Week 12 - Community Psychology, Social Justice & Intersectionality
The Role of Social Justice
Social justice provides the moral and political foundation for addressing inequality, oppression and systemic barriers to well-being.
Community empowerment
Community empowerment helps achieve social justice by shifting power from institutions and elites to the people most affected by the injustice
Empowerment skills, knowledge, and confidence to challenge injustice and advocate for their rights.
The Role of Power
Power is the ability to influence or control people, resources, and systems.
It can be:
Structural - e.g. laws, and institutions
Cultural - e.g. norms and media
Personal - e.g. confidence and knowledge
Social justice involves redistributing power to create equity.
This is done by:
Dismantling oppressive systems
Amplifying marginalised voices
Creating participatory structures
Ethical Use of Power
Even well-intentioned advocates must reflect on their own power.
Ethical social justice work involves:
Listening, rather than imposing
Sharing power in decision-making
Being accountable to the communities served
Professional Neutrality (A bad thing)
It is argued that remaining professionally neutral is actually reinforcing the status quo. Instead, professionals should be taking a stand against injustice rather than being neutral.
Guiding principles of ‘Justice Doing’
Centering ethics
Acting in alignment with justice and compassion
Doing solidarity
Standing with communities, not just working for them
Naming power
Explicit recognition of power, dynamics and privilege
Fostering collective sustainability
Counters, burnout by promoting mutual support, shared responsibility and communal care
Critically engaging with language
Recognising the power of language, deliberate or oppressed
Minimising diagnostic terms and labels
Structural safety
Acting as allies in situations where we hold privilege