Scrutinizing Justice in Sociology: Inspiration From Social Psychology

Abstract

This address highlights the potential role of the social psychology of justice in the analysis of phenomena anchored in substantive areas like health, the environment, education, and racial and gender dynamics. To do so, I ask three questions: (1) Do sociologists attend to justice in their scholarly work? (2) When sociologists do attend to justice, do they conceptualize it clearly? and (3) Could the social psychology of justice scholarship further contribute to sociologists’ attention to and clarity of conceptualization and understanding of social phenomena? To answer the first question, I coded references to justice in the contents of publications in three American Sociological Association journals over a five-year period. For the latter two questions, I leverage illustrations drawn from the health domain. My answers are, respectively, not so much, not really, and yes. The last response, importantly, ensures that justice is seen so that it can be done.