Justice and The Politics of Difference

Young explores the implications of social movements such as the civil rights movements of the 1960s and 1970s for traditional concepts of justice. Seeking to shift the focus from distribution to the concepts of domination and oppression, Young wants justice to confront issues of decision-making, the division of labor, and culture. When some groups dominate and oppress others, a theory of justice must address group differences. Young does not seek to develop a theory of justice but instead uses critical theory to expose the problems with traditional liberal theories and imagine alternatives. Critical theory rejects the notion of universal values and argues that normative or value-based ideals are grounded in particular societies in historical time. Those particular ideals, which are embedded in a society, are used to criticize and ponder other possibilities. Postmodern theorists, who represent a school of academic thought that denies universal principles and is skeptical of abstract reason, invoke critical theory at times. Young embraces much but not all of postmodernism. Because some critical theorists posit a homogeneous public, for example, Young is careful to stipulate that she rejects some tenets of critical theory.