Thesis (Ph. D.)--UCLA, 2009. / Vita. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 210-219).

Thesis (B.A.)--Haverford College, Dept. of Anthropology, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis--M. Phil., University of Hong Kong, 1987.

Rawls emphasizes in his later writings that his theory of justice as fairness is not a defense of welfare-state capitalism. He argues that welfare-state capitalism cannot be an acceptable regime for justice as fairness because its ideal institutional description fails to satisfy the two principles of justice in various ways. Against Rawls, I argue in this thesis that his rejection of welfare-state capitalism is not justified. I begin by clarifying an ambiguity regarding what arrangements and policies according to Rawls are essential to satisfy the two principles of justice through closely studying the institutional arrangements of property-owning democracy and liberal socialism—the two regimes thought by Rawls as capable of fully satisfying the two principles of justice. After that, I show that the fundamental reason behind Rawls’s rejection of welfare-state capitalism is his assumption that welfare-state capitalism does not aim to realize justice as fairness. I argue that this assumption held by Rawls is not justified because the essential institutional features of welfare-state capitalism can be compatible with the arrangements and policies necessary to satisfy the principles of justice. I also argue that if Rawls’s assumption regarding the aim of welfare-state capitalism cannot stand, he should not rule out welfare-state capitalism as an acceptable regime for justice as fairness. Finally, I examine different arguments that provide alternative reasons to justify Rawls’s rejection of welfare-state capitalism. I argue that all of them are unsuccessful because they either are based on problematic interpretations of the two principles of justice or fail to conclusively rule out welfare-state capitalism. By showing that welfare-state capitalism can be an acceptable regime for justice as fairness, this thesis proves that a just society does not need to be the one that entitles every citizen to a substantive right to own real capital. Also, in the process of arguing for welfare-state capitalism, this thesis also indirectly contributes to the recent debates between Rawlsians on the left and right over the proper interpretations of the first principle of justice and the Difference Principle. / published_or_final_version / Politics and Public Administration / Master / Master of Philosophy

Operating from Burrell and Morgan's (1979) Radical Humanist Paradigm and using Foster's (1986) conception of moral, transformative leadership as a theoretical framework, this dissertation presents three empirical studies that demonstrate the potential for social justice efforts and leadership. Guided by a critical grounded theory approach, the first study represents transformation of self in its analysis of critical consciousness development and praxis in White, privileged individuals. The second study provides an example of school transformation and presents a re-conceptualization of transformational leadership and professional learning communities as a guide for inclusive practices. The final study demonstrates the mutually beneficial components of community/school transformation and responds to critiques of social justice recently presented by the author (2014) and Capper and Young (2014) that social justice efforts in schools have not included transformation of community and the greater society. Furthermore, the article demonstrates the use of motivational theory (Maslow, 1943), originally aimed in educational leadership to increase efficiency, as a guiding principle for social justice and community transformation.

Critical social work theories have taken a prominent place in Canadian social work curriculums and academic social work literature in recent years. The prevalence of critical social work theory is understandable considering that the content of critical theories can help social workers grapple with how to carry out a practice that is centrally concerned with social justice. However, critical social work theories have generally been presented abstractly, with little attention placed upon the particular contexts of social work practice. As a result, not much is known about how critical social work theory is actually applied in practice. This is especially important in the context of child protection, where issues of oppression and power are particularly acute. / This thesis is premised on the assumption that an understanding of the context of child protection work is necessary in order to develop a critical social work theory that is applicable to this field. The thesis examines the context of child protection practice by exploring the subjective experiences of 14 front-line child protection workers. Drawing on in-depth interviews that focus on day-to-day practice, this thesis suggests that child protection work involves dealing with a range of fears that influence workers' practice, including their fears about children being harmed and about their own physical and professional vulnerability. As well, child protection workers presented a picture of the ways that their legislative and organizational context shaped their work. These factors of child protection appeared to influence a practice in which relationships and interventions with clients were focused on monitoring parents' completion of a series of tasks and children were constructed as vulnerable, individual, and rights-bearing. Ideas for a critical child protection practice are offered, based on these results. In particular, a critical child protection practice that includes the adoption of more detailed attention to the internal worlds of parents, child-care workers and children is discussed.

This qualitative research examines how school principals perceive social justice and accountability, the actions they take, and the reasoning process they use in their attempt to satisfy accountability mandates while simultaneously tackling the various causes of social injustices in their schools. This constructive study aims to gain an in-depth understanding of the world from the subjects’ points of view, to unfold the meaning of their experiences, and to uncover their lived world. It employs semi-structured interviews with open-ended questions guided by the conceptual framework developed from review of literature on social justice, educational leadership, and accountability policy. Twenty-two school principals and vice-principals from the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) were interviewed. The findings show that some participants define social justice as equity, which goes from the economic and political dimensions of resource distribution and equality of opportunity and access, to the cultural aspect of social representation and inclusion. Some view public education as a social justice endeavour with a particular reference to the purpose of public education. Others construe social justice by focusing on its end goal – the academic and social outcomes of students and the impact on their lives. Study participants implement their social justice beliefs and values in praxis by engaging all stakeholders and catalyzing them to be the new force for the social justice movement. Evident in this study is that participants enacted their social justice practices by putting students at the centre, positioning themselves as social justice leaders, developing people for social justice, building school climate through justice, and fostering positive relationship with families and communities. Under current accountability context, principals in this study responded to the current reform by going beyond its narrow focus through instilling a sense of moral responsibility in their perceptions of accountability itself. As social justice activists, they are proactively engaged in expanding its parameters by encompassing the moral, social, and professional aspects of their accountability. Leading for social justice thus becomes a process of constantly confronting and tearing down such obstacles and barriers by leveraging the politics of accountability and social justice to move towards what is best for students.

This dissertation explores poor retail food access in low-income, class-segregated communities through a social justice lens. Disadvantaged communities with poor food access—often called ‘food deserts’—have received ample scholarly attention, however the problem has yet to be analyzed from a normative, critical perspective. For this research, I use the case study of two communities in Kingston, Ontario’s North End, whose retail food geography changed significantly between 2006 and 2009. Critical political economy is my primary theoretical framework. I conducted forty-two qualitative interviews with key informants, four focus groups (three with low-income North Kingston residents and one with elderly Kingston residents), two door-to-door surveys in Rideau Heights, archival research, and I attended public meetings around a grocery store closure in the North End. I advance several research findings based on my results. Most broadly, I argue that the food desert problem represents capital’s ability to shape the ‘everyday geographies’ of simple, mundane activities like food shopping through the manipulation of the urban built environment. As such, capital is able to distribute the costs and burdens of food procurement in ways that reproduce class relations and class contempt to suite the dynamics of capitalist accumulation. I propose three interpretations of poor retail food access as a social injustice: (1) poor access represents the unequal and disproportionate allocation of burdens and costs of food acquisition on those with the fewest resources to mitigate these costs; (2) class disparity is inherently supported by urban governance systems that protect the interests of capital, therefore scaled-up retail capital is not accountable to residents of communities or their non-economic needs or wishes; and (3) the consolidated retail food geography of North American cities deprives low-income people of freedom, choice and dignity that is often embodied in the act of enjoying a ‘normal’ middle-class shopping experience. In the transition to a post-capitalist retail food geography, therefore, activists should abandon a romantic notion that low-income people should drive the change by somehow adopting a more agrarian lifestyle or lead the food system re-localization agenda – change driven by desperation rather than personal values. / Thesis (Ph.D, Geography) -- Queen's University, 2010-09-23 16:02:39.366

While engineers and their patrons have always claimed that technology has advanced the common good, I intend to show that more often than not engineers have been mercenaries for those at the center of knowledge, power, and wealth. Engineers design technology that marginalizes certain types of knowledge, people, and culture in favor of those at the center. Far from being a common good, engineered systems have advanced social and environmental inequity by being designed using exploitative social, political, and economic methods. In response to the negative impacts of engineered systems, the mainstream engineering profession has committed in recent years to being much more socially and environmentally responsible. However, the discourse of responsibility adopted by the profession is narrow in scope as it does not recognize the context and process in which technology is designed. Seeking a different way, some engineering reformers are attempting to create different cultures in engineering, in which the technology designed by engineers not only minimizes damage but seeks to create more equity in our communities. These new cultures have been articulated as Humanitarian Engineering or Peace Engineering or Social Justice and Engineering. A key component of these cultures is the concern for the needs of the marginalized whether in communities far away or close to us. While much has already been written about changing the education curriculum, little has been written about how engineers may design technology that values and advances knowledge, people, and culture at the margins. This thesis will theorize as to how engineers may design technology in a socially just manner by articulating an engineering design theory based on power and resistance. This design theory is then validated through discourse analysis of a contentious engineering project, the Site 41 landfill in northern Ontario. I show through the analysis of engineering design discourse at Site 41 that dominant power relations created structures of oppression that marginalized non-experts, Aboriginal communities, and the environment. Alternative design methods that resist these oppressive structures such as participatory, ecofeminist, deep ecological, and decolonized design are proposed as a way for engineers to have worked more justly at Site 41. / Thesis (Master, Civil Engineering) -- Queen's University, 2011-09-21 12:37:46.28

No description available.