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How can we address social injustice in a global marketplace?

That is the question that has been tackled by an international team of researchers including Associate Professor Dave Webb from the UWA Business School .

A ground-breaking paper , which out of 71 nominations won the 2015 JPPM/Kinnear Award for best paper published in the Journal of Public Policy & Marketing , argues that the idea of social justice must be revised to remove ethnocentric and ideological constraints.

The ‘basket of goods' necessary to realise human potential can be identified by considering what the researchers refer to as the ‘Six Ss': subsistence, sound health, safety, sociality, sovereignty and spirituality.

Yet untangling these concepts poses a challenge.

For example, sociality is a basic right, but the ‘goods' needed to achieve this vary widely. In Western cultures, grooming products are a necessity to achieve widespread social respect. Meanwhile, in highly patriarchal societies, internet access and mobile phones connect many women with access to information, services and people.

Does this make mobile phones a necessary good?

"It is typical for the ruling classes in such countries to stereotype young women's desires for mobile phones as craven materialism, evidence of an irrational desire for the showy things of the rich world," the researchers say.

But without mobile phones, women who are not allowed to leave their houses alone may find it difficult to access banking, health advice, education or other services.

"Imagine the way the prejudices of the powerful could be perpetuated through judgements of what is allowable as primary goods.

"Disadvantage is often expressed in what might be called ‘material bullying' - forcing disempowered parties to wear, eat, or otherwise consume something that is not of their choice, in a way that makes them vulnerable," the researchers explain.

Into the future, the paper calls for a research agenda aimed at realising social justice through market-based means. Ultimately, the researchers envision a world in which the market can be used to preserve dignity and identity, helping the global community move beyond poverty.

‘ Beyond Poverty: Social Justice in a Global Marketplace' authored by the University of Oxford's Linda Scott, the UWA Business School's Associate Professor Dave Webb and a global research team, was published in the Journal of Public Policy & Marketing .

Media references

Karen Della Torre (UWA Business School)                                    (+61 8) 6488 8538
Verity Chia (UWA Business School)                                             (+61 8) 6488 1346