CENTRE FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE IN THE CITY
led by Professor John Schostak and Peter Hick
The Centre for Social Justice in the City seeks to engage in a radical, transformative research practice to 'mobilize scholarship that will take a stance on behalf of human liberation' (Ladson-Billings & Donnor, 2005). The Centre adopts an interdisciplinary approach to interrogate notions of democracy and social justice and construct 'ethical epistemologies' in order to critique and engage with contemporary political, social and cultural conditions. The centre focuses upon cities and their communities in order to engage with organisations, community groups and individuals working on the ground to effect change in their locales at the margins. The aim of the centre is to explore contemporary circumstances as they impact upon the lives of people and to contribute to the creation of the conditions for democratic practice in all aspects of life for all people.
In broad terms, social justice 'requires social arrangements that permit all members to participate in social interactions on a par with one another' (Fraser 2007), To achieve this there are many theoretical, methodological and practical questions to be answered concerning the complex relations between education, politics, culture and social justice. For example radical, critical research that seeks to make a difference in people's lives must focus on:
- the relation between individuals, schools, communities, 'the people' and the State;
- the relation between education, law, politics, justice and ethics;
- the relation between individuals/communities/ 'the people' and law, politics, justice, ethics;
- the processes, methodologies and differences in research practices employed by researchers from different cultural heritages – for example, between an Anglo-American 'empiricism' and a Continental 'theoretic/philosophic' approach;
- what is the relation, if any, between research methodologies and emancipatory, democratic practices?