Social Justice, Equity, and Inclusion -- Ethics and Analytics in Health Psychology, PSY 320
Source: Course readings, lecture notes
Difficulty: Intermediate | Prerequisites: Familiarity with care ethics and the duty of care.
This topic extends care ethics into structural and systemic territory. Where care ethics asks "who am I responsible for?", social justice asks "who is being harmed by the systems we have built, and how do we fix them?" The course draws on Nancy Fraser's theory of social justice (redistribution, recognition, representation), Therborn's dimensions of inequality (vital, resource, existential), and intersectionality (Crenshaw, Hancock). This material is essential for understanding why ethical analytics cannot focus only on individual practitioners but must address the structures and power relations that produce harm.
Social justice in this course means dismantling institutional obstacles that prevent people from participating as equals. It covers three dimensions of injustice (economic, cultural, political), three forms of inequality (vital, resource, existential), and the concept of intersectionality. The practical question is: when you build or deploy a data system in health psychology, who benefits, who is harmed, and whose voice is missing?
Social justice (Fraser)
Both an outcome where "all relevant social actors participate as peers in social life" and a process in which "procedural standards are followed in fair and open processes of deliberation." Think of it as the goal of equal participation and the method of fair process.
Redistributive justice
Allocation of material or human resources toward those who, by circumstance, have less. In simple terms, giving more to those who start with less.
Recognitive justice
Recognition and respect for cultural and gender difference. In simple terms, seeing and valuing people for who they are.
Representational justice
Equitable representation and political voice. In simple terms, making sure everyone has a seat at the table.
Vital inequality (Therborn)
Inequality of health and death: children in poor countries die more often before age five; low-status people die earlier. In simple terms, inequality that kills.
Resource inequality (Therborn)
Unequal access to education, career tracks, and social contacts ("inequality of opportunity") and unequal rewards ("inequality of outcome").
Existential inequality (Therborn)
Restrictions on the freedom of action of certain categories of persons, denying them equal recognition, respect, and dignity. The least recognised form of inequality in social sciences.
Intersectionality (Crenshaw)
The interaction of categories of difference (race, gender, class, sexual orientation) in producing overlapping and compounding forms of disadvantage. Think of it as the idea that oppressions do not simply add up; they interact and multiply.
Cognitive justice (Santos)
The idea that dramatic global inequality results partly from a narrow, imperial conception of modern science that treats all non-Western knowledges as deficient.
Fraser's three dimensions (2005, 2010)
Redistributive justice: allocation of resources toward those who have less.
Recognitive justice: recognition and respect for difference.
Representational justice: equitable voice and participation.
Social justice is both an outcome ("all relevant social actors participate as peers") and a process ("fair and open processes of deliberation").
Therborn's three dimensions of inequality (2009, 2013)
Vital inequality: inequality of health and death. Children in poor countries and classes die more often before age five. Low-status British retirees have shorter retirements than high-status ones.
Resource inequality: unequal access (education, careers, social capital) and unequal rewards (income, wealth).
Existential inequality: denial of equal recognition, respect, dignity, and freedom of action. The least recognised and least explored form.
These dimensions "are interrelated and interacting, but irreducible to each other."
Four mechanisms of inequality production (Therborn)
Distantiation: some people run ahead, others fall behind.
Exclusion: barriers prevent access to a good life.
Hierarchy: societies are structured as ladders.
Exploitation: the riches of the rich derive from the toil of the poor.
Lambert's definition for open education (2018)
Social justice-aligned open education: "the development of free digitally enabled learning materials and experiences primarily by and for the benefit and empowerment of non-privileged learners who may be under-represented in education systems or marginalised in their global context."
Equity as a force
Open education has been framed as a potential "force of equity" (Jhangiani, 2019), going beyond issues of technology, accessibility, or licensing.
Gender inequality is conceptualised as a complex, intersectional issue related to vital inequality, resource inequality, and existential inequality (Therborn, 2013).
Social inclusion defined
"The process of improving the terms on which individuals and groups take part in society, improving the ability, opportunity, and dignity of those disadvantaged on the basis of their identity" (World Bank, 2019).
Disadvantaged groups may be excluded on the basis of socio-economic status, culture, language, religion, geography, gender, sexual orientation, age, health/ability, or status regarding unemployment, homelessness, or incarceration.
"Do no harm" principle
An educational equivalent of the medical "do no harm": decisions should not gamble on promises coming true.
The Philadelphia School District chose not to offer remote instruction during COVID-19, citing equity concerns: "If that's not available to all children, we cannot make it available to some."
Counter-argument: not offering anything to some does not lessen the harm to all.
Culturally responsive education (Hammond)
Focuses on improving the learning capacity of students marginalised by historical inequities.
Centres both affective and cognitive aspects of teaching and learning.
Builds cognitive capacity by pushing back on dominant narratives about people of colour.
Origins
Coined by Black feminist scholars in the 1980s (Crenshaw, 1989). It has since become its own field of study.
In political science, intersectionality emphasises the interaction of categories of difference (race, gender, class, sexual orientation) rather than treating them as separate, additive factors (Hancock, 2007).
Why it matters for care ethics
Hankivsky (2014) identifies two shortcomings of care ethics that stem from prioritising gender: inadequate conceptualisations of diversity and inadequate conceptualisations of power.
A unitary category ("women") binds people into a political group based on a uniform set of experiences, but different people within that group fare differently based on race, class, and other identities.
Relational identity
A person is importantly constituted by their relationships and interactions. Identity exists in "the negotiated spaces between my biology and psychology and that of others" (Baylis, 2011).
Difference vs. inequality (Therborn)
A difference is horizontal, without ranking. An inequality is vertical and involves ranking.
For a difference to become an inequality, it must also violate a moral norm of equality among human beings and be abolishable.
"Inequalities are avoidable, morally unjustified, hierarchical differences."
Cognitive injustice (Santos)
Post-colonial scholars argue that profound knowledge exclusion perpetuates a colonial hierarchy of ideas, positioning non-Western knowledge as consistently deficient.
Santos describes a vast "abyssal line" separating Europeans and the rest of the world.
When this line is present in education systems, another generation is schooled into the project of modernity and taught that all other knowledges are deficient.
Cognitive justice in education
Cognitive justice demands educating by drawing on knowledges too often ignored in Western curricula (Shultz, 2018).
Each student and each relationship transformed at the local level reflects back to the wider context as part of the global project of justice.
CARE Principles for Indigenous Data Governance
The CARE principles (Collective benefit, Authority to control, Responsibility, Ethics) address Indigenous data sovereignty.
Related to the broader concept of "knowledge authority": the practice, role, and responsibility of Aboriginal custodians to care for knowledge (Christie and Verran, 2013).
Anti-slavery as ethical foundation
Richardson and Mahnic (2017) argue that all ethics should be rooted in narratives of anti-slavery, to prevent sexism, racism, and classism being reproduced in new AI ethical models.
Students often treat "equity" and "equality" as synonyms. Equality means giving everyone the same thing; equity means giving people what they need to participate as equals.
Students sometimes assume intersectionality is just about adding up disadvantages. It is about how categories interact and compound, producing qualitatively different experiences.
Students may think social justice is only about economics. Therborn's framework shows it also involves vital inequality (life and death) and existential inequality (dignity and recognition).
Students sometimes believe that making something "open" or "free" automatically makes it equitable. Without attention to cultural, political, and existential barriers, open access alone changes little.
⚠️ Be able to name and explain Fraser's three dimensions of social justice (redistributive, recognitive, representational).
⚠️ Be able to name and explain Therborn's three dimensions of inequality (vital, resource, existential).
⚠️ Know the four mechanisms by which inequality is produced (distantiation, exclusion, hierarchy, exploitation).
⚠️ Understand intersectionality as interaction of categories, not addition.
⚠️ Be prepared to discuss cognitive justice and the "abyssal line" (Santos).
Fill in the blank: Fraser defines social justice as both an ______ and a ______. (outcome, process)
True or False: Existential inequality is the most studied form of inequality in social sciences. (False; it is the least recognised.)
Fill in the blank: Intersectionality was coined by ______ in 1989. (Crenshaw)
True or False: The "do no harm" principle in education means always providing equal resources to all students. (False; it means not making the situation worse, which can look different from equal distribution.)
Fill in the blank: Santos describes a global "______ line" separating Western and non-Western knowledge systems. (abyssal)
Q: Explain Fraser's three dimensions of social justice.
A: Redistributive justice allocates resources toward the disadvantaged. Recognitive justice recognises and respects cultural and gender difference. Representational justice ensures equitable political voice and participation. Together they define social justice as both a fair outcome and a fair process.
Q: What are Therborn's three dimensions of inequality, and what distinguishes them?
A: Vital inequality concerns health and death (e.g. life expectancy gaps). Resource inequality concerns access to education, careers, and rewards. Existential inequality concerns freedom of action, dignity, and recognition. They are interrelated but irreducible to each other.
Q: How does intersectionality challenge care ethics?
A: Hankivsky (2014) argues that care ethics' focus on gender produces inadequate conceptualisations of diversity and power. Intersectionality reveals that people within a single category (e.g. "women") face qualitatively different experiences based on race, class, and other identities, which a gender-focused framework alone cannot capture.
Q: What is cognitive justice and why does it matter?
A: Cognitive justice (Santos) is the demand that non-Western knowledges be recognised as legitimate, countering the imperial conception of modern science that treats them as deficient. It matters because educational systems that ignore this perpetuate a colonial hierarchy of ideas.
This material builds on care ethics (Gilligan, Noddings) by showing how structural inequalities shape who receives care and who does not. It connects to the Duty of Care topic through the question of whose duty it is to address systemic harm. The Moral Sentiment topic (doc 4) provides a complementary argument: if ethics is learned through experience, then whose experiences are included in the learning matters enormously.
social justice, equity, equality, inclusion, intersectionality, Crenshaw, Fraser, redistributive justice, recognitive justice, representational justice, Therborn, vital inequality, resource inequality, existential inequality, distantiation, exclusion, hierarchy, exploitation, cognitive justice, Santos, abyssal line, colonialism, Indigenous data governance, CARE principles, culturally responsive education, do no harm, open education, Lambert, Hankivsky, PSY 320, health psychology