PART II: UNEQUAL, TRANSITIONAL CONTEXT
4. Introduction: Rendering trans-generational and lifespan inequality visible
4.1 Social Justice as positive peace
As established in chapter two and three, peacebuilding scholars in general; and scholars who subscribe to a structural or expansive conception of restorative justice, share a core belief and a common goal. They believe that there is a relationship between structural and
99 direct violence and strive to make their academic work practically relevant to advance social justice. Crime/social harm is understood to be a manifestation of direct violence by scholars in both fields. In this research, social justice as means and end is regarded as an antidote to structural and direct violence and a synonym for positive peace. In addition, the notion of social justice provides an ethical basis to contribute to the stimulation of cognitive and social transformation as envisaged by Cooke (2006:3). Adoption of this conception of social justice served as the overall guiding ‘idea of the good society’ for this research (p.3). This chapter completes construction of the conceptual framework as depicted in figure 4.2.
In a broad review of the concept ‘social justice’ Buettner-Schmidt & Lobo (2011:950) state that they did not find any social justice definitions in dictionaries and thesauri that are in common use. Hayek made this observation decades earlier. In a chapter titled ‘The Atavism of Social Justice’, Hayek (1978:58) suggests that the phrase is commonly used as a synonym of the term ‘distributive justice’. He argues that the absolute emptiness of the expression ‘social justice’ is revealed by the fact that there is no consensus about
‘social justice’ requirements in particular circumstances. There is, according to him, no known test to decide whose understanding is correct if people differ. He suggests, that
‘while a great many people are dissatisfied with the existing pattern of distribution, none of them has really any clear idea of what pattern he would regard as just’ (p.58).
According to him people make intuitive appraisals of individual instances as unjust.
In the same vein, Novak (2000) contends that it is the precise meaning of the term ’social justice’ that is problematic. According to him the phrase floats around as if an instance of it will be recognized by everyone when it appears. However, he states that the elusiveness seems indispensable as, the minute ‘one begins to define social justice, one runs into embarrassing intellectual difficulties’ (p.1). It is clear that Hayek and Novak’s concerns about definitions of social justice have an intellectual bias. Peace studies and the
expansive approach to restorative justice allows for an openly utopian bias. I therefore choose a more idealistic conception of social justice that favours overall wellbeing and equity in the world.
Williams (2008) suggests that though ‘social justice has been and continues to be
variously defined and conceptualized, most if not all characterizations are rooted in ideals
100 of human flourishing’. For him, the very notion of ‘social justice’ is, at core, linked to the development of, or existing conditions that facilitate the improvement of human potentialities. He argues that notions of social justice seem to originate from one crucial and dominant humanistic concern: ‘the development and sustenance of social conditions within which all persons have the greatest opportunity to realize their potentialities, both as unique individuals and as members of greater communities and societies’ (p.6-7). This resonates with Arrigo’s (2000:10) argument with regard to social justice and critical criminological theories that ‘thematic convergence … is a function of how … theories are existentially and humanistically linked rather than how they are substantively the same’.
Barak’s expands the view on social justice by suggesting that:
Like restorative justice, social justice views crime as social harm and social injury. It goes further, however, in recognizing that there are ‘crimes against humanity’ or crime as a violation of fundamental human rights, such as the right to life, liberty, happiness, and self-determination or as Herman and Julia Schwendinger (1970) maintained, the right to be free from
exploitation, oppression, hatred, racism, sexism, imperialism, and so on.
(Barak, 2000:41).
Barak suggests that a social justice standpoint does not accommodate or ignore what he terms ’the production of inequalities in society and the role of law in that construction’
(2000:41). For this research, I required an approach grounded in theory, to include social justice in the conceptual framework. I found this in the work of Buettner-Schmidt &
Lobo (2011) who used the Wilsonian method of concept analysis as a guide to analyse social justice. Wilson (1963:vii) developed a technique which he called ‘the analysis of concepts’ because, according to him, ‘it provides one with a specialised and appropriate method which one can be taught to use in answering many of the more important and interesting questions which can be asked’. Buettner-Schmidt & Lobo reviewed multi- disciplinary literature databases for the years 1968-2010, books and appropriate websites for their analysis of the term social justice (P.948).
The result of their analysis was an ‘efficient, synthesized definition of social justice based on the identification of its attributes, antecedents and consequences that provides
clarification of the concept’ (p.948). They found that the objective of obtaining social justice - attaining fairness and equity - seemed similar in each discipline (p.953). Based on the results of their analysis, they defined social justice as ‘full participation in society
101 and the balancing of benefits and burdens by all citizens, resulting in equitable living and a just ordering of society’ (p.995).
For them, the attributes of social justice consist of ‘(i) fairness (ii) equity in the distribution of power, resources and processes that affect the sufficiency of the social determinants of health (iii) just institutions, systems, structures, policies and processes (iv) equity in human development, rights, and sustainability and (v) sufficiency of well- being’ (p.995). They suggest that the consequences of the notion of social justice are
‘peace, liberty, equity, the just ordering of society, sufficiency of social determinants of health and health, safety and security for all of society’s members’ (p.995). While their emphasis was on healthcare, my emphasis is on restorative justice as a sub-process of long-term peacebuilding. Arrigo (2000) and Barak (2000) bring social justice into the domain of social action and research inquiry. As Arrigo argues:
[S]ocial justice must not be something forever abstract; an artefact of philosophy removed from all human praxis. Thus, in the midst of such invaluable conceptual analysis the place of social action must not be forgotten. […] The struggle for critical criminology is one of developing better, more theoretically sophisticated integrative inquiries. (Arrigo, 2000:29).
Barak (2000:41) suggests that restorative justice, like social justice ‘views crime as social harm and social injury’ and he includes ‘crimes against humanity’ or crime as a violation of fundamental human rights, such as the right to life, liberty, happiness, and self-
determination’ within this conception. South Africa’s history of nested inequality as set out in this chapter is also covered in Barak’s conception of social justice. He states that
‘policies of social justice are not limited to the formal and informal policies of criminal justice and the administration of criminal law’ (p.41). Instead he argues, ‘scenarios of social justice focus on the social ecologies of crime and market society in their relations with the more impersonal policies and macro-sociologies of political economy and inequality’ (p.42). With regard to South Africa’s market democracy, post apartheid, Barak’s contention resonates, he states that:
‘[W]ithout integrating more fundamental and broader styles of social justice whose policies address the inequalities in the delivery of goods and services generally, then inequalities of class, race and gender will continue to shape the social and political realities of criminal justice (Barak, 2000:42)
102 Therefore social justice and restorative justice interacting together would provide for a two-pronged approach to reduce crime and enhance justice (Barak, 2000:42); and possibly contribute to building long-term peace.
4.1.2 Social Justice in the South African context
In an attempt to distil what social justice means in the South African context; what is implied by the concept in long-term peacebuilding; and how the idea is deployed in restorative justice processing, I took account of the above conceptions of social justice.
These perspectives on social justice were considered, to find answers about what would constitute a socially and individually just restorative justice response that would advance long-term peacebuilding in the South African context. Taken together, these cautions, definitions and conceptions of social justice provided me with elements to construct a working conception of social justice elements. This was done to understand what social justice might mean in South Africa if it is linked to peacebuilding and restorative justice in the conceptual framework. I used an inversion of what constitutes social justice to undertake a brief analysis of key features of the trans-historical nature of cultural- structural-direct violence (Galtung, 1996:2) and counter-violence (Gil, 2006:509) in South Africa over time. The working conception of social justice consists of an understanding that:
The notion of social justice is not easy to pin down intellectually;
Social justice is utopian and generally seeks wellbeing and conditions that facilitate wellbeing for everyone regardless of status;
However, it is possible to break the notion of social justice down into component parts of its attributes, antecedents and consequences as shown by Buettner- Schmidt & Lobo (2011).
The following interlinked ways to discern instances of social justice and injustice provided substance by looking for the absence and/or presence of:
Human flourishing (Williams, 2008);
Fairness; equity in the distribution of power; just institutions, systems, structures, policies and processes; equity in human development, rights, and sustainability;
and sufficiency of well-being (Buettner-Schmidt & Lobo,2011) as the minimum condition;
Other macro and micro life improving aspects unique to the South African context.
103 I used secondary sources to examine instances of social injustice over time which allowed the inclusion of some examples that were not necessarily intended as an injustice, but that were unjust in its consequences, particularly during early transition. This helped to
answer part of the research question related to the ‘unequal, transitional society’. I traced the intergenerational and compounded nature of ascribed inequality and privilege, and some of its consequences over time, so that contemporary restorative justice responses to crime are contextualised. Specifically I looked for examples of cultural violence which legitimised and justified structural violence and gave rise to manifestations of direct violence such as inequality of wealth, power, social standing, opportunities and conditions; armed repressive violence and counter-violence, as well as infringements, abuses and violations of human rights.