SSJ Solidarity and social justice in contemporary societies

Flashcards of vocabulary for the SSJ Solidarity and social justice in contemporary societies course at Universiteit Utrecht

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 their group membership

Social dilemma

The way that is best to act as an individual (short term) is in conflict with societal goals (long term)

Motives of solidarity

Similarity, Interdependence, Need based (closely related to social justice)

Historical and sociological roots of solidarity

Shared aims and interests, Bonds based on kinship, Fraternity (extended beyond family), Community

Durkheim

Organic and mechanical solidarity

Types of justice

Distributive (what), Procedural (how), Recognitive, Scope (who)

Rawls

‘Social justice is the first virtue of social institutions’

Lind

‘Social justice is where the individual and society meet’

Joost&Kay

‘Social justice is a theme that requires one to consider and integrate insights arising from individual, group and system levels of analysis’

Durkheim

‘Social justice it the necessary accompaniment to every kind of solidarity’

Yerkes&Bal

‘If solidarity sets the boundaries for who we care about and are willing to share resources with, considerations of justice provide the framework through which we do so’

Conception

A set of rules of justice that combined represent how justice is viewed in a certain group of society (for example egalitarianism)

Concept

An abstract notion of justice on which all people agree that it has value for society

Distributive justice

About both positive and negative goods that have to be allocated

Principles of Distributive Justice

Equity, Equality, Need

Equity theory (principle of proportionality)

People prefer equal outcomes for equal input

Due consideration hypothesis

Important procedural elements that should be taken into account that attribute to procedural justice

Fair process effect hypothesis

When procedural justice is high, higher chance that they are satisfied with the outcome (especially when this outcome is in their disadvantage

Fairness heuristic theory

People care (more) about procedural (vs distributive) justice

Stereotypes

Public images containing the perceived prototypical attributes of members of a social group

Implicit stereotypes

Subconscious, automatic valuations that influence feelings, thoughts and behaviour in positive or negative way

Stereotype content model (Fiske, Cuddy)

Groups are distinguished on two dimensions: Warmth and Competence

Targeting

Policies and resources being directed at a certain group of citizens (selectivity)

Means-testing

Test if you have sufficient resources, if yes, we don't help/target you

Social legitimacy model of welfare state

To what degree does the general public support different benefits and services that different groups get

Institutional Design

The more universal, the more deserving we think people are of it, the more selective it becomes, the more we start to question the deservingness

People less deserving based on negative stereotype

Based on CARIN (Control, Attitude, Reciprocity, Identity, Need)

System justification theory (Jost & Banaji)

Stereotypes as motivated cognitions to justify social inequalities

Deservingness reflects individual attitudes towards citizens’ social rights and civil rights.

The articulation and protection of these rights are the foundation of modern welfare states.

Social dilemmas

Situations in which short-term self-interests conflict with longer-term societal interests

Social identity theory

A framework that proposes that a person’s self-concept ranges from being purely interpersonal to purely intergroup

Social identity

The social categories to which a person belongs as well as the emotional and evaluative consequences of this group membership

Social identity salience

When salient, people are more likely to define themselves in terms of these social identities and make evaluative distinctions between ingroup and outgroups that play an integral role in the formation and perpetuation of intergroup bias and animosity.

Distinctiveness threat

When group members perceive that the ingroup identity is no longer meaningfully and positively distinct from relevant outgroups

Group value threat

Negative social comparison between ingroup and relevant outgroup which compromises the perceived value/status of ingroup

SIT (Socio-structural differences between groups)

Group members’ experience of threat (and subsequent expression of intergroup prejudice) is determined by the socio-structural context in which groups are embedded

Stable Status Differences

Potential/actual changes status quo which may erode a group’s higher status, group members may endorse discriminatory attitudes and behaviours as a means of protecting their dominant position

Permeable Status Differences

Individual members of lower status groups can gain membership in a higher status group

Common Ingroup Identity Model:

Members of a single more inclusive, superordinate identity, rather than two completely separate (even competitive) groups (subgroup identities)

Dual Identity Model

Having two distinct subgroup identities within the context of a shared superordinate identity

Social Identity Model of Collective Action

Identity is both a direct and indirect predictor of collective action: ingroup identification (particularly it’s politicized version) and identification via a sense of group-based anger or injustice and group efficacy

Politicized identities

Identities based on opinions about how the world should be

Bayertz

‘Solidarity implies a mutual attachment between individuals on both a factual and a normative level’

Four forms of solidarity according to Bayertz

Human solidarity, Social solidarity, Political solidarity, Civic solidarity

Exclusionary ingroup solidarity

When ingroup intentionally or unintentionally excludes others outside the group

Inclusionary outgroup solidarity

Solidaristic expressions, behaviour and activities on behalf of people outside ingroup

Oorschot’s five CARIN criteria of deservingness

Control, Attitude, Reciprocity, Identity, Need

Civic solidarity at the Macro level

Redistribution follows politicized definitions of categorical needs, which may become a barrier to collective solidarity

Citizenship rights

Citizens’ rights to have basic needs fulfilled as a right of citizenship rather than charity

Territorial affectedness

A political community whose members are equally affected by the community’s decisions and therefore have the claim to participate in making these decisions (excludes non-citizens)

Sedentariness

The idea that citizens have long-term ties to a specific territory

National belonging

Presupposes some form of ethnic belonging to the imagined community as the pre-condition for granting citizenship

Three steps required to form a Politicized Collective Identity

An awareness of shared grievances, Blaming an external “enemy”, Involving or getting the support of society

Opportunity hoarding

Controlling access to resources by privileged groups (motivated by ingroup favoritism)

Social Dominance Theory

Explains the way in which both social discourse and individual and institutional behaviour contribute to and are affected by a (group-based) social hierarchy, reflecting differences in power

Whether or not a particular social identity becomes salient

Depends upon person variables and social context variables

Accessibility

The ease with which certain social identities are activated given explicit or implicit situational cues or given an individuals personal tendencies

Fit

The withing group heterogeneity of the ingroup and the outgroup

Defensive anger

Emotion on behalf of the self (not necessarily solidaristic)

Moral anger

Emotion on behalf of a political collective that stems from feelings of injustice and inequality

Social justice

‘If solidarity sets the boundaries for who we care about and are willing to share resources with, considerations of justice provide the framework through which we can do so.’

Distributive justice

The just allocation of burdens and benefits, inputs and outcomes

Procedural justice

The fairness of the processes and treatment leading up to those decisions

Justice as recognition

Who should be considered in these questions of justice

Equity theory

Proportionality principle, people are assumed to judge an outcome as just or fair when their own outcome-to-input ratio equals a referent outcome-to-input ratio

Relative deprivation

The feeling of angry resentment invoked by the judgment that a person or a group of persons are unfairly disadvantaged compared to a relevant other individual or group

Equity

Western societies, Economic orientation, and where hard work, efficiency and effectiveness are all rewarded with higher outcomes

Equality

Solidarity-oriented and care-oriented settings

Need

Fostering personal development, situations primarily concerned with another person’s welfare (people are willing to sacrifice some of their own benefits or resources)

Fair process effect

The decision-making process is deemed (even more) important (than distributive justice) for people’s satisfaction with the outcome

Due consideration effect

There are certain procedural aspects that attribute to procedural justice

Just-World Theory

People want to believe that they live in a just world (BJW), in which people get what they deserve (deservingness principle)

System Justificiation Theory

People are motivated to see the existing system in which they live as good, fair, and just, and perceptions of social inequalities pose a system threat that needs to be resolved

Complementary stereotypes

Stereotypes in which positive and negative characteristics are balanced out within and between groups

Welfare deservingness

The degree to which specific social policy target groups considered worthy of social benefits and services by the general public

Control

Personal responsibility for your situation (getting in it and out of it)

Attitude

Gratitude, compliance, honesty, pleasantness

Reciprocity

Perceived contributions to society (past, present, future)

Identity

Feelings of similarity, proximity and cultural closeness

Need

Perceived financial destitution and/or poor health status of those seeking help

Deservingness valuations

What weight/importance you give to a CARIN criterium

Structural factor

A person’s sociodemographic position within society

Cultural factor

His or her ideological orientations towards that society

Policy feedback literature

Existing welfare policies are an important driving force of people’s welfare attitudes, including their deservingness opinions

Equality

Providing social welfare for all citizens when they are confronted with a certain risk, while disregarding additional requirements

Equity

Contributions as a prerequisite for having access to the resources of the welfare state

Social policy

Goes beyond economic inequality (race, ethnicity, disability, gender)

Social policy

A crucial way of how welfare states attempt to identify and address social inequalities as well as societal consequences

Universal social policies

Everyone pays, everyone benefits

Tragedy of the commons

When the interests of individual (short term) are in conflict with the public interest (long term)

Social facts

Norms, culture, values, law, morality, population size, political institutions, technology

Mechanical Solidarity

People are bound together by similarity (collective consciousness)

Organic Solidarity

People are bound together by interdependence

Enforced division of labour

Economic power or status determines who performs what economic role rather than qualifications

Anomic division of labour

Too much individualism, so much that they don’t have a clear idea what is and isn’t moral behaviour, state of anomie

Human solidarity

Focuses on ties between family and human beings as a moral imperative

Social solidarity

Emphasizes the integrative aspects of solidarity within a given society, the relational aspect of solidarity (dependence and interdependence)

Political solidarity

A group of individuals connected by shared interests, active, standing up for it

Civic solidarity

Welfare state solidarity, institution redistributes resources that focuses on the obligations of the welfare state to show solidarity

Exclusionary ingroup solidarity

Solidarity that exists between a group of people based on a shared identity, common interests and/or social cultural or territorial heritage