Justice and the Politics of Difference - Paperback

by Iris Marion Young (Author), Danielle S. Allen (Foreword by)

A landmark work of political theory on the central importance of group identity and cultural pluralism in political life

Justice and the Politics of Difference challenges the prevailing reduction of social justice to distributive justice, critically analyzing basic concepts underlying most theories of justice such as impartiality, formal equality, and the unitary moral subjectivity. Drawing on the experiences and concerns of social movements created by marginalized and excluded groups, Iris Marion Young shows how democratic theorists fail to consider institutional arrangements for including people not culturally identified with white European male norms of reason and respectability. Basing her vision of the good society on the differentiated, culturally plural network of contemporary urban life, she argues for a principle of group representation in democratic publics and for group-differentiated policies. Danielle Allen's incisive foreword contextualizes Young's work and explains how debates surrounding social justice have changed since--and been transformed by--the original publication of the book.

Author Biography

Iris Marion Young (1949-2006) was professor of political science at the University of Chicago. Her books include On Female Body Experience, Inclusion and Democracy, and Intersecting Voices (Princeton). Danielle Allen is the James Bryant Conant University Professor at Harvard University.