Global Social Justice and Development

Abstract

My aim in writing this book has been to show that the idea of social justice could be articulated in development theory and practice but political forces, in particular hegemonic states, and current institutions of global governance divest it of supporting relevance. I did not set out to provide a theory of social justice for development — that is too ambitious a task for my humble background, but I do believe that social justice provides the potential for a fresh theoretical approach to overcome the ongoing ‘impasse’ in development theory and practice, and challenge the hegemonic discourse. Social Justice for development is a critical ideal, one that incites change in our institutions and practices for greater equality, and increasing the voice of the powerless with the objective of reducing inequality I have also argued that even though institutions of global governance exist, their structure does not render power equally across nation states and engenders as a result winners and losers. Disproportionate power within these institutions is vested in a few individual nation states, namely the hegemonic or powerful states that comprise the G8, and very little effective power is shared with other states, even though they constitute the majority.