SOCIAL JUSTICE IN A GLOBAL SOCIETY

The first two decades of the 2000s were marked by economic upheaval. As a consequence, previously unsolved problems were intensified, and new fractures and tensions emerged, creating  new balances - and more often, imbalances - of economic, social,  and geopolitical nature, that are still a cause for concern.  Inequalities were amplified in all countries, strengthening  the concentration of wealth in the hands of a few, and enhancing gaps in access to resources and opportunities. Meanwhile, situations of extreme poverty persist, new forms of frailty come to the surface, as well as a growing sense of uncertainty toward the future, first  and foremost for the new generations. Doubts are raised regarding  the endurance of progressively weaker welfare systems, inadequate to face the consequences of today’s work market, of an aging population, of increases in vulnerability and of risks of social exclusion.
All combined, these forces undermine the adequacy of institutions, national and supranational, which struggle to sustain the impact of transformation, with a consequent loss of faith in democratic institutions on the part of citizens.
For the traditional series of the Annali Feltrinelli, under Enrica Chiappero-Martinetti’s scientific supervision, this volume examines new forms of economic democracy that reclaim an ethical approach to development, based on principles of democratic equality and global social justice.