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Whether British Contemporary Society Is Socially Just?

Whether British Contemporary Society is Socially Just?

Date : 22/07/2014

Author Information

Shruti

Uploaded by : Shruti
Uploaded on : 22/07/2014
Subject : Humanities

Social Justice is a contested concept having a range of definitions that have been drawn upon policies, literature and practice. For instance, some people emphasize on the equality of opportunities, some focus on the equality of outcomes. Likewise, there are different views on the roles of market, state and individuals while examining any society on the scale of justice. Philosophically also, there are different views as proposed by Mill, Marshal, Rawls and other thinkers. This essay outlines the concept of social justice in UK and discusses up on how well the concept is imbibed into the British society. Linking these theoretical views with the actual conditions of minorities and other sections, the paper attempts to identify whether the society is socially just or not. The discussion is mainly based on the secondary research and a wide range of published sources have been used to present the condition existing in contemporary society. In UK, the concept of social justice gained strength with the establishment of Commission for Social Justice in 1994. That time, UK was one of the most unequal countries in terms of poverty and inequality (Commission for Social Justice, 1994). As per the commission, Social Justice includes: . Equal treatment to all citizens . Equal rights to all citizens to meet their basic requirements . Equality of opportunities . Elimination of unjust inequalities Weighing UK society on these points puts forth some important aspects. Different research studies (Gordon et al., 2000) have stated that social democratic governments in UK have not even effectively defined the basic requirements. Different programs run by the government for social inclusion are termed Opportunity for All and many governments could not go as far as to reach the equality of outcome, a stronger indicator or social justice compared to equality of opportunities. "UK Society now more segregated", a news published in a news daily clearly states that the society seems to be more segregated in terms of ethnicity on the basis of a structured questionnaire. People prefer to have friends from their own ethnic groups, only one in the 10 respondents was found to have friends from different ethnicity. This indirectly symbolizes social segregation rather social inclusion and integration (Express, 2013). The society in UK is a multicultural society because of mass immigration especially between 1950-1970s. Theoretically speaking, all citizens in UK have equal status irrespective of their ethnicity. Minority population constitutes around 8 percent of the whole and has grown comparatively faster in recent times by way of flux of refugees and natural growth in population. Thus the multiculturalism and diversity of UK society is a fact. The disturbing aspect is- individual and institution racism is still prevalent. As per the official records, these problems are increasing and in last 5-6 years, many enquiries have been made in the country with respect to the notion of a welfare state (DWP, 2005). The known case of the death of a black, Steven Lawrence, and the ineffectiveness of Police in handling this case is just a tip of the iceberg. There have been around 40 cases of racially-motivated assaults in last 10 years. In 2000, a legislation came to confront these racial attacks in Public institutions. However, the progress has been really slow and this is the reason Home Secretary has recently called for strict handling of the cases related to racial discrimination. As stated in MORI poll in 2000, Britons are perceived to be racially intolerant, arrogant and xenophobic. Another poll revealed that around 30 percent of UK population carries racist attitude, the numbers has grown in last couple of years because of inappropriate treatment( by the media and the government) of refugees and asylum-seekers (Craig, 2003). As a consequence of 9/11 attack, a legislation came up that allowed the imprisonment of suspected terrorists for years without trial. Home Office itself admits that stooping and frisking of suspects will be disadvantageous for people of Muslim appearance. Likewise, in wake of London bombings, there have been many instances of questioning the people with `unusual` dresses. This approach does not seem to privilege regard to the people who belong to different nationalities and `look different`. At different levels, minorities in UK are struggling for getting due recognition to their cultures. Examples include the right to wear a particular attire or the respect towards a particular cuisine. In this context, it is difficult to say that the British Society is socially just in the sense of treating all citizens equally. This may be the reason minority groups have adopted violent forms many times to assert their rights. A couple of years back, tensions between the British culture and other religions came to the fore when a play, Behtzi, depicting violence in a Sikh temple led to rigorous street protests by the Sikh community. The point here is- UK society is an assimilation of different cultures and religions and somehow, the minorities feel that their rights have not been respected and recognized formally. This is why they resort to violent means to get the desired acknowledgement. Equality of opportunities- the another basic view of social justice is also not faring well in UK society. In fact, racism in welfare dates back to the times of Queen Elizabeth when she ordered all Negros to leave the country in wake of the Economic depression that time; rather than helping them with welfare support. It has been noted that different aspects of opportunities like education, housing, health services and other social services are shaped on the basis of ethnicity. Though this is not an iron law and some groups are getting well despite obstacles, some minorities groups including Blacks and Muslims are still deprived and disadvantageous. Especially with respect to the black- the outcome is poor compared with the population at large (Gillborn and Mirza, 2000). Philosophically speaking, different authors have put forward their views on the idea of social justice. John Rawls is considered a modern protagonist of this concept. He argues, `fairness` is the fundamental behind social justice. He speaks of a well-ordered society in which "everyone is presumed to act justly". The derivations from Rawls view state that in equalities to an extent are acceptable if they are fulfilling the wider benefit. For instance, it is reasonable to think that doctors, firefighters , lawyers, teachers and others who are working in risky situations get good roles in the society. In UK, the contemporary politicians tend to emphasize the equality of opportunity. Those on political right go for equality of processes, rules and procedures. However, those on political left call for the equality of outcomes. From educational and other indicators, it has been observed that women, disabled, black and ethnic groups don`t have the equality of opportunities or of outcomes. Minority children are far behind the British students in education. The country is not doing well in reducing child poverty and the gap between the rich and poor has grown in last couple of years( paxton and Dixit, 2004). Rawls observes that these inequalities can only be justified on one basis- everybody has equal opportunities to fight for the desirable position. The Mills approach towards justice is a bit different from that of Rawls. As per his thought, "institutions in a just society are arranged in a way so that people derive the benefits they deserve." Three key principles of social justice are: what we need, deserve and equality. In UK context, even some groups including black have been excluded from defining their own conception of need. This is the reason they are resistant to the research studies that are done on them without their involvement and active participation( Butt and O` Neil, 2004). For Mill, justice is distributive in nature; it means that some benefits and rights should be distributed equally. Not only UK, almost all multicultural societies are struggling to have equal respect and recognition of different minority groups. In present UK society, debates and arguments are boiled down to integration and cohesion rather than social justice. It is broad term that incorporates material as well as non-material aspects of life. In addition to the equalities in income and wealth, the concept also enshrines the respect and recognition for all individuals irrespective of their race and ethnicity. As Mill says, the challenge is deeper in multicultural societies because aspects if needs and rights are contested. However, social justice in these societies is not about eliminating these cultural differences ; rather widening the national identities to make these accessible to all existing groups and individuals. The main political task is to recognize all cultural groups equally, determine the principles of social justice and firmly act upon these principles. There is also structural racism imbibed and it also depends on how the Government rejects, tolerate or fights with it. For example, In Germany , citizenship rights are based on blood ties rather than residence. It means that aussideler who has returned from Russia or Poland will enjoy greater citizenship rights compared to a person having Turkish origin staying in the country since 30 years!

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