Recognizing the Difference is the Most Effective Means of Achieving Social Justice

Secondly, the societal mechanisms such as economic, political, organizational and institutional spheres should favor the territory that is least developed (Smith 1149). Smith (1150) argues that sameness is of much importance compared to the difference. On the contrary, Young (3) argues that social justice should be based concepts of oppression and domination but not the distribution of resources. The shift of focus introduces issues that are often ignored in the philosophical discussion of social justice despite being critical such as culture, a division of labor, and decision making. Furthermore, it takes into account the importance of differences in social groups in structuring social oppression and relations. Even though distributive issues are important in analyzing social justice, the scope of justice goes far beyond them to entail institutional organization aspects such as politics.

These are still under collective decision thus need for the distribution concept to be limited to material goods while the primary terms in justice conceptualization should include culture, the social division of labor, decision-making procedures and domination and oppression (Young 9). Oppression can be defined based on its five aspects which include violence, cultural imperialism, powerlessness, marginalization, and exploitation. Injustices caused by distribution can result or contribute to such forms of oppression. However, none of the injustices can be reduced to distribution since all of them are complex and involve social structures. The groups define difference to be the heterogeneity of the affectivity and body or the capacity of the social and linguistic relations not exist without undifferentiated, unitary origin. But difference denial is a contribution to social group oppression (Young 10).

Again, impartiality calls for all moral situations to be treated equally through the provision of a standpoint for all the subject to adopt. As a result, it does not recognize the difference among the subjects. Since it has a universal and unified moral point of view, it generates a dichotomy between feeling and reason. However, the ‘naturalization’ can be different based on the context of the community. For example, in some communities, elders are considered wise while others considered to be ‘second childhood. ’ Intersectionality is an analytical tool that helps challenge the hegemonic approaches used in the study through focusing on stratification and other forms of identity politics (Yuval-Davis 201). For so long, the three major social divisions have been considered to be class, race, and gender.

However, there are others such as age, disability, sedentarism, and sexuality among others (Yuval-Davis 202). Intersectionality addresses social justice through enabling people to understand that the community is made of individuals that live in distinct systems. Furthermore, among the systems of existence, some of the systems act on other more strongly compared to others. Intersectionality calls for people to listen to the differences in the society and appreciate them. It entails respecting the transgender, lesbian, and Jewish among others in the society through understanding that her experience of oppression or privilege is different from those of other people in the society. Oppression might fail to exist due to someone’s color, gender, sex, social class, and height, but that does not mean that the individual is free from oppression.