an asset -- A transformed peace: an agenda for healing our social contract.

The Idea of Justice
The Idea of Justice

Author: Amartya Sen

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2011-05-31

Total Pages: 497

ISBN-13: 0674060474

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Presents an analysis of what justice is, the transcendental theory of justice and its drawbacks, and a persuasive argument for a comparative perspective on justice that can guide us in the choice between alternatives.

The Constitution of Equality
The Constitution of Equality

Author: Thomas Christiano

Publisher: OUP Oxford

Published: 2010-06-10

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13: 0191613916

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What is the ethical basis of democracy? And what reasons do we have to go along with democratic decisions even when we disagree with them? And when do we have reason to say that we may justly ignore democratic decisions? These questions must be answered if we are to have answers to some of the most important questions facing our global community, which include whether there is a human right to democracy and whether we must attempt to spread democracy throughout the globe. This book provides a philosophical account of the moral foundations of democracy and of liberalism. It shows how democracy and basic liberal rights are grounded in the principle of public equality, which tells us that in the establishment of law and policy we must treat persons as equals in ways they can see are treating them as equals. The principle of public equality is shown to be the fundamental principle of social justice. This account enables us to understand the nature and roles of adversarial politics and public deliberation in political life. It gives an account of the grounds of the authority of democracy. It also shows when the authority of democracy runs out. The author shows how the violations of democratic and liberal rights are beyond the legitimate authority of democracy, how the creation of persistent minorities in a democratic society, and the failure to ensure a basic minimum for all persons weaken the legitimate authority of democracy.

Property-Owning Democracy
Property-Owning Democracy

Author: Martin O'Neill

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2012-01-17

Total Pages: 338

ISBN-13: 1444355171

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Property-Owning Democracy: Rawls and Beyond features a collection of original essays that represent the first extended treatment of political philosopher John Rawls' idea of a property-owning democracy. Offers new and essential insights into Rawls's idea of "property-owning democracy" Addresses the proposed political and economic institutions and policies which Rawls's theory would require Considers radical alternatives to existing forms of capitalism Provides a major contribution to debates among progressive policymakers and activists about the programmatic direction progressive politics should take in the near future