Martin Conway & Camilo Erlichman: DEMISE OF A DREAM? SOCIAL JUSTICE PAST AND PRESENT

Martin Conway, Camilo Erlichman, Fabio Wolkenstein, Julia
Hofmann, Eva Maria Muschik





DEMISE OF A DREAM? SOCIAL JUSTICE PAST AND
PRESENT





Today, we live in a time of a post-liberal challenge to social
justice. Over much of the twentieth century, social
justice has been closely associated with liberal
democracy, with its claims included, in one way or another, in
the political programmes of all democratic parties and movements.
The expansion of social justice into the rhetoric
of both the political right and left,
however, has led to the universalization of social
justice claims, and its promises have become an essential part of
the ways in which illiberal movements and authoritarian regimes
in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries have constructed
their legitimacy. What can this history teach us to face the
challenges of today more effectively? Here, historians will
discuss the modern evolution of concepts and practices
of social justice in conversation with social
scientists, engaging with questions such as: What have
historically proven to be successful forms of collective
mobilization around issues of social justice in
both democracies and authoritarian regimes? Do individual
appeals to social justice matter? What languages does social
justice speak? How was social justice reimagined during the
twentieth century? Does the debate and concept of social justice
in the twentieth century differ from today?





The talk and discussion occur on the occasion of the release of
Social Justice in Twentieth-Century Europe (Cambridge U Press,
2024), edited by Martin Conway and Camilo Erlichman and written
by an international team of leading historians. The book provides
the first historical account of the evolution of notions of
social justice across Europe since the late nineteenth century.
It analyses the often divergent ways in which political
movements, state institutions, intellectual groups, and social
organisations have understood and sought to achieve social
justice.


 


Martin Conway, Professor of Contemporary
European History at the University of Oxford





Camilo Erlichman, Assistant Professor in History
at the Department of History, Maastricht University





Fabio Wolkenstein, Associated Professor,
Department of Political Science, University of Vienna





Julia Hofmann, Sociologist, Chamber of Labour,
Vienna





Moderation: Eva-Maria Muschik, Assistant
Professor in Development Studies, University of Vienna


 


A joint event of the Bruno Kreisky Forum and the MSCA
Research Project WORK-AGE-JUST