Abstract
Social justice is a controversial topic and one that fosters a wide-ranging debate within the milieu of the social sciences. Its ambiguous nature is mainly due to the existence of a number of different ways of approaching the subject. Some see it as being derived from an institutional procedure that is bound to formal justice with a material foundation, while others see it as deriving from individual behavior bound to ethics and morality. From this perspective, the topic demands a number of questions. When one talks of social justice, what precisely are the questions involved? What are its constituent elements? At what point can one state that a person or institution is just or unjust, fair or unfair? In other words, when is an individual aware or able to state categorically that the events of his/her daily life do indeed reflect a fair social system? These and other questions are of the utmost importance when one moves ahead in the debate regarding the management and implementation of public policies aimed at achieving a high level of social justice. The purpose of this article is to contribute to the enrichment of this debate by including elements considered important to the advancement of public policies in societies like that of Brazil.
Keywords:
social justice; recognition; redistribution; participatory parity.