Responsibility for Justice

When the noted political philosopher Iris Marion Young died in 2006, her death was mourned as the passing of "one of the most important political philosophers of the past quarter-century" (Cass Sunstein) and as an important and innovative thinker working at the conjunction of a number of important topics: global justice; democracy and difference; continental political theory; ethics and international affairs; and gender, race and public policy. In her long-awaited RESPONSIBILITY FOR JUSTICE, Young discusses our responsibilities to address "structural" injustices in which we among many are implicated (but for which we not to blame), often by virtue of participating in a market, such as buying goods produced in sweatshops, or participating in booming housing markets that leave many homeless. Young argues that addressing these structural injustices requires a new model of responsibility, which she calls the "social connection" model. She develops this idea by clarifying the nature of structural injustice; developing the notion of political responsibility for injustice and how it differs from older ideas of blame and guilt; and finally how we can then use this model to describe our responsibilities to others no matter who we are and where we live. With a foreword by Martha C. Nussbaum, this last statement by a revered and highly influential thinker will be of great interest to political theorists and philosophers, ethicists, and feminist and political philosophers. 'Iris Marion Young's death in 2006 was a tragic loss for the field of political theory, and this manuscript is evidence of how much she had yet to contribute. Like all her work, it addresses issues of enormous philosophical and political importance, and does so in a way that is original and insightful. It integrates a rich array of examples, concepts, theories and resources, from empirical social science to continental philosophy, and does so in a way that is seamless and effortless... it's an important manuscript and a fitting testament to Young's career."- Will Kymlicka, Philosophy, Queens University '[The book] is both very distinctively the work of Iris Marion Young in its topic, style of argument and presentation, but it also makes a number of important contributions to contemporary political philosophy, through trying to work out a 'social connection' theory of responsibility. It is particularly impressive in the open way it draws on sources - equally at home discussing Derrida, Sartre and Levinas, as contemporary analytic philosophers such as G.A. Cohen, Alan Buchanan and Robert Goodin.' Jonathan Wolff, Philosophy, University College London