The Social Life of Justice
Nasar Meer(Author)
Polity Press
1st Edition
Will be published approx. on 24. September 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
228 pages
978-1-5095-7365-3 (ISBN)
Description
In an age of crisis and uncertainty, The Social Life of Justice asks what justice means in an unjust world, and how it might be built to hold when reassurance is scarce. From borders and asylum systems to public grieving, datafied governance and climate adaptation, this book uses clear, vivid cases to re-imagine justice as a social practice of design: something we make, repair, and contest through our institutions, histories, and everyday relations.
Ranging from Plato to climate change, from social contracts to international humanitarian law, the book traces how the moral vocabularies of law, policy, and borders have been shaped by power, and how they might yet be redesigned to reduce harm and share benefit. Drawing on examples across racial, gender, epistemic and environmental justice, Nasar Meer shows how ideas of fairness are made and unmade in the worlds we inhabit, not in the theories we inherit.
Written with clarity and urgency, The Social Life of Justice will appeal to readers across sociology, political theory, law, and global studies. It invites scholars, students, and general readers alike to see justice not as a distant ideal but as a living process, answerable to evidence, history, and the institutions we are prepared to build.
Ranging from Plato to climate change, from social contracts to international humanitarian law, the book traces how the moral vocabularies of law, policy, and borders have been shaped by power, and how they might yet be redesigned to reduce harm and share benefit. Drawing on examples across racial, gender, epistemic and environmental justice, Nasar Meer shows how ideas of fairness are made and unmade in the worlds we inhabit, not in the theories we inherit.
Written with clarity and urgency, The Social Life of Justice will appeal to readers across sociology, political theory, law, and global studies. It invites scholars, students, and general readers alike to see justice not as a distant ideal but as a living process, answerable to evidence, history, and the institutions we are prepared to build.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxford
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
ISBN-13
978-1-5095-7365-3 (9781509573653)
Copyright in bibliographic data is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or its licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Nasar Meer
The Social Life of Justice
Book
approx. 09/2026
1st Edition
Polity Press
€62.00
Not yet published
Person
Nasar Meer is Professor of Social & Political Sciences at the University of Glasgow and Honorary Professor at the University of Edinburgh.
Content
Acknowledgements
List of abbreviations
Preface
Chapter 1: Introduction: Justice in an Unjust World
Chapter 2: Where is the Justice?
Chapter 3: Justice and Domination Contracts
Chapter 4: Legislation and Policy, Bordering as Design
Chapter 5: Witnessing, Knowing, and Ignoring Injustice
Chapter 6: Out of Sight, Out of Climate Justice
Chapter 7: Justice After the Trouble: Institutions, Memory, Borders
Bibliography
Notes
Index
List of abbreviations
Preface
Chapter 1: Introduction: Justice in an Unjust World
Chapter 2: Where is the Justice?
Chapter 3: Justice and Domination Contracts
Chapter 4: Legislation and Policy, Bordering as Design
Chapter 5: Witnessing, Knowing, and Ignoring Injustice
Chapter 6: Out of Sight, Out of Climate Justice
Chapter 7: Justice After the Trouble: Institutions, Memory, Borders
Bibliography
Notes
Index