Justice Interruptus And Connections

Justice is the basic human values, which serves as a “detached” value norms toreview the “ought to be” of social practical requirements. Therefore, the theory ofsocial justice or the concept of justice must include criticism of social reality,planning of social reconstruction and expectation of social prospects in the future. Ofcourse, based on different positions and different understandings toward justice,justice theorists at all times and in all countries naturally gave birth to many differentanalytical methods and interpretation systems while tracing and answering thequestions for “What is justice? What is justice for? How can social justice come to betrue?”, which reflected the idea of mottling resplendent with variegated coloration.But if we view the studies of contemporary justice theory, there are two basictheoretical approaches greeted: one is distributive justice which seeks fair distributionof materials and wealth among the social members; the other is cultural recognitionwhich borrows the theoretical discourse of multiculturalism to response socialconflicts caused by ethnic, religious, gender, ecological and cultural differences in the“post-cold war period”. But “many liberal theorists of distributive justice contend thatrecognition theory carries unacceptable communitarian baggage, while somephilosophers of recognition deem distributive theory individualizing and consumerist.“Redistribution” and “recognition” has become a pair of antithetical category. In thisregard, a famous contemporary American political philosopher, successor ofFrankfurt school in North America, Nancy Fraser think that either “redistribution” or“recognition” choice of justice paradigm broke the logical relationship between themand led to “justice interruptus”. Therefore, she tries to connect “redistribution” and“recognition” in a separate and tension framework. She made the “justiceconnections” in moral philosophy, social theory and political analysis, presenting themost common understanding of justice—“participatory equity”, and forming “perspective duality” justice framework which fused both redistribution andrecognition. With the deepening of theoretical study, especially in order to adapt tothe impact to “Westphalia” justice framework caused by globalization, Fraserendowed “participatory equity” political means and expanded the third dimension ofjustice—the political “representation”, so as to build a set of " three-dimensional "theory of justice with both theoretical and practical values. Fraser’s academic work,highlighting the multiple pursuit of justice in the process of globalization, has openedup a new research approach of contemporary social justice.Justice theory and practice with Chinese characteristic socialism is on the agendaof socialism with Chinese characteristics, just as Wen Jiabao said,“The fundamentalpurpose of promoting reforms on economic system, political system and othersystems lies in promoting the development of productive forces and realize socialequity and justice…China’s modernization is not only a developed economy, it alsoincludes social equity, justice and moral strength.” How to “put a correct economicsand noble ethics” connected organically is an important task for China in the periodof social transformation. To complete this arduous task, we need not only great theoryinnovation courage and scientific practice strategy, but also need to adhere to thevision of the world, learn widely from others’ strong points, and continue to absorbthe outstanding achievements of human civilization.In view of Fraser’s justice theory is a criticism and response to the latest evolutionof capitalist world in the “post-socialist” era, therefore, in the special background ofChina’s current social development, deep learning Fraser’s justice can no doubtprovide valuable references for contemporary China’s construction of social justice.