Abstract
Structural Injustice has become a hugely important concept in the field of political theory with the work of Iris Marion Young central to debates on what it is, what motivates it and how it should be addressed. In this article, I focus on a particular thread in Young’s account of structural injustice which I argue is all too often overlooked - the untraceability of structural injustice. This is not only a constant theme in Young’s account of structural injustice, it is, in fact, a defining feature. By ‘untraceable’, Young means that structural injustice is distinct from other sorts of injustices for which there is a traceable agent at fault – these sorts of faut-based injustices fall under what Young calls the ‘liability model of injustice’. For the purposes of exploring the concept of structural injustice, I follow the logic of the claim that structural injustice is untraceable to see where it takes us in conversation with Young’s critics. I conclude that Young’s account is not only defensible with some clarification and development but vital politically. That said, I also find Young’s account of political responsibility for structural injustice wanting and accordingly I propose a way of understanding what I see as a dynamic transition from structural to fault-based injustices which I argue Young’s more ‘static’ account fails to accommodate. This is important, I suggest, for thinking about the ways in which responsibility for different forms of injustice operate and change.
Contemporary Political Theory (2023). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41296-023-00634-4
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Aragon, C. and Jaggar, A. (2018) Agency, complicity, and the responsibility to resist structural injustice. Frontiers of responsibility for global justice. The Journal for Social Philosophy 49(3): 439–460.
Arendt, H. (1964) Personal responsibility under dictatorship responsibility and judgement. In J. Kohn (ed.) The problems of politics. Schocken Books, pp. 17–48.
Atenasio, D. (2019). Blameless participation as structural injustice. Social Theory and Practice, 45(2), 149–177.
Attenborough, D. (2019). David Attenborough speaks in parliament about climate change. Retrieved August 30, 2022, from www.youtube.com/watch?v=rv3DPaMaS2g
Barry, C. and Macdonald, K. (2016) How should we conceive of individual consumer responsibility to address labour injustices? In Y. Dahan, H. Lerner and F. Milman-Sivan (eds.) Global justice and international labour. Cambridge University Press, pp. 92–118.
Beck, V. (2020) Two forms of responsibility: Reassessing young on structural injustice. Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy. https://doi.org/10.1080/13698230.2020.1786307.
Beebee, H., Hitchcock, C. and Menzies, P. (eds.) (2012) The oxford handbook of causation. Oxford University Press.
Bourdieu, P. (1984) Distinction: A social critique of the judgement of taste, trans Richard nice. Harvard University Press.
Brooke, A. (2018). Just responsibility. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Browne, J. (forthcoming) The limits of a liability politics [working title]. Cambridge University Press.
Browne, J. (2013) O’Neill and the political turn against human rights. International Journal of Politics, Culture and Society 26(4): 291–304.
Browne, J. and McKeown, M. (2023) What is structural injustice?. Oxford University Press.
Chung, R. (2021) Structural health vulnerability: Health inequalities, structural and epistemic injustice. Journal of Social Philosophy. https://doi.org/10.1111/josp.12393.
Collins, P.H. (2017) The difference that power makes: intersectionality and participatory democracy. Investigaciones Feministas 8(1): 19–39.
Goodhart, M. (2017) Interpreting responsibility politically. The Journal of Political Philosophy 25(2): 173–195.
Gordon, L. (2007) Iris Marion young on political responsibility: A reading through jaspers and fanon. Symposia on Gender, Race, and Philosophy 3: 1.
Haslanger, S. (2015) What is a (social) structural explanation? Canadian Journal of Philosophy 45(1): 1–15.
Jean-Paul, S. (1976) Critique of dialectical reason, Alan Sheridan-Smith (trans). New Left Books.
Jugov, T. and Ypi, L. (2019) Structural injustice, epistemic opacity, and the responsibilities of the oppressed. Journal of Social Philosophy 50(1): 7–27.
Kutz, C. (2000) Complicity: Ethics and law for a collective age. Cambridge University Press.
Lu, C. (2018) Responsibility, structural injustice, and structural transformation. Ethics and Global Politics 11(1): 42–57.
Marin, M. (2018) Racial structural solidarity. Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy 21(5): 586–600.
McKeown, M. (2018) Iris Marion young’s ‘social connection model’ of responsibility: clarifying the meaning of connection. Journal of Social Philosophy 49(3): 484–502.
McKeown, M. (2023) Pure, avoidable, and deliberate structural injustice. In J. Browne and M. McKeown (eds.) What is structural injustice?. Oxford University Press.
Nussbaum, M. (2009) Iris young’s last thoughts on responsibility for global justice. In A. Ferguson and M. Nagel (eds.) Dancing with Iris: The philosophy of iris Marion young. Oxford University Press, pp. 133–146.
Nussbaum, M. (2011) ‘Foreword’ to Iris Marion Young (2011), responsibility for justice. Oxford University Press, pp. iv–xxv.
Nuti, A. (2019) Injustice and the reproduction of history: Structural inequalities, gender and redress. Cambridge University Press.
Parekh, S. (2011). Getting to the root of gender inequality: Structural injustice and political responsibility. Hypatia, 26(4), 672–689.
Parfit, D. (1984) Reasons and persons. Clarendon Press.
Powers, M. and Faden, R. (2019) Structural injustice: Power, advantage and human rights. Oxford University Press.
Reiman, J. (2012) The structure of structural injustice thoughts on Iris Marion Young’s responsibility for justice. Social Theory and Practice 38(4): 738–751.
Sangiovanni, A. (2017) Humanity without dignity: Moral equality, respect, and human rights. Harvard University Press.
Sangiovanni, A. (2018) Structural injustice and individual responsibility. Journal of Social Philosophy 49(3): 461–483.
Schiff, J. (2014) Burdens of political responsibility: Narrative and the cultivation or responsiveness. Cambridge University Press.
Sen, A. (2004) Elements of a theory of human rights. Philosophy & Public Affairs 32(4): 315–356.
Sewell, W.H. (2005) Logics of history: Social theory and social transformations. University of Chicago Press.
Smith, A. ([1759] 2010). The theory of moral sentiments. London: Penguin Classics
UK Research and Innovation. (2022). A brief history of climate change discoveries. Retrieved November, 28, 2022 from http://www.discover.ukri.org/a-brief-history-of-climate-change-discoveries/index.html.
Young, I.M. (1990) Justice and the politics of difference. Princeton University Press.
Young, I.M. (1997) Intersecting voices: Dilemmas of gender, political philosophy and policy. Princeton University Press.
Young, I.M. (2003) The Lindley lecture, May 5. University of Kansas.
Young, I.M. (2011) Responsibility for justice. Oxford University Press.
Zheng, R. (2018) What is my role in changing the system? A new model of responsibility for structural injustice. Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 21: 869–885.
Zheng, R. (2021) Moral criticism and structural injustice. Mind 130(518): 503–535.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Browne, J. The political implication of the ‘untraceability’ of structural injustice. Contemp Polit Theory 23, 43–65 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41296-023-00634-4
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41296-023-00634-4