In a world where so many things seem to be going wrong, threatening a sustainable planetary future, degrading the environment upon which we all depend, and leaving much of the world population in poverty or with a declining standard of living while concentrating extreme wealth, there are increasing calls for social justice to address all of these problems. But the term has many meanings, political interpretations and ideological baggage, leading to fragmented approaches.

Now two distinguished Bahá'í scholars, Michael Karlberg and Derik Smith, have written an excellent book Rethinking Social Justice: Theory and Action in an Age of Transition, to clarify what we should be working for and how to get there, including an explicitly Bahá'í perspective.

As they put it in the summary:
"Our argument is premised on the assumption that modernity can be understood as an axial age, or an age of fundamental transition in human affairs. It is an age in which we, as a species, have been developing scientific, technological, and economic powers that have transformed the material conditions of our existence. But we have not yet developed the social and spiritual maturity these new powers require of us, and our current recklessness imperils our existence. The imperative of this transitional age is to move beyond the violent, unjust, unsustainable, and anachronistic patterns of human existence that are still so prevalent. This cannot be achieved through the universalization of any existing way of life. It can only be achieved through the construction of new patterns of global coexistence, informed by the diverse experiences, insights, and contributions of all the peoples of the world." (p.269)

They explore the discourse on social justice and the need for a common horizon. They discuss violence and non-violence, contention and construction, and the need to rethink power and resistance, showing how they underlie the culture of contest, of us versus them. In responding to these challenges, they share the Bahá'í experience that is building a new and better way forward to social justice that will gradually make the old ways less relevant.

While the book uses some rather academic terminology for the new concepts it proposes, this is not a barrier to what is a very readable text. It addresses many of the concerns that drive thinking and feeling people to work for social justice, while identifying many of the obstacles that have long stood in the way and suggesting positive ways forward.

The book is open source and can be read online or downloaded as a pdf free of charge at https://books.openbookpublishers.com/10.11647/obp.0536.pdf. It is also available for purchase as a print edition.

SOURCE: https://www.openbookpublishers.com/books/10.11647/obp.0536