Justice, Geography of

Although there are multiple definitions of social justice, two leading notions deal with issues of procedural justice and distributional justice. Procedural justice issues in the United States traditionally have focused on libertarian ideals of personal rights, where individual freedoms and equality of opportunity are hallmarks of democracy and the free market system. These issues of justice are codified into documents such as the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights, in which individuals are granted the opportunity to pursue goals in life with minimal interference from the government or the community. But even as these words were enshrined in the nation's founding documents, slaves were considered private property and women were not given the right to vote in presidential elections until the 1920s. Even today, widespread social injustice still occurs on the basis of race, gender, class, religion, and other social categories.

Although we expect to be treated equally and have the same opportunities as everyone else, we should not expect the outcomes in a democratic society to be equal or even fair. Notions of distributional justice focus on these inequalities that are inherent in society, where oppression of the weak by the powerful and discrimination against those who are deemed to be “different” is all too real. Distributional justice focuses on how resources and rights can be redistributed within society to combat these unjust outcomes such as poverty and prejudice. Concern for others, a focus on the community over the individual, and a redistribution of wealth all are important aspects of distributional justice. The argument here is that for a democracy to function, individuals must also share the responsibility of sustaining society by eliminating social and economic injustices. In other words, there is a paradoxical element in social justice; we cannot enjoy our own individual rights without respecting the rights of others in our community.

Human geographers are concerned with social justice because social inequality is formed in geographic ways; people are discriminated against because they live in segregated places or are pushed into spaces at the periphery of society. For example, racial minorities sometimes are relegated to living in marginal neighborhoods, and homeless people are discriminated against in public spaces such as city parks and streets. Therefore, promoting social justice involves making geographic decisions and examining the geographic spaces in which these injustices occur. Only then can one formulate strategies on how to eliminate the barriers that cause these injustices.

For the most part, social justice issues in geography took root during the 1960s, when major cultural upheaval, such as the civil rights movement and massive protests against the Vietnam War, helped to make social justice an issue to be taken seriously. At the same time, much of social science was being criticized for being too preoccupied with using dehumanized quantitative measurements to explain complicated human behavior. Hence, attention was diverted to helping solve social problems and addressing injustice. As geography moved forward during the 1970s, much attention was paid to the processes responsible for spatial disparity in people's lives and how that created various “spatial injustices.” In effect, social values became a more important element in the practice of human geography. During the 1980s and to[Page 266] the present day, notions of social justice are tied in with the shift to postmodern intellectual inquiry, which questions claims of truth by the dominant powers in society and emphasizes human diversity and human difference. There is also a reemphasis on studying localities by investigating how people in particular places hold particular views they deem to be good or bad, right or wrong, just or unjust. These issues are important for understanding and empowering social group identities and the impact they have on the local culture.

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