social justice

English

Noun

social justice (uncountable)

1. Fairness in society.
   • 1932, Bertrand Russell, In Praise of Idleness:

     The leisure class enjoyed advantages for which there was no basis in social justice; this necessarily made it oppressive, limited its sympathies, and caused it to invent theories by which to justify its privileges.

   • 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr., “The Man Who Was a Fool”, in Strength to Love‎^[1], New York: Pocket Books, published 1964, →OCLC, page 70:

     Our hope for creative living lies in our ability to re-establish the spiritual ends of our lives in personal character and social justice.

   • 2017, Özlem Sensoy, Robin DiAngelo, Is Everyone Really Equal?: An Introduction to Key Concepts in Social Justice, Teachers College Press, page xx:

     The second challenge surfaces when we consider what it means to practice social justice. Generally, because most people see themselves as valuing social justice, most people also see themselves as acting justly in their lives. In response to questions about how they practice social justice, many would say that they treat everyone the same without regard to differences; because they do this, their actions are aligned with their values.

Usage notes

• Associated with movements that aim to eliminate or negate unfair treatment based on traits of the individual, such as age, gender, or race. See usage notes at woke.

Derived terms

• social justice warrior

Translations

fairness in society

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 社會正義／社会正义 (zh) (shèhuì zhèngyì)

• Dutch: sociale rechtvaardigheid f, sociale gerechtigheid f
• Esperanto: socia justeco
• Finnish: yhteiskunnallinen oikeudenmukaisuus
• French: justice sociale (fr) f
• Galician: xustiza social f
• Georgian: სოციალური სამართლიანობა (socialuri samartlianoba)
• Greek: κοινωνική δικαιοσύνη f (koinonikí dikaiosýni)
• Hebrew: צֶדֶק חֶבְרָתִי (he) m (tsedék khevráti)
• Hindi: सामाजिक न्याय m (sāmājik nyāy)
• Ido: justeso sociala
• Indonesian: keadilan sosial (id)
• Interlingua: justitia social
• Italian: giustizia sociale f
• Japanese: 社会正義 (shakai seigi)
• Polish: sprawiedliwość społeczna f
• Portuguese: justiça social f
• Russian: социальная справедливость f (socialʹnaja spravedlivostʹ)
• Spanish: justicia social f
• Ukrainian: соціальна справедливість (socialʹna spravedlyvistʹ)
• Yiddish: געזעלשאַפֿטלעכער יושר m (gezelshaftlekher yoysher)

Further reading

• social justice on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• social justice at the Google Books Ngram Viewer.