The main focus of the Centre’s activities revolve around research into various aspects of how justice has been thought about, sought after and implemented within and beyond the state.
The main research areas of the Centre for the Study of Social and Global Justice can be divided in the following three categories:
Political Theory
Critical Political Economy
Politics of New Social Movements
For further information on individual projects, or interests, please contact us.
Political Theory
Cosmopolitanism, global citizenship and solidarity - Does the rich north have obligations to the poor south? If so, why? If not, why not? What does it mean to be a ‘global citizen’? What are the nature of ‘our’ obligations and duties to each other? Who are ‘we’ in this context? What is ‘humanitarian intervention’? Could that possibly be a bad thing?
Postcolonial Studies - What is ‘postcolonial studies’? What are the theoretical sources available to those interested in questions of race and ‘cultural imperialism.’ Is this just another form of ‘identity politics,’ or the ‘politics of recognition,’ in the Hegelian sense?
Justice and Utopia - What is the role of ‘utopia’ and ‘dystopia’ in thinking about justice generally? In the case of ‘global justice,’ is a ‘world state’ emerging at the global level, or is this a ‘utopian’ scenario? If such a political organization devoted to ‘global governance’ were to emerge, would this be a good thing or not?
Intergenerational Justice - For the first time in history, man-made disasters such as climate change or nuclear war might damage the earth for hundreds or thousands of years. Yet if economic growth continues, our descendents are likely to enjoy higher incomes than we do. Costly measures to fight climate change will benefit people who may well, in some respects, be richer than we are. When balancing the interests of present and future people, should we ‘discount the future’, as many economists argue? Or should we accord gains and losses to our descendants the same weight as our own, as the Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change maintained? Might this not then require us, as Stern’s criticsargued, to make huge sacrifices for the sake of small gains to future rich people, simply because there will be so many of them? Can people have rights if they don’t yet exist, and can we harm them if these particular persons would never have been born in the absence of our actions?
Critical Political Economy
Theorizing ‘globalization’: Possible research projects might be: What is ‘Neo-Liberalism’ and how might it be criticized? Is Marxist political economy dead? What other theoretical frameworks for understanding globalization are there? Can there be ‘non-Marxist forms of ‘historical materialism’? Will a ‘Neo-Gramscian’ approach focusing on the idea of the ‘hegemony’ of neoliberalism prove useful? Is ‘imperialism’ a thing of the past?
Globalization, ‘aid’ and ‘development’: Here research questions include: What is ’development’? Who defines the terms and conditions of development? Is ‘development’ necessarily a good thing? How is ‘development studies’ conventionally understood? How might that understanding be criticized?
Politics of New Social Movements
Globalization and social movements - What is the role of ‘old’ movements such as ‘trade unionism’ in resisting neoliberal global restructuring? How effective are these movements? What is the alternative to them? Does the World Social Forum prefigure new forms of agency and mobilization?
Social movements in the global south - How effective are such agents as ‘peasants’, ’anti-corporate activists’ and ‘ethical consumers’ at contesting globalization? How do social movements in the global south develop and spread discourses and practices of resistance? How is ‘knowledge’ that contributes to the strengthening of such emancipatory projects produced? What is the role of ‘education’ here?
Democracy, protest and legitimation - What are the proper limits of protest and ‘direct action’ by groups seeking justice in a democratic society? Should individuals be bound by the majority – or are there some issues and concerns which are so important (e.g. ‘climate change,’ ‘the environment,’ ‘animal rights’) that they override the democratic imperative? Can direct action be justified? If so, how?
We welcome potential collaborators interested in working with us on these and similar topics please contact us.