Justice Across Ages

Author:

Bidadanure Juliana Uhuru

Abstract

Justice Across Ages is a book about how we should respond to inequalities between people at different stages of their lives. Age structures our social institutions, relationships, obligations, and entitlements. There is an age for voting, an age for working, and an age when one is expected (and sometimes required) to retire. Each stage of life also corresponds to specific forms of social risks and vulnerabilities. As a result, inequalities between age groups and generations are numerous and multidimensional. And yet, political theorists have spared little time thinking about how we should respond to these disparities. Are they akin to those patterned on gender or race? Or is there something relevantly distinctive about them that mitigates the need for concern? These questions and others are answered in this book and a theory of justice between co-existing generations is proposed. Age structures our lives and societies. It shapes social institutions, roles, and relationships, as well as how we assign obligations and entitlements within them. There is an age for schooling, an age for voting, an age for working, and an age when one is expected (and sometimes required) to retire. Each life-stage also brings its characteristic opportunities and vulnerabilities, which spawn multidimensional inequalities between young and old. How should we respond to these age-related inequalities? Are they unfair in the same way that gender or racial inequalities often are? Or is there something distinctive about age that should mitigate ethical concern? Justice Across Ages addresses these and related questions, offering an ambitious theory of justice between age groups. Written at the intersection of philosophy and public policy, the book sets forth ethical principles to guide a fair distribution of goods like jobs, healthcare, income, and political power among persons at different stages of their life. Drawing on a range of practical cases, the book deploys normative tools to distinguish objectionable instances of inequalities from acceptable ones and in so doing, critically assesses a range of policy remedies. At a time where young people are starkly under-represented in legislatures and subject to disproportionally high unemployment rates, the book moves from foundational theory to the specific policy reforms needed today. As moral and political philosophers have noted, it can be tempting to assume that age-based inequalities are morally trouble free, since over the course of a complete life, a person moves through each age groups. Yet, Justice Across Ages argues that we should resist this assumption. In particular, we should regard with suspicion commonplace and widely tolerated forms of age-based social hierarchy, such as the infantilization of young adults and older citizens, the political marginalization of teenagers and young adults, the exploitation of young workers through precarious contracts and unpaid internships, and the spatial segregation of elderly persons. If we ever are to live in a society where people are treated as equals, we must pay vigilant attention to how age membership can alter our social standing. This position carries important implications for how we should think about the political and moral value of equality, design our social and political institutions, and conduct ourselves in a range of contexts that includes families, workplaces, and schools.

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Cited by 19 articles. 订阅此论文施引文献 订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献

1. Limiting lifetime inheritances and gifts;Politics, Philosophy & Economics;2024-09-05

2. Get old or die trying: Longevity justice in social insurance;Politics, Philosophy & Economics;2024-06-11

3. The distinctiveness of relational equality;Politics, Philosophy & Economics;2024-05-20

4. Unjust equal relations;Economics and Philosophy;2024-05-14

5. Population Aging and the Retirement Age;Journal of Applied Philosophy;2024-04-14

同舟云学术

1.学者识别学者识别

2.学术分析学术分析

3.人才评估人才评估

"同舟云学术"是以全球学者为主线,采集、加工和组织学术论文而形成的新型学术文献查询和分析系统,可以对全球学者进行文献检索和人才价值评估。用户可以通过关注某些学科领域的顶尖人物而持续追踪该领域的学科进展和研究前沿。经过近期的数据扩容,当前同舟云学术共收录了国内外主流学术期刊6万余种,收集的期刊论文及会议论文总量共计约1.5亿篇,并以每天添加12000余篇中外论文的速度递增。我们也可以为用户提供个性化、定制化的学者数据。欢迎来电咨询!咨询电话:010-8811{复制后删除}0370

www.globalauthorid.com

TOP

Copyright © 2019-2024 北京同舟云网络信息技术有限公司
京公网安备11010802033243号  京ICP备18003416号-3