300550 Legitimation and social injustices in unequal societies (S) (SoSe 2021)

The course begins with a general overview of the problems faced by contemporary societies in sustaining relationships of domination grounded in social inequalities and social justice perceptions. The concept of legitimation is presented as pivotal for these problems and subsequently its theoretical basis is unfolded. Following the theories of legitimacy, the framework of empirical social justice is presented as a program focused on what individuals judge as fair in society. To this end, different theories of social justice are examined in the light of empirical findings on how justice perceptions comprise a central part of the legitimation mechanisms. Moreover, the social outcomes of perceptions of injustices and inequalities are approached in the domains of gender, work and welfare. The course emphasizes the discussion of empirical research that addresses different domains of the legitimation of social inequalities.

This course aims to introduce students to the debates on the legitimation of social inequalities through the empirical and theoretical study of social justice. Specifically, this course aims to: (1) present current debates on the legitimation of social inequalities from different perspectives; (2) foster research skills in the domain of the legitimation of social inequalities and social justice.

Literature
In the first session a semester plan with the respective literature is handed out.

Sample readings

Auspurg, K., Hinz, T., & Sauer, C. (2017). Why Should Women Get Less? Evidence on the Gender Pay Gap from Multifactorial Survey Experiments. American Sociological Review, 82(1). https://doi.org/10.1177/0003122416683393
Beetham, D. (2013). The Legitimation of Power. Macmillan International Higher Education.
Bourdieu, P. (2000). Pascalian Meditations. Stanford University Press.
Burawoy, M. (2012). The Roots of Domination: Beyond Bourdieu and Gramsci. Sociology, 46(2), 187–206. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038511422725
Deutsch, M. (1975). Equity, Equality, and Need: What Determines Which Value Will Be Used as the Basis of Distributive Justice? Journal of Social Issues, 31(3), 137–149. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4560.1975.tb01000.x
Elster, J. (2015). Explaining Social Behavior. Cambridge University Press.
Hedström, P., & Ylikoski, P. (2010). Causal Mechanisms in the Social Sciences. Annual Review of Sociology, 36(1), 49–67. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.soc.012809.102632
Hegtvedt, K. A., & Johnson, C. (2000). Justice beyond the Individual: A Future with Legitimation. Social Psychology Quarterly, 63(4), 298–311. JSTOR. https://doi.org/10.2307/2695841
Jasso, G. (2015). Thinking, Saying, Doing in the World of Distributive Justice. Social Justice Research, 28(4), 435–478. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11211-015-0257-3
McCall, L., Burk, D., Laperrière, M., & Richeson, J. A. (2017). Exposure to rising inequality shapes Americans’ opportunity beliefs and policy support. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 114(36), 9593–9598. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1706253114
Norton, M. I., & Ariely, D. (2011). Building a Better America—One Wealth Quintile at a Time. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 6(1), 9–12. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691610393524
Powell, A., & Sang, K. J. (2015). Everyday Experiences of Sexism in Male-dominated Professions: A Bourdieusian Perspective. Sociology, 49(5), 919–936. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038515573475
Ridgeway, C. L. (2011). Framed by Gender: How Gender Inequality Persists in the Modern World. Oxford University Press.
Roscigno, V. J., Sauer, C., & Valet, P. (2018). Rules, Relations, and Work. American Journal of Sociology, 123(6), 1784–1825. https://doi.org/10.1086/697111
Schröder, M. (2017). Is Income Inequality Related to Tolerance for Inequality? Social Justice Research, 30(1), 23–47. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11211-016-0276-8
Starmans, C., Sheskin, M., & Bloom, P. (2017). Why people prefer unequal societies. Nature Human Behaviour, 1, 0082. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-017-0082
Tyler, T. R. (2006). Psychological perspectives on legitimacy and legitimation. Annu. Rev. Psychol., 57, 375–400.
van Dijke, M., & De Cremer, D. (2016). Justice in the Work Setting. In C. Sabbagh & M. Schmitt (Eds.), Handbook of Social Justice Theory and Research. Springer-Verlag.