SDG 5 aims to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls. Browse books and journal articles relating to this SDG below and find out more on the UN Sustainable Development Goals website.
The conclusion draws together discussion, highlighting recurrent themes and distinctive contributions from the literatures explored. A series of types of equality, including equivalence and equilibrium, and related principles for inclusive equality are extracted. The vision for inclusive equality is then fleshed out, interweaving themes and insights arising in each chapter. Limitations to inclusive equality are then summarised, not least that it is unlikely to be attractive to those who hold power in cultures built on inequality, such as prevail throughout the world. Looking ahead, as the market penetrates ever more deeply into our lives. The outlook post financial crisis remains one of ongoing and increasing inequality of resources and power. The rich can be expected to act in their own interests; the question is whether the rest of us will act in ours (Byrne 2005). Other scenarios are possible as this book has tried to show.
Drawing on literatures from gender, race, disability and queer theory, this chapter identifies shared themes and aims to develop a generic understanding of discrimination. Discrimination can be understood as misrecognition, raising questions about where identity comes from – whether characteristics originate in biological make-up or are externally created and attributed - how it is conveyed and what could be done to increase accuracy. Negative attitudes create distortions; diminishing (Thompson 1998) or demonizing. Oppression can be understood as enforced identity distortion; a cause of exclusion or requirement for inclusion. Identity may be understood via indicators of having, being and doing as well as contextual factors. The case for and against social categorization is explored, along with scope for cross-group alliances offered by multiple characteristics. Using different discourses, the literatures argue that inequalities arise consequent on the structure and culture of society as defined by dominant groups (social model). They refute biological/genetic explanations (individual/medical model). An interactive model draws attention to the process through which individuals interact with their environment. This suggests 3 sites for ‘adjustment’ to maximize social inclusion: the removal of social barriers, increasing individuals’ resources and reducing scope for misrecognition within distributive processes.
In an era of ongoing economic failures, as governments cut support to the poorest, the richest continue to get richer and those in-between are squeezed by rising costs and flagging incomes, the challenges for social cohesion – and for social justice – seem overwhelming. As inequality increases, it can become harder to empathise with life experiences far removed from our own, particularly when fuelled by a sense of injustice. Our samenesses and our differences can remain unseen, unvalued or misunderstood.
In this ambitious, wide-ranging book, the author sets out a vision for social justice as ‘inclusive equality’, where barriers to equality and inclusion are removed to the maximum extent possible while preserving and strengthening social cohesion. Weaving together themes from the theoretical literatures on social justice, poverty, discrimination and social exclusion, she explores relationships between equality, diversity and inclusion - a novel approach that reveals clear, practical implications for the design and delivery of social policy.
Distributive processes have been a recurrent theme. The chapter explores the implications of previous insights for the design and delivery of social welfare policy, its distributive processes and the relationships through which they are enacted. The role of institutions is discussed if they are to promote inclusive equality and enable people to maximize social realization and realize capabilities, rather than be the means of imposing the decisions of the powerful onto the powerless. The importance of accommodating needs of all kinds is highlighted. Given their role in capacity-building/retention, the design and delivery of welfare goods is pivotal to promoting inclusion or entrenching exclusion. Distributive processes can be deconstructed into stages and roles. A traditional hierarchical model is described and compared to an inclusive model. Application of theory on social levels and spheres, and on social barriers, reveal further ways of creating inclusive processes. Limitations are then explored. The features of distributive institutions in public, private and voluntary sectors are briefly reviewed and challenged. An inclusive model for social policy is then sketched out, and illustrated with broad reference to the development of healthcare strategy.
The meaning of social justice is elusive, not least reflecting the differing motivations and discourses of politicians and academics, and is relative to the society in question. Yet maybe it is possible to establish a benchmark of an ideal society and hence social justice. The role of inequalities in undermining social cohesion, inclusion and fairness is discussed. A vision for ‘inclusive equality’ is set out; of a mainstream society where diversity - of people, cultures, forms of contribution, and so on – is recognised, valued, and accommodated to the maximum extent possible, without jeopardizing social cohesion. The nature of contemporary society is then briefly reviewed in that context, focusing on the impact of globalization, and evidence of economic, political and social inequalities and disengagement. The approach and structure of the book is then described, moving from theory to implications for welfare policy and practice. Key theoretical themes include the nature and operation of society, engagement and connection and identity
The chapter begins with the premise that poverty arises from unmet needs of different kinds. Human needs can be conceptualized as motivations, as a hierarchy (Maslow 1943), universal (Doyal and Gough 1991), generated by imperatives to secure bodily survival, psychological well-being, and/or cultural conformity. In Capitalist societies money increasingly becomes the means to meeting needs of all kinds – almost anything can be bought and sold (Sandel 2012). However, not all unmet need results in poverty - the degree of disadvantage arising from unmet need that is – or should be – regarded as socially unacceptable. Approaches to defining poverty – overall, absolute, relative (Townsend 1979) and capabilities (Sen 1983) – are discussed. The strengths and weaknesses of ‘objective’ measurement and subjective accounts are explored. Pulling together emerging themes, the beginnings of a universal framework of the liberties all should have and the needs that should be met, sketching out the parameters for ‘social realisation’ (Sen 2010). Strategies for reducing resource needs and equalizing power and voice are proposed, as conducive to inclusive equality. Finally, it is noted that there are circumstances in which no amount of personal resources like income or education will grant access to distributive processes.
The chapter places under the spotlight the face-to-face interactions between front-line professionals and people using services, considers how their motivations might be understood and accommodated, and how positive, productive relationships might best be forged. Objectives and ‘transactional needs’ are explored in generic terms, building on previous discussion concerning human motivations. They include needs for positive self-affirmation and the avoidance of loss of face (Goffman 1967). There may be issues about the degree of familiarity, informality and intrusion into private matters that is appropriate, and the rituals of interaction need to be understood. The salience of characteristics, to a context and to the individual, is discussed. Drawing on earlier discussion, different types of relationship are explored, the component properties of relationship types are extracted and combinations conducive to inclusive equality are proposed. Two approaches to promoting engagement are then contrasted; the first marked by conditionality and coercion and the second by co-production, where power and voice are more equal. The positive contribution of rights, personalisation and choice are explored, though limits too are identified.
Difficulties in pinpointing the meaning of social exclusion are particularly acute. Its relationship to poverty and inequality is explored to try to establish its distinctive features. Discourses of social exclusion (Silver 1994, Levitas 2005) draw on different strands of social theory, while Byrne attributes their origins to different responses to Capitalism. Others root their approaches in conceptualisations of society, its structures and operations. This includes systems and social integration (Lockwood 1992), the interaction between spheres (economic, political, social, etc) and systems, the nature of social relationships and relationship networks as the ties that bind society together. These may converge on institutions or events. The limits to inclusion and cohesion are then explored, noting that inclusion and ways of achieving cohesion may not always be desirable. The chapter concludes with discussion of inequalities – of resources, power and voice – as the cause of weakening the social fabric, to the point of ‘catastrophic rupture’, and the importance of access to relationship networks. It brings as back to the nature of distributive processes and the importance of accurate recognition if social justice is to be achieved.
Arguments are explored concerning the need (or otherwise) of establishing an ideal just society and fair principles for distribution, along with differing theoretical approaches to those subjects, including perfecting institutions versus ‘social realisation’ and the case for ‘public reasoning’ (Sen 2010), Rawls’ (1973) ‘veil of ignorance’ and Walzer’s distributive spheres and case for complex equality. Approaches to understanding the social meaning of goods, their practical and symbolic roles, value and priority, are similarly discussed. An alternative paradigm based on ‘cultural recognition’ has been proposed by Fraser (1997) and other feminist authors, concerned with the construction and valuing of group as opposed to class) identities. Attitudes to difference assume importance as, it is argued, does the recognition of sameness. The meaning of cultural is explored, and a case made for recognition in a wider sense. Distributive and cultural recognition paradigms have generally been held to be separate, although various proposals have been made regarding their precedence and inter-relationship. The chapter concludes with the proposition that the inter-relationship can be conceived by deconstructing the components and stages of distributive processes and identifying where scope for misrecognition intervenes.
