Justice And Global World: Dignity And Peace

There are two key concepts which are related to group work, and that are social justice and common good. This section of paper defines the meaning of these two terms and also states the relationship between them. This concept is very important and it is necessary to seek clarity on social justice and common good. Following are some key elements which state the meaning of social justice:

• Social justice is that situation in the society under which every person can pursue the goals of their life.
• This society acknowledges the right of every person and encourages peace and dignity.

Common good are those good which are non-excludable in nature, and when these good are offered by society then nobody can be excluded from using them (Centre of Concern, 2008).

It becomes difficult for organizations working at global level to undertake advocacy campaign at global level, initiate the discussions on commoditization of good at different decision making levels. It is necessary for these organizations to develop hope in people and encourage people so that they can pursue their goals and meet their basic needs. These organizations must try to restore the life with peace, dignity, justice, and hope for all people in the society.

This vision is difficult to achieve, because still individuals in society are suffering to fulfill their basic requirements. Therefore, works of organizations at global level are not limited only up to the motivations and visions that they initiate to achieve results (United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, 2001). Now it is important to understand the need of common good. We have to take positions, and prevent ourselves from being used by other for their own profit. This can be done by following the mission, engage equally with every person of society, and encourage fairness and transparency. The most important thing is self assessment and regular evaluations of one’s own work (UNESCO, 2015).

Following are the different ways to address this challenge:

Number of social reformers finds different ways to address this challenge and provides equal benefits to poor and powerless people. These strategies can create better world in which we can achieve the vision of common good and social justice. Following are some ideas which are identified to solve this issue:

Firstly, it is necessary that those people who are directly affected by the policies of different organizations must come together and take action for their own interest because these policies never affect the policy makers or the powerful persons. These policies always imposed unnecessary burden on ordinary people, poor people or powerless people. This concept is related to mass mobilization of human resources and through religious approach it means consolidate the actions of millions of peoples throughout the world to achieve the social justice and common good. In other words it is necessary to build a movement against social injustice (Wallis, 2013).

Secondly, success of any movement is only depends on the ability of people at both local and global level. This global issue is not able to resolve at local or national level. For example: global warming issue can be solved only when every people in the world contribute to solve this issue. It is not possible for single country to reduce their carbon emissions, especially in those situations when other country does not take any action to reduce their carbon emissions.

Thirdly, new movements always consume lot of time in building coalitions. Development of link between global to the local is vertical process while building the coalition across social sectors can be seen as horizontal process. Therefore, it is not possible if person isolate themselves, and it is necessary that other peoples from different religion reach each other for achieving the common goal. These practices require ideological tolerance, mature behavior, and self assessment at individual level. Coalitions become easier and consume less time if such issues are chosen which which enhance the unity of organizations and movements. We also require inventive solutions which are effective in filing the gaps (WCC, 2011).

Fourthly, success of common good movements is depends on the campaigning methods to raise awareness and build support. Campaigning is the most important aspect of movements. Campaigning of any movement can be for short as well as long period of time but it is necessary to plan the activities of campaigning. Usually religious institutions have experience of campaigning and we can use their methods to achieve these goals. These methods can be combined with activism, mass education, and also with economic justice issues. The hunger strike is considered as extreme action of protest which is developed from the practice of fasting. Marches and demonstrations are those methods of campaigning which are developed by the religious practices and other events related to religion. For example there are number of religious organizations which produce literature on global economic issues. If these literatures and other documents are put together this becomes a strong method of achieving the conscientisation process which is very necessary for the collaboration of large institution and general public. There is also need to explain the seminal concepts to general public such as ecological debt, greed line etc (Riordan, 2015).

Fifthly, these global movements which are initiated for social justice also depend on the evaluation of policies and research conducted by number of academics, researchers and scholars. There is no need to reinvent the policies for this purpose but it is necessary to analyze these policies from religious point of view. Slogans related to these movements must not be write up in whimsical manner, and there must be careful thought behind these slogans. It is worse if some strong movement failed just because of poor policy framework. This fact is true that global movements need help from other organizations also because it is not possible that few peoples have all answers. Therefore, it is necessary to develop insights which are based on unique ideas which put lights on global issues (Foster, n.d.).

Last but not the least, number of issues of social justice and common good are carried by socialists, anarchists and other peoples whose strong believes force them to organize these movements. New ideas build old traits and make the movements alive and relevant. This will result in end to poverty and economic justice, and it wills also helps in defending every person’s right to common good. It also impose obligation on person to protect the nature for society and prevent the activities of business entities which cause harm to nature.

At last we conclude, if working group believes that they can strongly deal with the crisis then it would be possible for every working group to address the issues which deals with poverty and other similar problems. Therefore, all the facts concluded that global social injustice is the result of unjust economic system at global level. Solutions must be adopted to solve these issues instead of just waiting that someone solves it. Common good are the most useful concept to integrate factors of social justice in the society through different activities conducted by world at large (Barber, 2000; Rosenthal, 2012).

References: 

Barber, R. B. (2000). Challenges to the Common Good in the Age of Globalism. Available at: https://www.socialstudies.org/sites/default/files/publications/se/6401/640102.html. Accessed on 2nd February 2017.

Centre of Concern, (2008). The principle of the common good. Available at: https://www.coc.org/files/principle.pdf. Accessed on 2nd February 2017.

Foster, B. J. Global Ecology and the Common Good. Available at: https://clogic.eserver.org/3-1%262/foster.html. Accessed on 2nd February 2017.

Riordan, P. (2015). Global Ethics and Global Common Good, Bloomsbury, 222pp.,

Rosenthal, H. J. (2012). Common Good and the Crisis of Globalization. Available at: https://www.carnegiecouncil.org/publications/articles_papers_reports/0122.html. Accessed on 2nd February 2017.

UNESCO, (2015). Rethinking Education. Available at: https://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0023/002325/232555e.pdf. Accessed on 2nd February 2017.

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, (2001). Global Climate Change A Plea For Dialogue Prudence And The Common Good. Available at: https://www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/human-life-and-dignity/environment/global-climate-change-a-plea-for-dialogue-prudence-and-the-common-good.cfm. Accessed on 2nd February 2017.

Wallis, J. (2013). Whatever Happened to the “Common Good”. Available at: https://ideas.time.com/2013/04/04/whatever-happened-to-the-common-good/. Accessed on 2nd February 2017.

WCC, (2011). Social Justice and Common Good. Available at: https://www.oikoumene.org/en/resources/documents/commissions/international-affairs/economic-justice/social-justice-and-common-good-policy-paper. Accessed on 2nd February 2017.