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Social Justice and Sociology: Agendas for the Twenty-First Century: Presidential Address Author(S): Joe R

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Social Justice and Sociology: Agendas for the Twenty-First Century: Presidential Address Author(S): Joe R Social Justice and Sociology: Agendas for the Twenty-First Century: Presidential Address Author(s): Joe R. Feagin Source: American Sociological Review, Vol. 66, No. 1 (Feb., 2001), pp. 1-20 Published by: American Sociological Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2657391 . Accessed: 22/03/2011 13:12 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at . http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=asa. Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. American Sociological Association is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to American Sociological Review. http://www.jstor.org SOCIAL JUSTICE AND SOCIOLOGY: AGENDAS FOR THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY JOE R. FEAGIN __ University of Florida The world's peoples face dauntingchallenges in the twenty-firstcentury. While apologists herald the globaliza- tion of capitalism, many people on our planet experience recurringeconomic exploitation, immiseration,and envi- _ B y ronmentalcrises linked to capitalism's spread.Across the globe social movementscontinue to raise the issues of social justice and democracy.Given the new century's serious challenges, sociologists need to rediscovertheir roots in a sociology committedto social justice, to cultivate and extend the long- standing "countersystem"approach to research,to encourage greater self-reflection in sociological analysis, and to re-emphasizethe importanceof the teaching of soci- ology. Finally, more sociologists should examine the big social questions of this century,including the issues of economic exploitation,social oppression,and the looming environmentalcrises. And, clearly, more sociologists should engage in the study of alternativesocial futures, including those of morejust and egalitarian soci- eties. Sociologists need to thinkdeeply and imaginativelyabout sustainable social futures and to aid in building better humansocieties. XAJE STAND today at the beginning of [T]odaythe contradictionsof Americancivi- a challenging new century. Like lization are tremendous.Freedom of politi- ASA Presidents before me, I am conscious cal discussionis difficult;elections are not of the honor and the responsibility that this free and fair.... The greatest power in the not thoughtor ethics,but wealth.... address carries with it, and I feel a special landis Presentprofit is valued higher than future obligation to speak about the role of sociol- need.... I know the UnitedStates. It is my ogy and sociologists in the twenty-first cen- countryand the landof my fathers.It is still tury.As we look forward, let me quote W. E. a land of magnificentpossibilities. It is still B. Du Bois, a pathbreakingU.S. sociologist. the home of noble souls and generous In his last autobiographical statement, Du people. But it is selling its birthright.It is Bois (1968) wrote: betrayingits mightydestiny. (Pp. 418-19) Direct correspondence to Joe R. Feagin, De- Today the social contradictions of Ameri- partment of Sociology, Box 117330, University can and global civilizations are still im- of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, (feagin@ mense. Many prominent voices tell us that it ufl.edu). I would like to thank the numerous col- is the best of times; other voices insist that it leagues who made helpful comments on various is the worst of times. Consider how the drafts of this presidential address. Among these apologists for modem capitalism now cel- were Herndn Vera, Sidney Willhelm, Bernice ebrate the "free market"and the global capi- McNair Barnett, Gideon Sjoberg, Anne Rawls, Mary Jo Deegan, Michael R. Hill, Patricia talistic economy. Some of these analysts Lengermann, Jill Niebrugge-Brantley, Tony even see modem capitalism as the last and Orum, William A. Smith, Ben Agger, Karen best economic system, as the "end of his- Pyke, and Leslie Houts. tory" (Fukuyama 1992). In contrast, from AMERICAN SOCIOLOGICAL REVIEW, 2001, VOL. 66 (FEBRUARY: 1 -20) 1 2 AMERICAN SOCIOLOGICAL REVIEW the late 1930s to the 1950s many influential MANY OF THE WORLD'S PEOPLE STILL economists and public leaders were commit- LIVE IN MISERY ted to government intervention (Keynesian- ism) as the way to counter the negative ef- First, while it may be the best of times for fects of capitalist markets in the United those at the top of the global economy, it is States and other countries-effects clearly not so for the majority of the world's seen in the Great Depression of the 1930s. peoples. The pro-capitalist polices of many The view that a capitalistic market alone national governments and internationalorga- should be allowed to make major social and nizations have fostered a substantial transfer economic decisions would then have been of wealth from the world's poor and work- met with incredulity or derision (George ing classes to the world's rich and affluent 1999; also see Block 1990). Half a century social classes. Social injustice in the form of ago, Karl Polanyi ([1944] 1957), a prescient major, and sometimes increasing, inequali- economic historian, critically reviewed the ties in income and wealth can be observed history of the free-market idea: "To allow across the globe. Thus, in the United States the market mechanism to be sole director of income inequality has reached a record level the fate of human beings and their natural for the period during which such data have environment, indeed, even of the amount been collected: The top one-fifth of house- and use of purchasing power, would result holds now has nearly half the income; the in the demolition of society" (p. 73). bottom one-fifth has less than 4 percent. Since the 1960s, conservative business Moreover, the top 1 percent of U.S. house- groups have pressed upon the world's politi- holds holds more in wealth than the bottom cal leaders, and upon the public generally, 95 percent, and the wealthy have doubled the idea of a self-regulating market mecha- their share since 1970. Moreover, more nism, thereby organizing a successful Americans live in poverty than a decade ago. counter-attack against Keynesian ideas As of the late 1980s, 31.5 million people (Steinfels 1979). These new apologists for lived at or below the officially defined pov- capitalism have heralded the beneficial as- erty level, while in 1999 the figure had in- pects of a globalizing capitalism and have creased to 34.5 million (Collins, Hartman, exported the free-market model in an eco- and Sklar 1999; Oxfam 1999). In recent de- nomic proselytizing project of grand scope. cades the numberof millionaires and billion- Free marketeershave persuadedmany people aires has grown dramatically. Yet many or- across the globe that class conflict is in de- dinary workers have seen their real wages cline and that capitalism and its new tech- decline-even while the costs of housing, nologies will bring prosperity to all coun- transportation, and medical care have in- tries. Similarly, other influential supporters creased significantly in real terms. of the status quo have argued optimistically Of the 6 billion people on earth, a large that major forms of social oppression, such proportion live in or near poverty and desti- as racial and gender oppression, are also in tution, with 1.2 billion living on less than one sharp decline in Western societies. dollar a day. The numbers living in poverty are increasing in areas of South Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Today one-fifth of the THE DOWNSIDE OF A world's people, those in the developed coun- CAPITALISTIC WORLD tries, garner 86 percent of the world's gross Nonetheless, many people in the United domestic product, with the bottom fifth gar- States and across the globe insist that this is nering just one percent. In recent years the not the best of times. Karl Marx long ago world's richest 200 people, as a group, have underscored the point that modern capital- doubled their wealth, to more than 1 trillion ism creates bad economic times that encom- dollars for the year 2000 (Oxfam 1999). pass both social injustice and inequality. While there has been much boasting about Looking at the present day, I will briefly de- economic growth among those pushing glo- scribe a few examples of the troubling con- bal capitalism, between 1980 and the late ditions currentlybeing created or aggravated 1990s most of the world's countries saw sus- by modern capitalism: tained annual growth rates of less than 3 per- SOCIAL JUSTICE AND SOCIOLOGY 3 cent per capita, and 59 countries actually ex- ditions, low wages, underemploymentor un- perienced economic declines (Toward Free- employment, loss of land, and forced migra- dom 1999). Moreover, in most countries tion. Ordinary working people and their great income and wealth inequalities create families-in most nationality, racial, and major related injustices, including sharp dif- ethnic groups across the globe-face signifi- ferentials in hunger, housing, life satisfac- cant negative social impacts from an encir- tion, life expectancy, and political power. cling capitalism. Viewed from a long-term perspective, the high levels of wealth and income inequality, CAPITALISM IMPOSES HUGE and the increase in that inequality, signal yet ENVIRONMENTAL COSTS anothercritical point in human history where there is a major foregrounding of social jus- Third, the global capitalistic economy gen- tice issues.
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