# Theorizing Structural Injustice (Syllabus) Taught at CUNY City College of New York in the Fall of 2022 ## Course Description In this course, we will investigate structural forms of injustice that emerge from the actions of groups of individuals without their conscious intention or organization. The course is split into three parts. First, we will explore a variety of philosophical perspectives on the social ontology and ethical implications of structural injustice. Second, we will consider specific forms of structural injustice, including inequality, oppression, domination, exploitation, and alienation. Finally, we will apply these theories to analyze contemporary social structures, including race, sex, ability, and class. Emancipatory movements made great strides over the last century in curtailing overt forms of social injustice. The abolitionist movement ended legal slavery, the emancipation movements enfranchised women and black people, the civil rights movement outlawed Jim Crow, and, towards the end of the century, progressive movements abolished many remaining forms of identity-based discrimination. Yet, despite the incredible advances these movements won, deep and pervasive differences in the life prospects of different social groups remained. Women, Black, disabled, gay, and trans people continued to receive the short end of the social stick, even where no agent consciously or intentionally discriminated against them. These forms of persistent injustice indicated the need for a new theory of structural social injustices. Structural injustices are those which emerge from the actions of groups of individuals without their conscious intention or organization. No specific person or group of persons intends to perpetuate structural injustice, and yet their combined actions reproduce a social system in which specific social groups are subject to forms of inequality, oppression, domination, exploitation, and alienation from which others are exempt. In this course, we will investigate structural forms from a variety of theoretical perspectives. The course is split into three parts. First, we will explore the social ontology and ethical implications of structural injustice. Second, we will consider specific forms of structural injustice, including inequality, oppression, domination, exploitation, and alienation. Finally, we will apply these theories to analyze contemporary social structures, including race, sex, ability, and capitalism. Additionally, the readings each week will be paired with multimedia concerning the week’s topic. Theorizing structural injustice is important because of the ways it enables us to understand the world around us and act to transform it. The multimedia accompanying each week's readings will help to make the material more accessible and to connect it to real-world issues and popular culture, providing a firm foundation and familiar touchstone for our classroom discussions. ## Central Themes and Guiding Questions ### The Social Ontology of Structure Injustice When we look about the world, we see a plurality of individuals and groups interacting with each other, but no third party “structure” directing and shaping their actions. Indeed, some thinkers argue that our talk of structures should be reduced to facts about individuals. Other thinkers insist that social structures are explanatorily important and ontologically unmysterious parts of the social world. In this course, we will engage these debates and questions. What is the relation between individual/group agency and structural enablement/constraint? What makes a collection of individuals into a group and what distinguishes groups? And how can individuals act to transform social structures? ### The Ethics of Structural Injustice Theories of structural justice are based on the idea that broad social injustices can arise even when no agent or group of agents deliberately intends them, but if no one intended to cause a structural harm, then how can we hold anyone responsible for it? In this course we will investigate various perspectives on the ethics of structural injustice. What exactly does it mean for a structure to *be* unjust? What is the relation between the (in)justice of a structure and the (in)justice of the agents who reproduce it? And what kind of duties follow from the recognition that an agent participates in an unjust social structure? ### Forms of Structural Injustice After considering the social ontology of structure in general, we will proceed to consider five specific kinds of structural injustice: inequality, oppression, domination, exploitation, and alienation. While considering each kind of injustice, we will ask a variety of questions including: What differentiates this kind of structural injustice from the same kind of injustice as enacted by individuals? How can multiple kinds of structural injustice overlap to reinforce or undermine each other? And do our ethical duties differ when responding to different kinds of structural injustice? ### Analyzing Social Structures In the final part of the class, we will analyze five contemporary unjust social structures: racism, sexism, ableism, queerness (cisheteronormativity), and capitalism. This is the part of class where our theoretical work pays off, as we apply the concepts we have learned to better understand the world around us and how we can change it. We will ask a number of questions about each unjust structure: What kinds of injustice does each structure perpetuate? How do these kinds of injustice overlap to give each structural wrong its specific character? How does the intersection of various unjust structures change the way they affect the life prospects of the individuals who are subject to them? ## Course Materials All selected readings will be provided electronically. If students wish to procure analogue copies, the main texts are: - Rawls 1971, *A Theory of Justice.* - Young 1990, *The Five Faces of Oppression.* - Young 2011, *Responsibility for Justice.* ## Course Objectives and Assignments The primary goals of this course are to promote (1) the ability to philosophically question the merits and limits of various theories of social and structural injustice, (2) the ability to differentiate various kinds of structural injustice and formulate appropriate responses to each, and (3) the ability to apply theories of structural justice to our own lives in order to understand our relation to and responsibility for structural injustices. Since we are drawing from a variety of different kinds of texts—including empirical sociology, legal theory, philosophy, history, popular culture—discussion will necessarily be interdisciplinary, and students with different academic training will be able to communicate and collaborate to produce a shared understanding of the material. # Course Schedule ## Part I: What is Structural Injustice? ### Week 1: Introduction - McKeown 2021, "Structural Injustice." - **Media**: What Is Structural Injustice? (The Funky Academic) ([Youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-PCAnNvJeU)). - Short video introduction to structural injustice. - Optional: SEP “Justice.” ### Week 2: Perspectives on Justice - Rawls 1971, *A Theory of Justice*, Chapter 1 "Justice as Fairness," - §3 "The Main Idea of the Theory of Justice," pp 10-15. - Young 1990, *Justice and the Politics of Difference*, "Introduction," pp 3-14. - Jaeggi 2014, *Alienation* Chapter 1 "A Stranger in the World that He Himself Has Made: The Concept and Phenomenon of Alienation," pp 3-10. - **Media**: Baldwin 1965, Debate with William F. Buckley - Speech on the structural and psychological aspects of American racism. ### Week 3: What is Structural Injustice? - Rawls 1971, *A Theory of Justice*, Chapter 1 "Justice as Fairness," - §1 "The Role of Justice," and - §2 "The Subject of Justice," pp 1-9. - Young 2011, *Responsibility for Justice*, Chapter 2 "Structure as the Subject of Justice," pp 43-74. - **Media**: Crenshaw 2016, Structural & Political Intersectionality ([Youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWa63FLEYsU)). - Talk by Kimberle Crenshaw describing her theory of intersectionality in structural terms. - Optional: SEP “Feminist Perspectives on Power.” ### Week 4: Social Ontology I: Groups - Young 1990, *Justice and the Politics of Difference* Chapter 5 "The Five Faces of Oppression," - §1 "Oppression as A Structural Concept," and - §2 "The Concept of A Social Group," pp 39-48. - Haslanger 2020, "Failures of Individualism." - **Media**: Lyhrmann 1996, Romeo + Juliet (Film) - Film retelling of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet that illustrates how social groups can enable and constrain action. - Optional: SEP “Social Ontology.” ### Week 5: Social Ontology II: Structures - Rawls, "Two Concepts of Rules." - Haslanger 2015, "What Is A (Social) Structural Explanation." - **Media**: Systems Innovation, "Social Structures" ([Youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StMXdmt9etE)). - Animated introduction to the concept of a social structure. - Optional: SEP “Social Institutions.” ### Week 6: Responsibility for Structural Injustice - Young 2011, *Responsibility for Justice*, Chapter 4 "A Social Connections Model," pp 95-122. - Zheng 2018, "What is My Role in Changing the System - A New Model of Responsibility for Structural Injustice." - **Media**: Boots Riley 2018, “Do the Right Thing” (Film) - Film exploring the complexity of making responsible choices as individuals when we are subject to structural injustice. - Optional: SEP “Collective Responsibility.” ## Part II - Forms of Structural Injustice ### Week 7: Inequality - Rawls 1982, "Social Unity and the Primary Goods." - Young 1990, *Justice and the Politics of Difference*, Chapter 1 "Displacing the Distributive Paradigm," pp 15-38. - **Media**: Korostoff 2022, "Wealth Shown to Scale" (Website) - Digital visualization of wealth inequality. - Optional: SEP “Equality.” - Optional: SEP “Distributive Justice.” ### Week 8: Oppression - Frye 1983, *The Politics of Reality - Essays in Feminist Theory*, Essay I “Oppression,” pp 1-16. - Young 1990, *Justice and the Politics of Difference* Chapter 5 "The Five Faces of Oppression," - §3 "The Faces of Oppression," and - §4 "Applying the Criteria," pp 48-65. - **Media**: Meincke 2017, "5 Faces of Oppression Education Video" ([Youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReOJoMH_z9E)). - Overview of Young's theory of oppression. ### Week 9: Domination - Pettit 2000, *Republicanism - A Theory of Freedom and Government*, Chapter 2 "Liberty as Non-Domination," pp 51-79. - Claassen & Herzog 2019, "Why Economic Agency Matters - An Account of Structural Domination in the Economic Realm" - **Media**: Charlie Chaplain 1936, "Modern Times" excerpt on factory work. ([Youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfGs2Y5WJ14)). - Silent film skit on the ways factory workers are dominated. - Optional: SEP “Domination.” ### Week 10: Exploitation - Vrousalis 2013, "Exploitation, Vulnerability, and Social Domination" - Wollner 2019, "Anonymous Exploitation - Non-individual, Non-agential and Structural" - **Media**: Reichert & Bognar 2019, "American Factory" (Film) - Documentary on the structural similarities between American and Chinese factory work. - Optional: Roemer 1985, “Property Relations vs. Surplus Value in Marxian Exploitation.” - Optional: SEP “Exploitation.” ### Week 11: Alienation - Marx "Alienated Labor" from the *Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844* in OXFORD pp 85-95. - Jaeggi 2014, *Alienation* Chapter 4 "Having Oneself at One’s Command: Reconstructing the Concept of Alienation," pp 32-42. - **Media**: South Park Season 22 Episode 9 "Unfulfilled" (Television Show) - Animated comedy describing the alienated lives of amazon workers. - Optional: Marx "Comments on James Mill" in OXFORD pp 124-133. - Optional: SEP “Alienation.” ## Part III – Investigating Structures ### Week 12: Racism - Fields 1990, "Slavery, Race and Ideology in the USA" - Mills 2000, "Race and the Social Contract Tradition" - **Media**: Ava DuVernay 2016, 13th (Film) - Documentary on the persistence of structural racism after the abolition of slavery. - Optional: Lu 2011, "Colonialism as Structural Injustice - Historical Responsibility and Contemporary Redress" ### 13: Sexism - Parekh 2017, "Feminism, Structural Injustice, and Responsibility" - Young 1981, "Beyond the Unhappy Marriage - A Critique of the Dual Systems Theory" - **Media**: Bhattacharya 2017, What is Social Reproduction Theory? ([Youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uur-pMk7XjY&t=33s)). - Video describing the economic foundations of structural sexism. - Optional: Widows 2021, "Structural Injustice and the Requirements of Beauty" ### 14: Ableism - Wendell 1996, *The Rejected Body - Feminist Philosophical Reflections on Disability*, Chapter 2 "The Social Construction of Disability," pp 35-56. - Campbell 2009, *Contours of Ableism - The Production of Disability and Abledness*, Chapter 1 "The Project of Ableism," pp 3-15. - **Media**: Shape Arts 2017, "The Social Model of Disability" ([Youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24KE__OCKMw)). - Video on the social model of disability. - Optional: Foucault 1979, "The Birth of Biopolitics" in *Ethics Subjectivity and Truth*, ed. Paul Rabinow (New York: New Press, 1997), pp 73-79. ### 15: Queerness (Cisheteronormativity) - Adrienne Rich, "Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence" - Robin Dembroff, 2020, “Beyond Binary: Genderqueer as Critical Gender Kind” in Philosopher’s Imprint" - **Media**: Judith Butler: Your Behavior Creates Your Gender ([Youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bo7o2LYATDc)) - Video interview with Judith Butler on the reproduction of gender and sexuality. - Optional: Butler 1990, *Gender Trouble*, Chapter 1 "Subjects of Sex/ Gender/desire," §V "Identity, Sex, and the Metaphysics of Substance," pp 22-34. ### 16: Capitalism - Fraser & Jaeggi 2018, *Capitalism A Conversation in Critical Theory*, Chapter 1 "Conceptualizing Capitalism," § "Economic system, totalizing grammar, or institutionalized social order?" pp 47-58. - Vrousalis 2020, "The Capitalist Cage - Structural Domination and Collective Agency in the Market" - **Media**: Justice is Global 2019, "Global Rise of Nationalism" ([Youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_ZK96e7djU)) and "Neoliberalism: A Quick History" ([Youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KO4is3n7gJE)). - Political and economic history of modern capitalism with a focus on global crisis and inequality. - Optional: Bhattacharya 2018, "How Not to Skip Class - Social Reproduction of Labor and the Global Working Class"